Christianity as a Way of Life

Focusing on Christianity’s core practices, a leading theologian imagines Christianity as a way of life oriented toward wisdom

A Seminary Coop Notable Book of 2023

In this book, Kevin W. Hector argues that we can understand Christianity as a set of practices designed to transform one’s way of perceiving and being in the world. Hector examines practices that reorient us to God (imitation, corporate singing, eating together, friendship, and likemindedness), that transform our way of being in the world (prayer, wonder, laughter, lament, and vocation), and that reshape our way of being with others (benevolence, looking for the image of God in others, forgiveness, and activism).

Taken together, the aim of these practices is to transform one’s way of perceiving and acting in the face of success and failure, risk and loss, guilt and shame, love, and loss of control. These transformations can add up to a transformation of one’s very self.

To make sense of Christianity as a way of life, in turn, these practices must be understood within the context of Christian beliefs about sin, Jesus, redemption, and eternal life. Understanding them thus requires a systematic theology, which Hector offers in this clear-eyed, ambitious, and elegant interpretation of the Christian tradition.

Kevin W. Hector is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religions at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Theology without Metaphysics and The Theological Project of Modernism. He lives in Chicago, IL.