The Good and Beautiful Life - by James Bryan Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

In this follow-up to his first book, "The Good and Beautiful God," Smith traces through the Sermon on the Mount and helps Christians look behind these sins to replace their false beliefs with Jesus' narratives about life in the kingdom of God.

Book Synopsis

Finding the Good Life through the Sermon on the Mount

"I have never met a person whose goal was to ruin his or her life. We all want to be happy, and we want it all of the time."

So begins James Bryan Smith in The Good and Beautiful Life. The problem is, he tells us, we have bought into false notions of happiness and success. These self-centered decisions lead us further into the vices that cause ruin: anger, lust, lying, worry, and judging. Eventually we find ourselves living a beautifully packaged life of self-destruction.

Following the Sermon on the Mount, this follow-up to The Good and Beautiful God guides us to look behind these character flaws and to replace our false beliefs with Jesus' narratives about life in the kingdom of God.

The Good and Beautiful Series includes four essential discipleship books from James Bryan Smith. Work through these proven Bible study resources individually or with a group to learn who God is, what it means to be a Christian, how to live in community, and how to address toxic self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth.

Review Quotes

"Jim Smith is the most articulate, accurate and helpful writer of spiritual formation of my generation. I give this series my highest recommendation."--Todd D. Hunter, author of Giving Church Another Chance

"The Apprentice Series is a treasure. Dr. Smith has thought long and hard about the process of human transformation into the likeness of Jesus. I urge you to buy these books immediately! Read them and apply them. Then live them out in the context of a loving community. You will not regret doing so."--Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline and coauthor of Longing for God

"The Apprentice Series the the best practice I have seen in Christian spiritual formation."--Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy

About the Author

James Bryan Smith is a theology professor at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, as well as the director of the Christian Spiritual Formation Institute there. A writer and speaker in the area of Christian spiritual formation, Jim Smith is a founding board member of Renovar#233. Smith is an ordained United Methodist Church minister and has served in various capacities in local churches. He is also the author of A Spiritual Formation Workbook, Devotional Classics (with Richard Foster), Embracing the Love of God, Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven and Room of Marvels.