Challenging our expectations and forcing us to look anew at our reality, Erik Kolbell demonstrates how the eight pillars of the Beatitudes--meekness, empathy, righteousness, peace, persecution, purity, poverty, and simplicity--are still valuable codes of conduct for our individual and collective lives. In this engaging book, he masterfully shows the timeless value in these poetic and paradoxical words from Jesus and how they offer relief and direction in our all-too-confusing world.