A chronicle heavy in physical and moral/spiritual weight
359210
A Bible for anyone wanting to study the importance of the cultural shock the 60's have steered worldwide.

I believe this decade is what has made us into a global community in the West.

Here is the American Dream in all it's cliche rendering. Here is women's lib and Blacks freedom marches and call for equality through real leaders. Here is the dirty war, the first of many dirty wars since. Here is communism and the Cold War as #1 public enemy of the American proclaimed democracy. Here is activism in a youth not afraid to fight, if even only with ideals and protest marches, to demand a just world and freedom for all. Here is the power of music to steer crowds to a common goal. Here is the beloved J.F.K. Here is the last decade of idealism before entering the consumerism paradigm.
562959
A soul-bearing treatise of the protagonist. Yet enough to encourage and inspire.
3302379
I must admit, I don't quite know what to do with Michael Yankoskis The Sacred Year. It was not quite what I expectedI think I misread the description to indicate more of a look at the cyclical calendar of Christian observances, rather than one persons journey through a year of digging deeper. From that point forward, I was less enthusiastic. Ive never heard of Michael Yankoski, and one reason I seek out books to review is to learn from voices I would normally not hear.

Yankoski has given the reader a good look at a year in which he walked away from high pressure life and pursued clearer spiritual devotions. During the course of this year, he followed many of the ancient practices of Christianity, including taking time to bake his own bread to consider daily bread more deeply. I know that some of my more serious brethren will have great difficulties with the spiritualist nature of the disciplines.

I personally find the practice of many of the classic spiritual disciplines refreshing. I am more disturbed to read Yankoskis confession of rising to Christian influence while apparently knowing very little of such practices as stillness and patience. That is not a fault with this book, but rather with the Western Christian Corporation. Thats another rabbit hole, entirely.

It is pleasant to read of someone moving away from the chaos-chase of Western mentality to draw nearer to God, but the division between my expectations and the reality sums up my difficulties with this book. Yankoski presents a sacred year which he was able to pursue. He had the means, the contacts, and the education to connect him with various guides and teachers for this journey.

Unlike the vast majority of Christians. The single mother working two jobs to feed her children can only hope to make a weekly church service to feed her faith, she has very little opportunity to take off an entire year. Likewise, is it responsible to burn candles and firewood in place of seeking more efficient energy? Perhaps using the same power to feed an extra family, rather than highlighting your own situation.

That is where The Sacred Year breaks down for me. Despite the chapters on depth with others, it is still a book that highlights Western Solo Christianity. It is about the experiences of here and there, chasing this and that, which if you cant have, you cant quite get as deep. But at least you can read about someone who did.

I would rather have seen an examination of a year lived in stable community with the people of God. What is it like to walk through all the seasons of life with the same folks, sharing their days and moments? That is the sacred year of community.

Its not a bad book. Its a great book about a spiritual experience that I do not find worth commending to you.

Free book received from BookLook Bloggers.
923580
This is an "alternative" gospel, Jesus story, and historical novel which presents a fairly coherent narrative based on "what if Jesus really was king of the Jews?" Readers should keep in mind that the book was written in the atmosphere of the post WW II 1950s and the author had experiences on the battlefield in World War I that one could call spiritually transformative. The book is part of a genre designed to place the human Jesus in a better perspective, taking him down off the pedestal that frequently makes him unreachable for many. In addition, the author seeks to present Jesus as fully Jewish, an important theme for the time. Some readers may find this "Jesus" excessively human and disturbing.
1405592
I kept coming across Dietrich Bonhoeffer's name while doing research on World War II for a novel I'm writing. From the bits and pieces I picked up in different sources, I envisioned a wise and otherworldly gentleman, heroic, spiritual, advanced in age. I looked forward to reading his biography - until it arrived on my doorstep.

The text itself is almost 550 pages. And that doesn't include the notes, index, or author sections. A daunting book to read.

But I'm so glad I did.

Author Eric Metaxas superbly reveals the details - one incident, one letter, one sermon at a time - of the thirty-nine years granted to this intelligent, cultured, talented, and deeply devoted man of God whose young adulthood coincided with the growth of Nazi power in Bonhoeffer's native Germany.

