God Laughs & Plays: Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right

In this multiple award-winning and bestselling diagnosis of the contemporary American spirit David James Duncan suggests that the de facto political party embodied by the so-called Christian Right has turned worship into a self-righteous betrayal of the words and example of the very Jesus it claims to praise. In a bracing and often hilarious response to this trend God Laughs & Plays offers churchless sermons stories memoir conversations and cosmological reflections that scorn riches and embrace the poor; bless peacemakers not war-makers; celebrate creation diversity empathy playfulness and beauty; and insist that Divine Mystery is indeed mysterious and compassion is literally compassionate. The spiritual kingdom described by Jesus this unusual book reminds us is located not "in the Sky" or beyond a disastrous future but within us to be sought and embodied in the here and now.