{"product_id":"the-gravity-of-joy-a-story-of-being-lost-and-found-9780802877949","title":"The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"My vocation was supposed to be joy, and I was speaking at funerals.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLess than a year after joining the Theology of Joy and the Good Life project at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Angela Gorrell got word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant--completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut joy was closer at hand than it seemed. As she began leading Bible studies at a women's maximum-security prison, she met people who suffered extensively yet still showed a tremendous capacity for joy. Talking with these women, many of whom had struggled with addiction and suicidal thoughts themselves, she realized: \"Joy doesn't obliterate grief. . . . Instead, joy has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside of sorrow and even--sometimes most especially--in the midst of suffering.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Gravity of Joy\u003c\/i\u003e, Gorrell uses her search for authentic, grounded Christian joy to reflect on the larger societal need for joy as a counteragent to the despair all too prevalent in the twenty-first century. Inviting action in response to the tragedies of addiction and suicide, she articulates a vision for communities that yearn for joy and \"walk together through the shadows\" to find it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/09\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780802877949\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 245","brand":"Angela Williams Gorrell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38472097988789,"sku":"9780802877949","price":20.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_c3e522ef-9360-418f-9e4a-0044f6e1ffeb.jpg?v=1612933766","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-gravity-of-joy-a-story-of-being-lost-and-found-9780802877949","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}