The Listening Heart

Revered theologian A. J. Conyers' last book, The Listening Heart, shows how a culture built upon the ideology of individual choice is a culture of alienation, loneliness, and violence. While Western culture was once informed by a sense of vocation, and men and women understood life as a response to a call from outside and above themselves, Conyers reveals with stunning insight how the quintessential institution of modernity is slavery-rendering the ultimate autonomous individual alienated from family, church, and clan. Cogently arguing for the affections that constitute real community, Conyers restores a sense of vocation and thus addresses what it means to be human. Book jacket.

A. J. CONYERS (1946-2004) was Professor of Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University. His previous books include the acclaimed The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit; The Eclipse of Heaven; The End: What Jesus Really Said about the Last Things; and How to Read the Bible.