San Francisco, Calif.—In the arguments among Christian evangelicals and emergents, mainlines and non-denominationals, conservatives and liberals, there are prophets who point to something truly fundamental: Jesus. Few are better messengers than writer Sara Miles, whose midlife conversion transformed her from an atheist into a Jesus-loving activist feeding thousands of hungry people a week. A “free-range Christian,” less interested in doctrine than in doing, Miles takes literally the commission given to Jesus and his followers, and gives others hope that, as she writes, “this thing is real.”
Releasing this February, JESUS FREAK: Feeding * Healing * Raising The Dead (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint), tells the gritty, sometimes funny, always moving stories of those who courageously respond to Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, heal the sick, cast out demons, cleanse the ritually unclean, forgive sins, and even raise the dead. “It doesn’t take a special kind of person,” she writes, “– the selfish and obtuse are welcome, too. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment, or training – little kids can lead. Jesus is still with us, which means we can say yes to God’s call, without knowing what the outcome will be.”
Miles, author of 2007’s widely praised memoir, Take This Bread, shows, in vivid, heartbreakingly honest prose, how the ordinary people around her are transformed by taking up God’s work in the world. Publishers Weekly raves, “Miles’s obvious homiletic gifts infuse the narrative: startling metaphors (Jesus as promiscuous Boyfriend “who’ll go with anyone”) combine with honest self-reflection and a wry sense of humor, prodding the reader to take ownership of Christ’s commands to serve, feed, and heal.”
A guide for everyone who yearns for “life, abundant,”, JESUS FREAK offers readers an inspiring and empowering reading of the Gospel, and a glimpse of what is possible when Jesus’ teachings are acted upon.
Sara Miles is the founder and director of The Food Pantry, and serves as Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Her other books include Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and on National Public Radio. She is available for commentary on poor people who are sick of charity, church people who are sick of church, and gay people who love Jesus.
Her website is: www.saramiles.net.
To request an interview or complimentary review copy of the book, please contact publicist Erin Lane Beam by telephone at (415) 782-3213 or by email at ebeam@wiley.com.
Media Contact: Erin Lane Beam, (415) 782-3213 / ebeam@wiley.com
###
