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Facing Feelings in Faith Communities
Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | Alban Book - August 2013
Facing Feelings in Faith Communities is based on a simple premise: We have emotions because we need them. God created us as affectively competent beings to help us understand our world and to give appropriate signals to people around us about what we are experiencing. When we express our feelings clearly, other people can more easily respond in ways that are helpful to us, thus enhancing our relationships and the work we might do together.
Unfortunately, for many of us, our emotional software was infected early on with viruses (early familial and social conditioning) that distorted the way we responded to natural stimuli. Because we are underusing or misusing our emotional capacities, we are missing out on the opportunity to express our full humanity. Fortunately, we can re-program our emotional software.
Facing Feelings in Faith Communities helps us restore our emotional systems to their original state, or at least invites us to imagine how we would live differently if our emotional expressions were more nearly congruent with the situations and events we encounter. You are invited to explore six primary feelings—fear, anger, sadness, peace, power, and joy—through poetry, meditation on an evocative drawing, as well as through an analysis of each feeling. The book also addresses shame, and the substitution and projection of feelings.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | Alban Books: paperback, eBook - link »- Amazon.com - Look Inside / read an excerpt / Paperback / Kindle edition - here »
- Barnes & Noble -Nook Book edition - here »
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Facing Feelings in Faith Communities: A Q&A with Bill Kondrath - Bill recently answered questions for Alban at Duke about his research and his passion for helping communities of faith explore the place of emotion in their life together. See here »
Visit Bill’s videos directly on his YouTube Channel here (opens in new window)
Congregational Resources for Facing Feelings
This is a companion collection of practical applications for congregational situations in which exercising greater emotional competence will improve both our understanding of what is happening and the effectiveness of our actions and those of others - see here »
Book Review
A book review of Facing Feelings in Faith Communities by Charles M. Metcalf, as appeared in Journal of Religious Leadership Vol 13, No 2, Fall 2014. pp 133-135
"The book begins with a basic thesis which argues that human beings learn through three dimensions: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. [Kondrath} then provides a chapter on each of the six basic feeling families: fear, anger, sadness, peace, power, and joy. Next, he demonstrates how leaders can incorrectly respond to these emotions by trying to substitute them or by projecting them onto others. The final chapter is designed to provide application points for entire congregations…. providing ample positive benefits for congregational life, such as clearer communication, smoother meetings, and less conflict…"
Read the full review (301k pdf) here »