Beyond the Law: Living the Sermon on the Mount

Author Philip K. Clemens offers what he calls "a layperson's guide to discovering how God lives and moves among ordinary people." Clemens helps Christians navigate these avenues by focusing on three themes---righteousness, community, and blessing---that stand out in the Sermon on the Mount. Clemens illustrates how the Sermon on the Mount opens new avenues of discipleship when received not as law but as Jesus' generous welcome to people from all walks of life.

"This is an epistle of encouragement and an invitation to the church to live fully into its potential. It offers a word of reprieve for any who have struggled with the impossible call to 'be perfect as God is perfect.' It provides a clear but gentle scriptural corrective to prevailing individualistic spiritualities." - Dave Bergen, from the foreword

Philip K. Clemens is pastor at Pike Mennonite Church, Elida, Ohio. He has served in the pastoral ministry at various churches since 1984. Before that he was professor of music at Goshen College from 1970 to 1986. Clemens holds a doctorate in church music from Northwestern University, a master's in sacred music from Union Theological Seminary, and a bachelor's in divinity from Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary.