Loving Life on the Margins - by Suzanne Belote Shanley & Brayton Shanley Paperback

About the Book

Book Synopsis

In Loving Life on the Margins: the Story of the Agape Community, the authors say they attempt to do what Jesus asked: "Interpret the present time" (Luke 12:56) through the lens of the past. The authors hope the reader of this book, will find in the Agape story something worthy of interpretation as a commentary on the lineage and future of small faith communities like ours.

Over the years, the authors have been drawn to the image of God as the Divine Feminine, that God's heart and ungraspable power is Mother as well as Father. The authors have come to believe that the womb-love of God gives birth to voices joined in prayer and song, souls born into longing and pain, struggling to be reflections of what is possible in short time on this imperiled, glorious planet.

Review Quotes

Feeling hopeless? Isolated? Overwhelmed? Loving Life on the Margins

is the antidote. Sit with these stories, these lives of active contemplation, practiced faith, and engaged, examined nonviolence and be restored. Thank you, Suzanne and Brayton, for crafting an honest, inviting, inspiring portrait of a centered life at the margins.

--Frida Berrigan, columnist for Waging Nonviolence

author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised by Radicals and

Growing into Rebellious Motherhood

The Agape story is truly a real life story that follows the command of Jesus: take the gospel to all the world. Suzanne and Brayton will show you, the reader, just how the gospel is lived in this day and time.

--William Neal Moore Pentecostal minister, international speaker against the death penalty, and former Death Row inmate in Jackson, Georgia, for seventeen years

In these challenging times, we need people who give us hope in the struggle for peace, justice, and equality. This is where the Agape Community comes in. I highly recommend the book, Loving Life on the Margins.

--Roy Bourgeois laicized Roman Catholic priest expelled from the Maryknoll order because of his advocacy for ordination of women and

founder of the human rights School of the Americas Watch, SOA Watch