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Reclaiming Adoption
- 01/03/11
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Each month Cruciform Press releases 1 new book, and our book for January is one we are very excited about. Reclaiming Adoption brings together some of today’s best thinkers on the subject of adoption, people like Dan Cruver (of Together for Adoption), John Piper, Scotty Smith, Richard Phillips and Jason Kovacs.
Here is a description of what you’ll find:
One of the ambitious dreams that Reclaiming Adoption and its authors share with the Apostle Paul is that when Christians hear the word adoption, they will think first about their adoption by God. As it now stands, Christians usually think first about the adoption of children. Reclaiming Adoption sets out to change this situation by providing breathtaking views of God's love for and delight in His children -- views that will free you to live boldly in this world from God's acceptance, not in order to gain it.
Reclaiming Adoption begins by examining Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son because it ultimately puts God the Father's love on display -- a love that embraces the younger son with uninhibited joy (Luke 15:20) and goes out to entreat the self-righteous older son to come join the celebration (Luke 15:28). The book is premised on the belief that behind the Parable of the Prodigal Son(s) is Scripture's teaching on adoption. The story of the Bible is that God the Father sent his only true and eternal Son on a mission, and that mission was to bring many wayward and rebellious sons home to glory (Hebrews 2:10) in order to adopt them into His family.
That is the Story behind the story of the Prodigal Sons. It is the only story that gives our stories any meaning or significance.
Dan Cruver and his co-authors are convinced that if Christians learn to first think about their adoption by God, and only then about the adoption of children, they will enjoy deeper communion with the God who is love, and experience greater missional engagement with the pain and suffering of this world. That's what this book is about. What the orphan, the stranger, and the marginalized in our world need most is churches that are filled with Christians who live daily in the reality of God's delight in them. Reclaiming Adoption can transform the way you view and live in this world for the glory of God and the good of our world's most needy.
The book has already garnered all kinds of glowing endorsements and reviews. You may like to visit the book’s web site to read some of these. And you will want to visit CruciformPress.com where you can buy the book in print, e-book or Kindle formats.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (12)
Can we really imagine a God who would allow his children to wage economic and political wars on others, and then claim some state of grace in adopting their children from them? How is this different from the Romans enslaving the children of the peoples they conquered? Paul equally refers to the “slaves of God”, yet this isn’t taken as literally as the “adopted” trope, for obvious reasons.
I really dislike the word “missional”. I’ve always heard preachers speak of “having a heart for missions” or “doing the work of a missionary”.
“Missional Living Through the Rediscovery of Abba Father”.
What does that mean?
The current understanding of the doctrine of adoption troubles me. It seems to foster an overfamiliarity with a just, soveriegn, holy, numinous God. Adoption is a change of status, not a mystical reality. Go too far into the murky waters of adoption and you end up with eastern mysticism.
@Tim Irvin, at the risk of my sounding repetitive on Challies.com today: perhaps reading the book would answer your question.
I have a 6 year old who was adopted from Savannah, GA. I love him enormously and love watching him grow into a God follower himself. He knows he’s adopted and we constantly reinforce how he is so important to us that we actively spent time searching for him, hoping to find him and bring him home. Now that we have him, we are so thankful that God gave him to us. It’s not always rosy and perfect obviously. He’s an alpha male little kid who thinks it’s his job to get everyone around him in line. :) But he’s so amazing in so many ways and, whatever his faults are, I just know that I don’t see them when I’m kissing him goodnight. All I see is this son I longed for several years ago. What I see is a precious life who is slowly growing into someone amazing.
Son Followers Blog
Holy Wrath:
When Jesus started the Lord’s Prayer, he said “Our Father”. A just, holy, sovereign, magnificent God actually desires an intimate relationship with us. He wants us to come boldly to the throne of grace as sons and daughters of God. While we know we don’t deserve this status, this is how we are called to relate to Him. While it’s important to see God as the just, holy, omnipotent God that He is, I think it’s critical that we also recognize the position we have been given by His grace and mercy.
Son Followers Blog
I think it is interesting that the comments here are straw man “arguments” in which you put forth a thought as if the author of the book is saying your argument and then you knock your caricature down as if you’ve discredited the author.
Read the book. Get informed before you “review” a book you have not read.
All I’m saying is, Read the book. You’ll be glad you did.
@Mark@DR: I too have had a tendency to turn up my nose at the word “missional” because of the “social gospel” connotations it has carried at times.
But I believe Tim asks a good question - w/o having to read the entire book, can someone offer a definition of the word “missional” that is less tainted by that social gospel baggage? There is nothing wrong with the word itself, but like the word “catechism” for many people it has all of the appeal of the aroma of brussels sprouts on the stovetop.
I will, by the way, read the book in due time, to prepare myself for this year’s Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, which I hope to attend (prior to Tenth Presbyterian, it will also be held in Portland OR, Gd Rapids MI, and Greenville SC). So if I’ve commented too tardily to merit a response, I’ll eventually get to it myself. Co-author Richard Phillips will be presenting at this year’s conference, entitled “Children of God: Adopted into the Father’s Love” and shouldering most of the load for Friday’s pre-conference. He will most certainly be a busy man!
http://www.alliancenet.org/CC_Content_Page/0,,PTID307086_CHID811018_CIID…
For whatever it’s worth, here’s how Reclaiming Adoption explains its use of missional:
“To live missionally means to live each waking moment in light of the gospel so that it increasingly affects every part of our lives for the glory of God’s grace in our fallen world. Our hope for this book is that Scripture’s teaching on adoption will better equip you to live daily in the good news of the gospel” (p 16).
Dan,
Thank you for your response; there is nothing like hearing the author’s own working definition of the word! And that one certainly works for me.
At one point years ago while (unbeknownst to me) operating under the influence of emerging church philosophy, our church’s vision as expressed by our pastor was to be a “missional community”, and I thought that it was just a bunch of methodological jargon.
But actually, your definition of the word sounds similar to “gospel-driven”, which Tim C. has written about recently - and which, I might add, has also garnered questions as to its meaning! So in some cases these words can be somewhat of a shorthand notation for something that takes a lot more work to explain, and would be far too long to include even as a subtitle.
Appreciate your response!
Dan,
Yes, I agree with you that getting at what someone means by “missional” or “gospel-driven” can be difficult. Right there with you on that.
One of my objectives with the book was to flesh out missional in a way that is rooted explicitly within the content of the gospel itself. That’s really what the first four chapters do. My goal has not been to further muddy the waters… Time will tell.
Here’s a recent review of the book that I think really captures what “Reclaiming Adoption” is about: http://thebluefish.org/2011/01/reclaiming-adoption-dan-cruver-others.html
Thanks, Dan, for the interaction. I enjoy it.
The Other Dan
Dan,
Belatedly, I must say I have enjoyed the discussion too and have purchased “Reclaiming Adoption” for my Kindle - I’ll not be able to get to it immediately but it looked interesting enough to purchase. Meanwhile I’ve also discovered your website and am perusing all of the resources there. Thanks also for the link to the review.
A.D.D., bio and adoptive dad