Ebook
How can one live an authentically Christian life? Although many books and articles delineate the content of the Gospel message, the form or shape of an existence based on faith has not been studied as thoroughly. To use a language correctly, it is not enough to know the vocabulary; one must have a good grasp of its grammar. This book attempts to deepen our knowledge of the grammar of the Christian life starting from the notion of metanoia. Generally translated as "repentance" or "conversion," the word has in fact a much richer significance: it describes a total reorientation and transformation of our being, never accomplished once and for all, through the action of the Spirit of the risen Christ. Metanoia takes us out of our self-centered outlook and our limited and self-interested actions and brings us into God's today, where we become witnesses to a real Presence, that of the universal Body of Christ.
“Brother John’s Metanoia is a powerful account of what he calls the ‘grammar’ of the Christian life—a serious adventure of constant turning to Christ for a deepening of life in him, a life in community. It is not the word itself that makes this volume so good; it is the whole story of discipleship the book tells. As always, Brother John makes the meaning of following Jesus come to life.”
—Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary and University
“Brother John succeeds at speaking seriously about Christian morality without sounding either moralistic or shallow by focusing on a central concept of the New Testament: metanoia, the change of our outlook on life that happens when we encounter Christ. In a clear and to-the-point style, John guides us in an inquiry about spiritual transformation with intellectual honesty.”
—Alberto Mingo, Professor of the Alphonsian Academy, Rome, and author of An Introduction to Christian Ethics
A native of Philadelphia, Brother John has been a member of the Taizé Community since 1974. He spends much of his time speaking about the Bible to participants in the international meetings held in Taizé, France. For part of each year he travels to the United States and Italy for meetings and retreats. He has written a dozen books on biblical topics translated into many languages.