Gentleness is an enigma. Taken up in a double movement of welcoming and giving, it appears on the threshold of passages signed off by birth and death. Because it has its degrees of intensity, because it is a symbolic force, and because it has a transformative ability over things and beings, it is a power. The simplicity of gentleness is misleading. It is an active passivity that may become an extraordinary force of symbolic resistance and, as such, become central to both ethics and politics. Gentleness is a force of secret life-giving transformation linked to what the ancients called potentiality. In our day, gentleness is sold to us under its related form of diluted mawkishness. By infantilizing it our era denies it. This is how we try to overcome the high demands of its subtlety—no longer by fighting it, but by enfeebling it. Language itself is therefore perverted: what our society intends to give the human beings that it crushes “gently,” it does in the name of the highest values: happiness, truth, security. From listening to those who come to me and confide their despair, I have heard it expressed in every lived experience. I have felt its force of resistance and its intangible magic. In mediating its relation to the world, it appears that its intelligence carries life, saves and amplifies it.

We Borrowed Gentleness interrogates the innateness of pain and forms of destruction—through natural disaster, through God, through family, and through the power structures and patriarchal violence that embeds itself in language and cultural memory. Poems critique and challenge the patriarchal narratives that dominate American history. The poems leave the question open of whether man, men, a father and son, are redeemable after the surge of rising white nationalism in America. And yet, there are poems that find, still, bits of joy and perhaps a shred of hope. By juxtaposing poems of louder narrative imagination with quieter poems that explore intimate failings within a family, often portrayed with a realist aesthetic, the book attempts to work through the essential fault in man, in men—in the structures that they design and maintain.

According to the Bible, God has given His people a spirit of power. Yet He also has a clear, sweeping call for His people to be gentle. Is this a paradox? An impossibility? Discover the biblical definition of gentleness through scripture, research, and soul-baring personal illustrations in Gentleness: It's Not What You Think. Challenging questions designed to help you cultivate key attributes of gentleness will encourage you to grow this spiritual fruit in your life. As you begin to walk in biblical gentleness, you will realize that gentleness is really power's best kept secret. Endorsement: I am impressed by Ms. Henne's writings on 'gentleness.' Initially, she peeks around a corner with some trepidation to explore gentleness, at first for her children. She ends up inviting us into her journey, which expands and deepens into considerations from scripture in Greek and Hebrew. She continues our journey into questions of leadership, connections, self-control, kindness, humility, grace, and social connection. The path is deep and transformative. We end up sitting on the edge of our chair to discover what comes next. I am intrigued and changed. Thank you, Debbie, for this text that not only inspires but also challenges. -The Rev. Kittie Verdolini Abbott, PhD, CCC-SLP, MDiv. Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Delaware. About the Author: Debbie Henne is a wife, mother, and a Christian devoted to studying the Bible. She received a call to minister at the age of eight. Her life of obedience to God's voice led her to a career of more than 15 years in speech-language pathology. As a speech-language pathologist, she was educated in linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and research that God has uniquely utilized in this work, which is her debut book.

The revered Christian author whose bestselling classics include The Divine Conspiracy and The Spirit of the Disciplines provides a new model for how we can present the Christian faith to others. When Christians share their faith, they often appeal to reason, logic, and the truth of doctrine. But these tactics often are not effective. A better approach to spread Christ’s word, Dallas Willard suggests, is to use the example of our own lives. To demonstrate Jesus’s message, we must be transformed people living out a life reflective of Jesus himself, a life of love, humility, and gentleness. This beautiful model of life—this allure of gentleness—Willard argues, is the foundation for making the most compelling argument for Christianity, one that will convince others that there is something special about Christianity and the Jesus we follow.

This best-selling and award-winning Bible study series has been completely updated and revised for the new millennium. This volume helps readers learn how to persuade rather than force, be self-giving rather than self-assertive, offer a kind word rather than defensive remarks and discover the strength to be tender. 6 SESSIONS.

Courageous Gentleness offers a biblically rich understanding of gentleness and helps us consider how cultivating it can transform our relationships and draw others to Christ.

Robert Strand, one of the most successful authors in the CBA market, believes that an understanding of the qualities of a Christian deserve a close look. To that end, Strand has developed a nine-book study series on the fruits of the spirit, emphasizing not only that a properly-balanced Christian life must include love, joy, peace, patience, etc., but that God will judge us on our willingness to incorporate them into our daily walk. Written in Strand's famous storytelling style, each book in the series includes study questions and special insights.