Overview
Why does divorce cause so much strain and long-term distress for children of all ages? Andrew Root, a recognized authority on youth ministry and a child of divorce himself, explains that divorce causes children to question their core identity. Since a child is the product of the union of a mother and father, when that union ends, he or she experiences a baffling sense of loss of self--a loss of his or her very sense of being. Root redirects efforts for assisting children of divorce to first address this fundamental experience.
This unique book examines the impact of divorce not only from a theological and spiritual perspective but also from a young person's perspective. It will benefit those who have experienced divorce and those who minister to children of divorce.
This unique book examines the impact of divorce not only from a theological and spiritual perspective but also from a young person's perspective. It will benefit those who have experienced divorce and those who minister to children of divorce.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. A History of the Family, a History of the Self
2. Marriage and Divorce in Late-Modernity: Being and Action in Giddens Social Theory
3. Divorce as an Issue of Being: Ontological Security and the Loss of Self
4. Divorce and Theological Anthropology
5. Divorce and the Image of God: A Conversation between Theology and Object Relations Psychology
6. What Is to Be Done: The Church as a Community for the Broken
1. A History of the Family, a History of the Self
2. Marriage and Divorce in Late-Modernity: Being and Action in Giddens Social Theory
3. Divorce as an Issue of Being: Ontological Security and the Loss of Self
4. Divorce and Theological Anthropology
5. Divorce and the Image of God: A Conversation between Theology and Object Relations Psychology
6. What Is to Be Done: The Church as a Community for the Broken
Author
Andrew Root
Andrew Root (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Faith Formation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, The Congregation in a Secular Age, Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Church after Innovation, and The End of Youth Ministry? Root is also the coauthor (with Kenda Creasy Dean) of The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. He is a frequent speaker and hosts the popular and influential When Church Stops Working podcast.