Metaxas writes a compelling narrative that shows how Bonhoeffer's spiritualism and intellectualism were woven into a cohesive one-ness that deepened his own writings. His thoughts on the pressing issues of his day, whether theological or political, were grounded in Scripture. His decisions to stand up for the afflicted, to confront evil, to face death without fear, were similarly rooted in his beliefs.

In the pages of this biography, I discovered a German intellectual who daily lived his faith during an evil time and in a brutal place. A man who practiced, no matter the cost, this dictum: "only the believer is obedient, and only he who obeys believes" (p. 540). A man who spent the last two years of his brief thirty-nine years in concentration camps and was executed as the horrendous war drew to a close.

Daunting to read? Not at all.

(NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
3659163
The author's recounting of her Christian journey mirrors in some respects the questions posed in that most complicated (and complicating) of Biblical stories: the Book of Job. Andrea Dilley asks some of the most fundamental questions that have beguiled thinkers--Christian and non-Christian alike--for centuries. On pg. 56, she poses many of them at once:
* Why doesn't God talk the way he talked to Moses? (ie, directly and unambiguously)
* Why did Jesus show up with a body just once in history?
* Why is there a homeless man standing on the corner in the cold?
* Why do little boys die of tuberculosis?

The most important and relevant thing I found out of this book was simply this: by the end, Dilley doesn't have or even pretend to have the answers to these questions. She doesn't attempt to argue from some great spiritual epiphany, nor does she attempt to gloss over the ethical questions living in this "vale of tears" raises every day. She simply contends that living with these questions is part of the Christian walk--irrevocably part of the Christian experience. As a wise man in a movie not so long ago once said, "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." For Dilley, the challenge of daily Christian life is to see the good in balance with the bad (or, at least, the questionable)--and at the end, meditating on the "missionary complex" that suffuses much of evangelical Christianity, Dilley comes to the perception of her work in her "own backyard" as an indispensable part not only of her life as a Christian, but of her life as a thinking, questioning individual.

At the beginning of the book, Dilley speaks of her mother's reading of Paul Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" to her as a child. "Faith and Other Flat Tires" is a fine volume to follow in the tradition of "Christian's" famous pilgrimage.
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This book tells the tragic story of Paphnutius, a self-righteous monk who temporarily abandons his isolated desert life to save a famous courtesan and actress, Thais, from a life of sin. As the rescue of Thais unfolds it becomes clear that the main drive of Paphnutius is not virtue but, greatest sin of all, his own vanity. Thais is his trophy for God. A witness to his own spiritual breakdown, he tries more and more extravagant acts of penitence that, to his despair, deepen his moral crisis. Ultimately his efforts are condemned by Paul, the saintly fool, as nothing more than Pride, Lust and Doubt.

The moral message, about the dangers of self-righteousness, is clear and well delivered. Some consider the book anti-religious or anti-christian. It obviously isn't either. What it criticizes is the danger to have one's common sense blinded by religious zeal in a way which ends up being ultimately self-defeating.

The spiritually confused Paphnutius is portraid kindly by Anatole France, which makes his tragedy even more poignant. One cannot but sympathise with his intense, yet misguided, efforts.
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The author was the chaplain to the Anglican order of monks, the Melanesian Brotherhood, during a recent time of conflict and martyrdom. In his account of those years in the late 1990s and earliest years of the 2000s, Carter brings his considerable skills of observation and writing to the task of telling a story of death and resurrection--the loss of seven brothers and the peace their deaths brought to the Solomon Islands.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writes in his introduction that this "is one of the most truly evangelical books I have read for a long time." I agree, but more so. For to place the book as an evangelical one is to narrowly categorize a book that deserves a larger reading.

The struggles of the Solomon Islanders are human struggles. As Carter writes in the book, the problems that came to a head their "can take place in any country of the world when prejudice and hatred and violence gather momentum and run amok, unchecked." Recent history in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere have shown this to be true. And so this book tells a story that transcends its own setting to offer true and lasting hope.

