When Your Life Is on Fire: What Would You Save?

by Erik Kolbell

Overview

"In When Your Life Is On Fire Erik Kolbell listens, provokes, and most of all, shares with us the enduring lessons and insights of life and faith as realized by a diverse population of thoughtful people. It's a town hall of the soul." — Tom Brokaw

If your life were on fire, what would be the one thing you save?

Progressive minister and psychotherapist Erik Kolbell asks that question of 13 remarkable and unique individuals. The answers are provided by such notable people as journalist Jane Pauley, actor Alan Alda, and jazz impresario Regina Carter, as well as Brenda Berkman, a New York City firefighter who responded to the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, and Don Lange, a U.S. Veteran severely injured in the Iraq war. The insights of these and other ordinary people put into extraordinary situations, will help all of us consider what it is that we value most in life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664236892
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	03/31/2014
Pages:	230
Sales rank:	666,511
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Erik Kolbell is a psychotherapist and former Minister of Social Justice at Riverside Church in New York City. He is the author of What Jesus Meant: The Beatitudes and A Meaningful Life and The God of Second Chances, published by Westminster John Knox Press. Kolbell has contributed to many national media outlets including The Today Show, Dateline, Morning Joe, and numerous local television and radio programs.

Editorial Reviews

03/10/2014
What would you save if your house was on fire and it contained not only everything you own but everything you are? This is the question writer, psychotherapist, and minister Kolbell (What Jesus Meant) poses to 13 diverse individuals, from such well-known individuals as actor Alan Alda to wounded Afghanistan veteran Don Lange, in this insightful book. Structured around his interviews, each chapter highlights unique and thoughtful responses that delve deeply into the participants’ personal lives, work, and faith. Woven together with Kolbell’s rich prose and theological reflections, their responses transcend personal narrative and reveal something about how we “derive a sense of the meaning of our existence and the purpose that this meaning invites for our lives.” The book is designed to provoke reflection and conversation and includes questions for discussion with each chapter. While Kolbell locates his theology within Protestant Christianity, those he interviews come from a variety of religious backgrounds. Readers who will most appreciate this book are those who, like Kolbell, use a theological lens to find sacred that which provides meaning in life. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly