Beyond Piety

Who doesn't want a liberated life? Jesus offers us liberation as we grow in a Christian spiritual life. But first we need to liberate our concept of Christian Spirituality from ideas that relegate it to Church on Sunday, new age self help, devotional or ascetical practices, or fundamentalist aggression. Traditionally, Christian spirituality liberates Jesus' disciples from personal sin and helps them to challenge sin's social consequences so that once liberated, they will work to liberate others. Christian spirituality (living the Gospel) brings good news for the poor, liberty for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. This is what Jesus came to do, and this is what we as his disciples are called to do as we live our Christian callings in the world.
Whether we are at home, work, or play we are called to be Christian. Beyond Piety invites readers to grow in their understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. More than a book on Franciscan or Hispanic Spirituality, this book is about the Christian Spirituality all Christians are called to live. It is about our human and Christian identity and the God we believe in. It is about getting to know the Word of God and letting that Word get to know us. It is about worship and religious devotion and moving beyond piety to Christian action. It is about the call to justice and liberation.


""Beyond Piety reminds us that there's more to living our faith than simply saying prayers and going to church. Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez reminds us that Christ has come to set us free and once freed, we are set on a mission to do for others exactly what Christ has done for us. What a gem of a book!""
--Albert Haase, OFM
author of Coming Home to Your True Self and This Sacred Moment

""Cavazos-Gonzalez has written a masterful book--easy to read while extraordinary in its insightful reflections on Christian spirituality as socially engaged life journey. From the Bible to Vatican II, through patristic and medieval authors to Gabriel Marcel, Gustavo Gutierrez, and Ignacio Ellacuria, to Carmen Nanko-Fernandez, and Stephen Bevans, the author weaves scholarship with lived experience and social context to offer us a must-read introduction to Christian spirituality. This is a book that seduces and embraces.""
--Orlando O. Espin
Professor of Systematic Theology, University of San Diego


Friar Gilberto Cavazos-Gonzalez, OFM, is a member of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Assistant Professor of Spirituality at the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago. He is also the President elect of the Academy for Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS) and author of Greater than a Mother's Love: The Spirituality of Francis and Clare of Assisi (2010).