The book tells the story of God's love at work and in so doing Carter serves to widen the human family.
338883
Ill admit that I don't read very much religious fiction.  Generally, I feel about it the same as I do about Christian rock music  its okay for some, but I find it a little heavy-handed at times.  A little too much, God is everywhere! for my taste.  I would rather find where an author might have included some religious aspects in a secular work.  I like to work for it a little bit.

You can understand, then, why I was excited but a little wary about taking on a Catholic novel like Tobits Dog by Michael Nicholas Richard.  But, I do like to read and I am Catholic so I gave it a whirl and I was pleasantly surprised.

While some of the Catholic imagery and symbolism is a little heavy-handed, I felt myself genuinely caring about the characters.  The title character (kind of), Tobit Messager, is an African American man living in the South during the Great Depression.  Hes a good, hardworking man, but many of the local white folks are distrustful of him because of something that happened with his dad a long time ago.  Despite the poor way hes treated, Tobit takes extra care to always do the right thing and live as the Lord would like him to.

Theres a very moving, racially-charged event that occurs (I won't spoil what it is for those that are going to read the book, as you should!), and, through some interesting consequences, Tobit is rendered blind afterwards.  One of the ways hes able to deal with his new blindness is through the kindness of a number of members of the community, including his wife Anna, son Tobias, and Tobiass boss.  In addition, his intuitive dog, Okra, serves Tobit faithfully.

Okra, the real title character I suppose, is able to sense his masters needs and judges many of the characters coming through the story.  In fact, Tobits family is visited by a far-flung relative who takes Tobits son and Okra on a journey to settle a debt that another family member has to Tobit.  I told you  lots and lots of characters!

Its this journey where we see much of the Holy Spirit, God, and Devil symbolism and metaphors in the story.  As with many novels, the young man on the journey runs into many obstacles and is able to overcome them with help from varied sources.

I won't sum up more of the plot than that.  One of the things I most enjoyed about this story were the characters and the few twists and turns along the way, so I don't want to ruin them.

While Richard, the author, does hold our hands a little bit to help us see his ideas of Gods impact in our lives and why our treatment of others (no matter how they compare to us) is important, its for a good cause.  Ultimately, its easy to see how things haven't changed much in the last century or so  were still hurting others for no reason other than our own prejudices, and thats not what were called to do.
654433
Boenhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy is a vivid and, at times, deeply moving portrait of what true Christianity really looks like.

Secular intellectuals often deplore Christianity as a "dumb" or "dangerous" religion that discourages thought, increases judgementalism, and forces a false morality and piety on the rest of society. Of course, those are not the failings of Christianity, but of our humanity. Very few people live up to the high standards of the good Christian, and if Christianity often appears flawed, it is because so many people profess it yet fail to practice it.

But then there are people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Even if you know nothing of Bonhoeffer before you pick up this book (what a shame that so many don't know who he is!), you will quickly fall in love with his warmth, kindness, generosity, and uncompromising integrity. Metaxas begins with Bonhoeffer's charming and remarkably intellectually and spiritually varied upbringing and family life, explores his early desire to pursue theology, depicts his remarkable spiritual and intellectual development as a pastor and leader in the Confessional Church, and then charts his personal struggle to reconcile the duties of his faith with the morally reprehensible policies of Hitler and the Nazis. With eerily prophetic foresight, Bonhoeffer could see where history was headed well before the Nazis implemented their most brutal efforts to eliminate the Jews. After failing to convince people to take action early on, and later, to wake people up to the horrors of what was really happening, he felt a growing moral obligation to take more aggressive action--eventually formulating principles of resistance and moral duty that allowed him to reconcile his Christian values with his decision to participate in plots to assassinate Hitler.

Although I'm not a Lutheran, few Christians could dispute that Bonhoeffer represents the image of the true Christian at his finest. Free thinking, courageous, astonishingly articulate, deeply caring, profoundly generous, unflinchingly honest, impressively disciplined, insatiably curious, unbelievably educated and cultured... the list goes on. But perhaps most important of all: True to his principles and his faith right up to his death. By all accounts, Bonhoeffer was a remarkable friend and a great comfort to others, even in the midst of his own miserable imprisonment, and when he died (only a few weeks before the war ended), witnesses agree that he died courageously, calmly, and entirely submissive to the will of God.

