Genealogy Theology: Exploring Family Lines and Spiritual Legacies

A pastor examines how spiritual legacies--both beautiful and terrible--can reverberate across generations.

Bringing together a love of storytelling and decades' worth of experience in pastoral ministry, Frank G. Honeycutt invites readers to explore the spiritual twists and turns in their family trees. He candidly admits that everyone's family history--including his own--includes episodes of spiritual darkness and moral failure. At the same time, he celebrates ancestral stories of spiritual growth and moral courage. And he illuminates the meaningful role that ordinary family members play in God's plan as their life choices and experiences influence subsequent generations.

Genealogy Theology begins with a fascinating discussion of Jesus's family tree. Honeycutt focuses on four singular characters--Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba--and explores the "family resemblances" between their life stories and Jesus's approach to ministry. Then Honeycutt broadens the discussion, encouraging readers to more closely examine the complex spiritual legacies they've inherited. He also shares his own family's stories--some comfortingly commonplace, some deeply traumatic--unpacking their significance for him personally and vocationally. Throughout the book, Honeycutt asks compelling questions about destiny, free will, and God's involvement in family dynamics both in the Bible and in the world today. Thought-provoking and engaging, Genealogy Theology will pique the curiosity of readers whose families don't fit neatly into simplistic narratives of faith.