Illustrations
Part 1: Discovering the J-Curve
1. “I Will Never Do This Again”: The J-Curve and How It Helps
2. "I Take Your Place": The Substitutionary Nature of Love
3. Marketing the Self: What We Do Instead of the J-Curve
4. Liberating the Self: The Foundation of the J-Curve
5. In Harvard: Union with Christ Comes Alive
6. In Sports or In Christ?: How Location Changes Everything
7. It’s All about Who You Know: Knowing Jesus in the J-Curve
8. Missing Justification by Faith: The J-Curve without Justification
9. Missing the J-Curve: Justification by Faith without the J-Curve
Part 2: Dying with Jesus
10. Dying to Self: Understanding Different J-Curves
11. A Cascade of Love: Weaving J-Curves Together
12. Life at the Bottom of the J-Curve: Making Sense of Persistent Evil
13. Living in the Borderland: How to Thrive in a Broken World
Part 3: The Descent of Love
14. Love Loses Control: Discovering the Shape of Love
15. The Art of Disappearing for Love: How the Incarnation Defines Love
16. Recovering a Vision of the Good: The Wonder of the J-Curve
17. Celebrating Christ Bearers: Rediscovering Hidden Saints
18. The Hinge of the J-Curve: Understanding the Will
19. The Four Steps of Love: Re-enacting Jesus’s Descent
20. The J-Curve Calms a Quarrel: Creating a Path to Reconciliation
Part 4: Rising with Jesus
21. Discovering the Power of Resurrection: What Makes the J Go Up?
22. Repersonalizing the Resurrection: Discovering the Forgotten Half of the J-Curve
23. Looking through a Resurrection Lens: The J-Curve Transforms Our Vision of Life
24. The Secret of an Irritation-Free Life: The J-Curve Cures Grumbling
25. Resurrection Realism: The J-Curve Protects Us from Cynicism
26. Delaying Resurrection for Love: Saying No to Good Desire
27. Becoming Human Again: The Emotional Life of the J-Curve
28. The Art of J-Curve Living: Dying and Rising in Twenty-Four Hours
29. Seeing the Big Picture: Multiyear Dying and Rising
Part 5: Forming a J-Curve Community
30. The Power of Weakness: How the J-Curve Defeats Tribalism
31. The Spirit at the Center: Learning Wisdom Down Low
32. Love Treads Softly: Entering the Complexity of Love
33. Leadership Goes Low: Re-enacting Jesus in Community
34. Keeping Jesus Pure: The J-Curve Divides the Community
35. Jesus: The Ultimate Party Crasher
36. The Beauty of a Jesus Community: Including the Distant Outsider
Conclusion
Afterword
Acknowledgments
General Index
Scripture Index