Read Bonhoeffer and find out what Christianity can do in the world when someone has the courage and discipline to practice it well. Along the way, you'll also be treated to clear, captivating accounts of the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, various assassination attempts, the fears and dangers of everyday life for Germans who objected to Nazi politics, the ease with which religion can be corrupted with power, and the power with which religion can resist corruption.

One of the best biographies I've ever read. It's rare that I find someone I want to spend 600 pages with, but with Bonhoeffer, I would gladly spend 600 more. I might even pick up his theological works. Seriously, he's that remarkable. It's taking every bit of restraint I have not to fill this review with spoilers, but I'm trying to praise the book and the man without giving away too many details. Just read it!
2976357
Dorothy Day has fascinated me for a long time. Most people know Dorothy because of her social activism, and that makes sense: her involvement in labor struggles, nonviolent protests, the Civil Rights movement, and the Catholic Worker community established her as one of the greatest social reformers in American history. In fact many people consider her a saint for her social work alone.

Yet behind this edgy, active facade, Dorothy developed an intense spiritual life. And that inner life sat at the core of everything she did. All of her activism was grounded on her Catholic faith and for her, the two were inseparable. Her active life and contemplative life were locked together like praying hands, each one gripping and intertwining one another.

In Dorothy's mind, contemplating Scripture, worshiping God, receiving the Eucharist, and praying the Divine Office were more than nice acts of piety to tack onto her social work. They were the very fuel that powered all of her service and organizing.

Robert Ellsberg, who was part of Dorothy's New York community and was a close friend during her final years, has compiled a new book peering into this oft-ignored side of Dorothy.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Duty-of-Delight-The-Diaries-of-Dorothy-Day/dp/0767932803/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day</a>&nbsp;(Image, paperback, 752 pages) goes beyond most other biographies. It's not an objective, outsider view of this social saint but a collection of deeply personal diary entries that take us into the heart of Dorothy's everyday life and unveil it from within.

We see her ruminate on Augustine's "City of God" and Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment", which she records in between serving meals and sweeping the floors. She recounts late night debates with Peter Maurin, her itinerant philosopher friend, while reflecting on mundane topics like the weather, finances, her family, and the news.

Dorothy also takes us deep into her personal dramas of love, war, parenting, protesting, and service. We read of her brush-in's with spiritual giants like Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Pope Paul VI, and Mother Teresa. Regarding the latter, Dorothy's striking modesty is seen in an entry from June 17, 1979, which simply says:

"June 17 - Mother Teresa and Eileen visited."

Throughout its page, The Duty of Delight reveals a certain depth and poetry and authenticity that, according to Fr. James Martin, makes it "one of the most powerful works of Christian spirituality I have ever read." Here's an offhanded reflection on the demands of service which she recorded after a difficult day:

"Food, warmth, shelter, clothing, beauty, yet--ourselves most of all--to be available to men. But in the Catholic Worker house there are so many, and each wants it all, your time, your love, your attention. `You are never here.' This is my suffering, my failure, and my cross. Rejoice."

If Dorothy is ever canonized,  The Duty of Delight will stand as the most comprehensive, intimate collection of writings we have from any saint. It's what Story of a Soul would have been had St. Therese lived to be 83 instead of 24, a fascinating gaze into an unconventional, yet holy woman.
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Gripping story of service for a conscientious objector in the Soviet Army.  The protagonist is a German of Mennonite descent in the Soviet Union in the post-Stalin era who decides that he cannot bear arms as a Christian.  The book details his suffering at the hands of his officers and fellow soldiers, but it also talks about his internal struggles to believe, to rely on God, not to take revenge, and not to be prideful in his righteousness.  It shows how God protects him through the suffering and uses him.

The usual fault of these sort of books is that they are a hagiography.  The hero is so good, so righteous, that none of us mere mortals can relate to him.  This book is nothing of the sort - Ivan Richter is so human, so natural, trusting and doubting, fearful and courageous, that the book winds up more encouraging us to trust God and to obey in all things.

