Books
The Sabbath Way:
Making Room in Your Life for Rest, Connection, and Delight
Now Available!
Order your copy today!
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In the fast-paced, chaotic, overly scheduled cadence of our culture, it can be difficult to imagine how to squeeze the Sabbath into our already over-stuffed lives—like trying to fit an eleventh passenger into an eight-passenger van. What if Sabbath isn’t designed to “fit” into our lives, but rather to take over our lives—in the best way imaginable?
Hebrew scholar and Old Testament professor Travis West believes that we’ve misunderstood what it means to truly Sabbath. In his book, The Sabbath Way, Travis takes readers on a spiritual journey to discovering radical rest is more than a weekly practice of taking a day off—it’s also a posture, a way of living every day. It means much more than sleeping in, taking naps, or chilling poolside for an afternoon; instead, the radical rest of Sabbath means putting rest—and delight, gratitude, and flourishing—first rather than last. Using personal story and expert knowledge, Travis guides anyone interested in learning how to make Sabbath rest the metronome that establishes and maintains our life’s rhythms, apprenticing us to abundance our whole life long. -
Ruth Haley Barton, author of Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest
This new work by Travis West is a substantive, nuanced, and winsome invitation to a practice we all crave—whether we know it or not! The rhythm of working six days and ceasing on the seventh is one of God’s greatest gifts to us in our humanity and in the human community. By entering into this rhythm, we participate in God’s nature and God’s best for our world. The Sabbath was made for us, Jesus tells us; this book will help us receive it as the gift it is.
Chuck DeGroat, author of Healing What’s Within and When Narcissism Comes to ChurchI hardly have words for this stunning invitation to reimagine, to reorient, to redeem the time we view with such scarcity, and to be restored and refreshed to our depths. I’ll never again view Sabbath as something to do but see it now as an invitation to a new way of being in the world, a new way of inhabiting God’s vision for wholeness in all creation and people.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of The Unfolding and host of The Poetic Path on the Ritual appI didn’t know how much I needed to read The Sabbath Way, but page after page, I realized it was written for me. If you are living in the Western world in the 2000s, I bet it was written for you, too. With warmth, intimacy, and compassion, Travis West reframes Sabbath into a vital, joy-blooming, life-changing practice in service to delight and whole-being-ness. Nothing puritanical here—The Sabbath Way is wholly current, filled with references to contemporary music, poetry, sociology, psychology, and theology, plus dozens of reflection questions to help you personalize your own Sabbath practice. I am challenged and inspired by this book. It’s a radical, compelling invitation.
Randy Woodley, speaker, activist, theologian, and author of Shalom and the Community of Creation, Becoming Rooted, and Journey to ElohehTravis West’s years of study and practical thought on the subject of shalom come together in The Sabbath Way to create a readable, practical, and beautiful message that we all need now. Phrases in the book such as “Shalom is the wholeness found on the other side of justice” resonated with me, and I will repeat them often in the coming years. In short, your life will be better if you take The Sabbath Way to heart!
John Swinton, professor of practical theology and pastoral care at University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and author of Becoming Friends of TimeImagine stepping off the treadmill of busyness, even for a day, and finding space to breathe, connect, and simply be. In The Sabbath Way, Travis West invites you into this sacred rhythm of rest and delight—something our hurried lives desperately need. Woven with personal stories and deeply human reflections, this book shows how the Sabbath can anchor your week and nourish your soul.
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The Art of Biblical Performance:
Biblical Performance Criticism and the Drama of Old Testament Narratives
The Art of Biblical Performance argues for an embodied, dramatic—performative—approach to interpreting biblical narratives, as if the text is like the script of a play or a musical score. It can be meaningful to study it silently, but it only comes to its fullest expression when it it performed for a live audience.
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For centuries the Bible's essential identity “as a book” has been taken for granted by scholars and lay people alike. Over the past hundred years or so, the oral transmission of biblical material has been researched and advanced with great rigor, and today many scholars accept the oral origins of the Hebrew Bible. However, for many of these scholars their acceptance seems to be primarily intellectual as opposed to practical—orality has not been integrated at a methodological level. This volume is one attempt to address that oversight. It argues that, with respect to the narratives, the ancient crafts of drama and performance are evident in the received texts, that they reach their fullest interpretive potential when they are (re)enacted through body and voice in space and time before a gathered audience. A fuller understanding of Israel's performance tradition—the art of biblical performance—will lead to a greater appreciation of Israel's dramatic and theological achievement.
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Hebrew for Regular People is an 8-week congregational or small group curriculum that introduces participants to some significant words, songs, theology and practices from the Hebrew language and Scriptures through a playful and embodied approach. It’s specifically geared toward people who haven’t gone to seminary but still love to learn!
The Hebrew Scriptures are “living and active” and have the ability to breathe new life into us and mold us into the people we were created to be. And yet, not everyone experiences this transformation when engaging the Bible in community.
The Facilitator’s Guide is designed to help anyone (whether you’ve studied Hebrew before or not) facilitate an experience with a class or small group that prioritizes meaningful encounters with the Bible and each other. This study employs creative and interactive activities that encourage participants to slow down, sit with the Scriptures, and explore practices that connect them to God, each other, and themselves.
Facilitator’s Packet Includes:
Facilitator’s Guide with Lesson Plans
A/V Materials Including Song Files, Video Presentations, Keynote Slides
One-Page Quick Reference Outlines for Each Week
Hebrew Word Picture Art
Theological Reflections on Topics Covered in Study
Hebrew for Regular People
Biblical Hebrew:
An Interactive Approach
Learning Biblical Hebrew does not need to give you an ulcer! In fact, it can be both fun and formative. This introductory textbook offers a playful, oral, and interactive approach to learning Biblical Hebrew that will help you learn an ancient language and have fun doing it!
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Biblical Hebrew: An Interactive Approach will help you learn the original language of the Old Testament with your whole person: body, mind, and spirit. As you engage it, you will:
Memorize and perform playful dialogues based on the book of Jonah in Hebrew;
Learn several passages from the Hebrew Bible by heart;
Encounter biblical texts and grammar through interactive drills and exercises;
Discover the deep connections between the grammar of Hebrew and the theology of the Hebrew Bible;
Involve your whole body in the learning process;
Learn how to pronounce all the letters and vowels, and how to read Hebrew.
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