Faith Greater than Our Challenges: What the Apostle Paul and Viktor Frankl Can Teach Us about Difficult Times - Softcover

Edmondson, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1666730386 ISBN 13: 9781666730388

Publisher: Wipf and Stock, 2021

Synopsis

The year 2020 brought about a totally unprecedented experience for humanity: a worldwide pandemic. Life as we knew it changed almost instantly. We found ourselves quarantining at home, wearing masks in public, and using large amounts of hand sanitizer and disinfectant. As the months dragged on and the search for a COVID-19 vaccine continued, social distancing began to feel like solitary confinement, the rising death toll from the virus made the future feel very uncertain, and the US Presidential campaign made us feel more divided than ever. Was there hope to be found?
In Faith Greater Than Our Challenges, Rev. Tom Edmondson offers a message of hope based on the apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians and the writings of Viktor Frankl. Though separated by nearly two thousand years, both faced certain death—Paul in prison, Frankl in concentration camps. Despite such dire circumstances, each one in his own way affirmed that life—even under the most extreme difficulties—has meaning. More than this, both Viktor Frankl’s and Paul the apostle’s words of encouragement have the power to inspire hope and patience to us during this time of pandemic.

About this title

About the Author

Tom has served a number of churches as youth minister, associate minister, English minister (Korean churches), and most recently, senior pastor. He also spent 20 years as a bi-vocational pastor and full-time high school teacher. While teaching school, and especially now as a full time senior pastor, Tom is seeing the importance of mental health as it affects individuals, families, and the congregation as a whole. He believes that good pastoral care is possibly more important than good preaching. He also believes that worship should have a therapeutic effect on the worshiper.

Tom and wife Ann celebrate over 32 years of marriage. They have two sons, a daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters.

Tom holds a BA from Atlanta Christian College, a Master of Theological Studies from Candler School of Theology, and the MA in Jewish Studies from Emory University. He is also a certified instructor in Mental Health First Aid.

Tom's hobbies include playing guitar and reading. He loves silent films, Dracula movies, and Star Trek.

Reading interests include: Medieval Philosophy, Maimonides; Psychology, especially Viktor Frankl, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan; existentialism (and maybe phenomenology); Abraham Joshua Heshel, Paul Tillich, H. Richard Niebuhr, C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton.

Also, Tom writes reviews for the American Academy of Religion's "Reading Religion" page.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1666730386
• ISBN 13: 9781666730388
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 88