Now - is the book fiction or history or autobiography?  When I read it, I was sure it was autobiographical.  But online a reviewer claims it is a novel.  While I know nothing of Johannes Reimer's background, it certainly seems to me that the events are being described by someone who was there.  At the very least, it is a vivid and plausible account of life for a true Christian confronted by Soviet power.
2233552
Douglas Groothuis's memoir regarding his wife's dementia is poignant one. Groothuis speaks from the heart concerning his wife's decline. This is a book that deserves to stand alongside C.S. Lewis's A Grief Observed.

Through this book Groothuis is full honest with the full range of his reaction to his wife's condition. He describes the eeriness of dementia and the chaos that comes with it. He speaks to the temptation to hate God that comes with such terrible suffering. The seventh chapter of the book which addresses lamenting and mourning should be required reading for every Christian. After quoting the command in Romans to mourn with those who mourn Groothuis states, "Mourning rightly is a rare skill and one that cannot be cultivated without the sacrifice of one's ego on behalf of another soul and God. Any hospital chaplain worth having must develop this art of sympathy and empathy. But we are all chaplains in the hospice of life (p. 60)." Meaning that we all must learn to sacrifice our ego in order to cultivate the the sympathy and empathy that others will need from us. At the end Groothuis points to what keeps him going the love of a crucified Savior who still bears the scars.

This book reminds readers that even if one knows all the right answers regarding evil and suffering, as the author does, the pains of life are still very much real and felt. In our feel good age I think everyone would benefit from reading memoirs like this one. It's a difficult read, as you are observing the heart ache of a man who's wife is losing her ability to communicate and interact with the world. We need honest testimony like this in book form and in the church. Too often people find the church a terrible place when they are walking through twilight. Of all the books I have read this year this book has impacted me the most.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of the book from the publisher for the purpose of reviewing it. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review.
1051771
I recommend this gripping paean to animal intuition, the `noble savage of the soul' as Eno might call it.  The instinct of danger, though the hero of the piece, nevertheless threatens to rout love and undermine the "grace" by which it is given.  That makes for some engrossing tensions as the protagonist's instincts pass seamlessly from life-saving presentiment to fears and suspicions that become violent and threaten to tear the Rider apart from his relationships.

There are psychological and even spiritual undertones to this minacious tale, whose most unbelievable detail is that which is intended to be most realistic: a newspaper corroboration of the menace from which the Rider and his drivers recoiled  and escaped.  From a strictly literary point of view, this detail unduly damps the most interesting question raised by this short intense story: the relation between instinct and violence, and love and hate.  The rider - and perhaps the writer - seems torn between the `Pagan' view that love and hate are ineluctably interlaced, that good and evil are conjoined twins, neither entirely detached from the other, and the Abrahamic (here, Christian) view that hatred and evil are parasitic perversions, and that love and goodness are self-sufficient powers with a source in an all-good and all-loving deity who gracefully cares for His creatures.  Can we have love without hate or the animal intuition that civilization starves and cages without fear and violence?

This problem is not quite framed as a problem; it rather skulks just beneath the surface.  If anything, the narrative inclines to the view that is more `Pagan' (for want of a better quick term), though the Rider feels the undertow of the more puristic vision, as does the writer.  Which is the truth and which is the superstition?

That the second half of the story is not quite a half, not fully developed, but left in the form of a sketchy journal, does not help.  It is not clear whether the journal form is intentional or a stop-gap, but this reviewer wishes that it had been worked into a more fully developed counterweight to the first part.  That would more effectively counterpoise the material about instinct and violence in the first part with the material about love and spontaneity in the second.  As is, the journal about coupling up with a fellow traveler is cynical ("tit for tat") and love is made to seem rather selfish and hedonic.  Perhaps it so seemed to the young Rider; maybe the writer intended to leave the section undeveloped because the young rider's sensibility was at the time similarly undeveloped.  If there is indecision here, if a question is to be posed to the reader, then there is all the more reason to have developed the second half more fully, to have let the reader wonder a little about the possibility of a loving spontaneity unmixed with fear and paranoia and violence.

