Doug Pagitt - Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God

Instead of taking sides in contentious us-them debates, Doug Pagitt points a way through the tensions to a wider, better place. He uncovers hidden treasures from the Bible and flips conventional understandings. A wise, insightful, and stimulating book!

B RIAN D. M C L AREN , speaker, author of We Make the Road by Walking

Bravery with kindness can transforminviting us into new ways of living and thinking. Doug has been doing that in my life for years. Flipped is an invitation that so many of us need, offered with bravery and kindness.

S HAUNA N IEQUIST , speaker, author of Bread and Wine (www.shaunaniequist.com)

I know of no one more skilled at rigorous and flexible inquiry than Doug Pagitt, who is a masterful and down-to-earth guide to flipped living. Flipped presents a vision of faithful Christianity that is hopeful, love-affirming, serious about Scripture, and passionately committed to the way of Jesus.

M ARK S CANDRETTE , founding director at ReImagine, speaker, author of Practicing the Way of Jesus

This is Pagitt at the top of his game and his game is as deadly serious as his title for it is flip. Never has a low-key, conversational tone been more seductivelyor effectivelyemployed in the business of exegetical brilliance than here. This one really is a thought expander as well as a faith enhancer.

P HYLLIS T ICKLE , author of The Great Emergence

Several years ago, I was having another fascinating conversation with Doug. He spoke of his desire that everyone he comes in contact with would know theyre loved, they belong, they matter. Doug is obviously extremely intelligent and passionate and articulate, but above all else he has a giant heart of love. Thats a rare and much-needed combination, and Im thrilled to know hes out there doing his thing. The world needs more people like Doug.

R OB B ELL , speaker, author of The Zimzum of Love and What We Talk About When We Talk About God

Flipped lets you see that God wants to trespass over the fences we have put on grace and unlock the chains weve put on love. This book is Doug Pagitts invitation to start afresh with God and not let religious folks hold the Spirit hostage.

S HANE C LAIBORNE , activist, author of The Irresistible Revolution, coauthor of Red Letter Revolution (www.redletterchristians.org)

Doug Pagitt is a fully engaged questioning theologian whose thoughtful teaching and writing illuminate what it means to live in faith.

S ARA M ILES , author of Take This Bread and City of God

Doug reminds us of just how upside down and powerful the revolutionary call of Jesus can be. Flipped will challenge many of your Scriptural paradigms, breathing a fresh freedom and wholeness into your faith as you seek to follow Jesus, the all-time Master of the Flip.

M IKE S LAUGHTER , activist, speaker, pastor, author of Dare to Dream and Renegade Gospel (www.mikeslaughter.com)

Doug Pagitt is a lighthearted soul on a serious mission: to help us see the world and ourselves through Jesuss eyes. Reading Flipped, I felt a weight I didnt realize I was carrying fall off my shoulders. Read it for yourself. It will change your life.

T HE R T . R EV . M ARIANN E DGAR B UDDE , bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington

F LIPPED

P UBLISHED BY C ONVERGENT B OOKS

Scripture quotations and paraphrases are taken from the following versions: The Common English Bible. Copyright 2011 by Common English Bible. The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Details in some anecdotes and stories have been changed to protect the identities of the persons involved.

Grateful acknowledgment is made for use of the poem What If? in From Yoga Beyond Belief: Insights to Awaken and Deepen Your Practice by Ganga White, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright 2007 by Ganga White. Reprinted by permission of publisher.

Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-60142-637-6

eBook ISBN 978-1-60142-638-3

Copyright 2015 by Doug Pagitt

Cover design by Kelly L. Howard

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published in the United States by Convergent Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House Company.

C ONVERGENT B OOKS and its open book colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pagitt, Doug, 1966

Flipped : the provocative truth that changes everything we know about God / Doug Pagitt. First Edition.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-60142-637-6 ISBN 978-1-60142-638-3 (electronic) 1. Christian life. I. Title.

BV4501.3.P333 2015

248.4dc23

2014041743

v3.1

In God we live, move, and exist.

the apostle Paul, in Acts 17:28