This week I’m giving away THREE copies of Andy Crouch‘s book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. Andy is the executive editor of Christianity Today, where he was also executive producer of This Is Our City, a multi-year project featuring documentary video, reporting and essays about Christians seeking the flourishing of their cities. He served as executive producer for the documentary films Where Faith and Culture Meet and Round Trip. He also sits on the editorial board for Books & Culture and has been a columnist for Christianity Today.
I recently had the chance to ask Andy a few questions about his book:
Margaret: What has been the greatest encouragement in your writing experience?
Andy: By far my greatest encouragement is when I actually manage to finish something. 🙂 I am a very, very slow writer, and the longer the assignment the slower I am (two books in ten years). This is not good for my career, humanly speaking, and there is a fair amount of sin and perfectionism bound up in my slowness. But the slowness also comes from a certain amount of care and craft. And when I do actually finish a book, I feel a deep sense of gratitude and confidence that it is done, that it is well done, and that it is worth sharing. That will only sound prideful if you skip over the years of agony, anxiety, and effort that precede it!
Who should read Playing God and why?
You should read Playing God if you have become aware that you have power, or privilege, or both, and are wondering whether it is possible to use it well. So I hope new parents will read it–no one has more power than parents do over their children!
I hope people graduating from college will read it–a college degree grants both power and privilege, even if it doesn’t always lead to a job. 🙂 And I hope anyone who feels a sense of responsibility for others’ flourishing will read it, because what the book is really about is how our own power, however much or little we have, can be used to help others flourish.
Check out the trailer for Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power: (RSS Subscribers, click here to view.)
To win ONE of THREE copies of Playing God, enter a comment on the original blog post at MargaretFeinberg.com. Winners will be selected and announced on Friday.
Congratulations to the winners: Andrea, JZM, Joannie