Thematic and structural quibbles aside, this is a narrative by a guy who can tell a story, for whom the events are seething with symbolic meaning, and who is able to raise an existential question in short order.  For a first story to have an enthralling surface and at the same time to raise consequential human issues is no mean feat.  I sincerely hope the public will hear more from Mr. Ortiz.
4694646
Brother Lawrence, born Nicolas Herman in Lorraine, France, lived through most of the 1600s and passed most of his life in a Carmelite monastery in Paris.  Because of his lack of education he became what was known then as a "lay brother," that is, he took vows but was not an ordained priest.  However, despite being a humble kitchen worker, he impressed so many of his fellow monks with his extraordinary piety that people even came to see him from outside the monastery, and he attracted correspondents as well.  One of his visitors was the priest Joseph de Beaufort, who later became a high official in the Archdiocese of Paris.  After Lawrence's death, and against his explicit wishes as expressed in one of the letters included in this little book, Beaufort published notes he had taken on several of his visits to Brother Lawrence, as well as letters the monk wrote to him and to several other recipients.

This is a very slim collection that can easily be read straight through in an hour or so.  According to Brother Lawrence, as the result of a profound spiritual experience he set out to cultivate a sense of God's presence by continually conversing with him.  Continually talking to God simply and directly, and doing everything as an act of love for God sums up his entire program.  He lived in an age when large numbers of people practiced various kinds of penances, many of which involved mortification of the flesh, but also other kinds of spiritual devotions that were not harmful of themselves, but which in many cases became unhealthy obsessions.  He rejected such practices, because for him simple love of God was paramount.  For Brother Lawrence, work time was prayer time; but really, it was always prayer time.  He admits to experiencing "dry times" of the soul, but counseled pushing through those; according to Brother Lawrence, you should first ask God for the gifts necessary to develop this practice of the presence of God, which he will grant you.  Like that other spiritual giant Teresa, Lawrence lifted up even the simplest things to God, and in the process transformed them and himself.  Christians have been encouraged by his counsel and recommended his way as worthy of example--including a spiritual giant in his own right, John Wesley--and in the last couple of decades he has found a new currency not only among Catholic Charismatics, but also among Protestant Evangelicals as well.

There are numerous versions of this classic available today.  This one has an introductory essay by Rev. Gregory Bellarmine, superior general of the Society of St. John of the Cross, "St. Paul the Mystic & Brother Lawrence."  I found it interesting as a way to think about spirituality--which which many Catholics and Protestants don't really believe in, thinking somehow it is opposed to organized religion--to better appreciate "the practice of the presence of God."  There is another short article after the letters which explains "How the Traditional Carmelite Nuns Spent their Day."  I presume the men spent their days similarly, but that is just a guess based on my general knowledge about Catholic monastic practices.  Following that is a series of "Reading Group Questions" which, although poorly worded and edited in places--one of them is even repeated--could lead to good discussions by a group of people who had read the book seriously.  Brother Lawrence's work always merits five stars; this edition still gets four, though, based on its low price.

What is most important is that the heart of this book--Beaufort's notes and Brother Lawrence's letters--should be read seriously by anyone who takes their Christianity seriously.  This is the second edition I have read, and I will probably read others to see what other kinds of ancillary materials editors put in with Brother Lawrence.  But in the end, Brother Lawrence has helped more people get closer to God than a lot of much better-educated writers who have written much longer works.  What matters truly is being in the Presence of God.
2924915
The Vision That Changed a Nation.  The Legacy of William Tennent.  Authored by John F. Hansen.
Normally I am not attracted to church history, so I was surprised to find this book not to be a dry history lesson of past events or irrelevant ideologies. Instead, it chronicles the interaction between one "ordinary" man named William Tennent and the Holy Spirit. (I say "ordinary" because the author gives no reason to believe that Tennent was immune to doubts, fears, insecurities, or great heartbreak.)

Because Tennent chose to recognize and respond to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit, he oftentimes found himself running counter to the typical clergy career path that promises financial security.  As Tennent sought to "obey God rather than men", he oftentimes found himself facing formidable challenges from envious and misguided clergy. These, as well as the numerous personal tragedies he experienced, would have been ample opportunities for him to be embittered, wallow in self pity, ball up his fist, and challenge the character of God.

