The Gospels And Christian Life reads the four canonical Gospels as handbooks for religious formation through communal practices. The book focuses on the communities that produced each gospel, the dynamic energy each gospel displays for creating and sustaining community life, the different interpretations of the person of Jesus, and the different systems of organization and leadership each gospel promulgated. The authors carefully describe the social context of each Gospel and delineate the practices the texts prescribe. Each gospel has an imaginative portal, an introductory chapter introducing the necessary background for understanding the social, intellectual, and religious setting for each gospel. Their reading of each Gospel builds on these foundations to illustrate the nature and scope of the community's practices. Their work starts from the assumption that the communities did not look to the Gospels for biographical data on the life of Jesus to offer the reader a powerful reading of each Gospel community, its unique practices, and the way people were trained to become members of it. This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate teachers and students, pastors, and the general audience eager for new ways to understand the New Testament.

Richard Valantasis is co-director of the Institute for Contemplative Living in Santa Fe, New Mexico and on leave as professor of ascetical theology and Christian practice and director of the Anglican Studies Program at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He is an ordained Episcopal priest.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Portal to the Gospel of Mark
Chapter 2: The Gospel of Mark
Chapter 3: Portal to the Gospel of Matthew
Chapter 4: The Gospel of Matthew
Chapter 5: Portal to the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 6: The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles
Chapter 7: Portal to the Gospel of John
Chapter 8: The Gospel of John
Chapter 9: A Theological Conclusion