A Presence that Disturbs: A Call to Radical Discipleship

by Anthony J. Gittins

This powerful, moving, and ""disturbing"" book looks at the contemporary issues that block the attainment of a revitalized church--a church united rather than fragmented, a church tuned to justice for all rather than to provincial myopia. A Presence that Disturbs will engage the general reader and the specialist alike with a fresh perspective on what it means to follow Christ. Three themes garnered from Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl underpin the message of this book. To live you must choose: you must not let life ""just happen."" To love you must encounter: you must know that human encounter is the only authentic way to know and love. To grow you must suffer: you must know that suffering can be a vehicle of growth, a chance for redemption, a way to turn ourselves to the outside. Gittins discusses these themes in the context of the search for meaning. The new lease on life endowed by the Holy Spirit, the function of imaginative ministry, the communitas of true discipleship, and the radical actions of Jesus' ministry are just a few of the ideas explored in the quest for a new understanding of discipleship. ""Authentic Christianity,"" says Gittins, ""is outreaching and encountering; it communicates and ministers. Christianity, like its sibling, Judaism, does not produce complacency, but complicity or participation with others. Theses pages are an invitation to renewed discipleship and an appeal to radical Christianity in the footsteps and in the Spirit of Jesus, who prayed that his followers be one in him."" Anthony J. Gittins, CSSp, is professor of mission and culture at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Born in Manchester, England, he earned an MA and PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was ordained a priest in 1967 and is an internationally recognized lecturer and retreat master. Father Gittins is the author of fifteen books, including two previous works on the theology of discipleship: Encountering Jesus: How People Come to Faith and Discover Discipleship and A Presence That Disturbs: A Call to Radical Discipleship.

Genres: Religion

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2002

About the author

Fr. Anthony Gittins, C.S.Sp., M.A., Ph.D., is a widely experienced missionary pastor and Professor of Theology and Culture at The Catholic Theological Union since 1984. He held the Bishop Ford Chair of Mission Theology from 1999–2008. Born in Manchester, England, and ordained in 1967, he earned M.A.s in Theoretical Linguistics and Social Anthropology and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. He later pursued post-doctoral research at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

He is the author of fourteen books on theology, anthropology, mission, and spirituality, including Ministry At The Margins: Strategy and Spirituality for Mission (Orbis, 2002), Come, Follow Me: The Commandments of Jesus (Liguori, 2004), Where There’s Hope, There’s Life: Women’s Stories and Practical Theology (Liguori, 2006), and Called to be Sent: Co-Missioned as Disciples Today (Liguori, 2008).

A member of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost, Fr. Gittins has taught, offered workshops, and given retreats in more than 35 countries. From 1972–1980 he worked among the Mende people of Sierra Leone as a missionary pastor, linguist, and ethnographer, and from 1980–1984 he was Formation Director in London, where he also lectured at the Missionary Institute. He has also has worked for almost 30 years with homeless women on the streets of Chicago.