Surely these tests were discomforting for him and his family, but in retrospect we can say, "Praise the Lord" for those challenges. Why? Because we have a chronicle of those tests, his courageous responses to them, and best of all, God's response to his responses.

After reading the book, I was puzzled that there were no reports of large crowds being reduced to tears and repentance by William's preaching. But then I realized the Lord used him to build and connect in an underground or foundational way.  Also, by faithfully laboring behind the scenes, Tennent escaped the allure that spiritual revival sometimes brings--namely success and fame.

I was also surprised to learn that back then the necessity of being "born again" was being challenged by well educated professional clergy. Although Tennent felt pressured from the "authorized" ministers of his day to present a Christianity without the new birth experience, he recognized the terrible deception this would perpetuate amongst his clerical colleagues. Sadly, his refusal to yield to the political correctness of his day inevitably cost him on many levels. But eventually God rewarded him for enduring through his many trials and tribulations.
As history proved, Tennent's faithfulness to the new birth had a multigenerational impact. For instance, he found many others within and outside his denominational circles who were likewise obeying the Spirit to separate the metaphoric sheep from the goats.

But Tennent's story didn't end with the passing of his generation. As is inscribed on his gravestone "He built more than he knew". We have this book about Tennant's legacy because he faithfully built according to the pattern given by revelation, fully supported by the scriptures, and affirmed by God's responses.

Read this book with highlighter and pen in hand. Along the way, reflect about your own passion and vision to build, or be convicted about your lack of passion and vision. Then buy a copy for a clergy member whom you appreciate!
3088098
Randy Alcorn is a beloved evangelical author with numerous bestselling titles in both the fiction and nonfiction genres. One of his strong suits is the great enthusiasm and heart with which he writes every single word. In this newest work of fiction (which reads more like real life), his ability to transcend the lines between what is real versus what isn't simply shines. This skill enables readers themselves to transcend from simply reading another individual's story to personalizing the underlying thematic spiritual takeaways. Alcorn's large reading base will especially appreciate this allegorical storyline as it is based on another of his works, EDGE OF ETERNITY, and that book's character, Nick Seagrave.

In THE CHASM: A Journey to the Edge of Life, Nick finds himself climbing upward amidst sharp inclines of rocks and shale to reach an overlook in hopes of spying the "shining city" he absolutely had to reach. He finally stands upon the ledge and is utterly dismayed; it is even worse than what he had been told. There lies the chasm, completely unavoidable and unimaginable, before Nick's eyes and below his feet. Sucking all hope from his heart, Nick mentally compared standing in front of the Grand Canyon with his family years earlier. He then recalled how this chasm was similar to the grave he had dug for his dog's burial when he was only 10 years old. He still had to get to Charis, that shining city, but how?

Revisiting his journey so far with his fellow travelers, Nick began mentally summarizing the challenge before him as he assessed his own strengths as a successful businessman and entrepreneur. Confidence was one thing Nick wasn't lacking, but being honest with himself --- truly honest --- was indeed a problem. Interestingly, in order for him to move toward this city of lights, he had to take various (and frequently painful) paths in and through his own mired past. He was reminded, none so gently, of losing his family by making selfish, self-centered choices that ended up costing him and them dearly. Confronted also with intellectual pursuits, false idols and religions, hidden lusts, and more, Nick is continually challenged to discern between good and evil at every step. Throughout this story, he is escorted on various roads by different characters as well, each of whom represent a person of religious significance to him. By journey's end, Alcorn pulls all the symbolic threads together and unveils a strong message that is both timeless and timely.

Another bonus is the 12 black and white line drawings included here, which give a strong visual representation to readers as they imagine the varied circumstances in which Nick finds himself. Alcorn also offers a Reader's Guide that will encourage individuals to dig deeper into each chapter's symbolism and meanings.

THE CHASM is an excellent companion to EDGE OF ETERNITY that allows readers to continue to explore the same life challenges faced by everyone who inhabits planet Earth.

  --- Reviewed by Michele Howe, author of BURDENS DO A BODY GOOD and Women's Health & Lifestyle Writer ([...])