Review of The Wood Between the Worlds, by Brian Zahnd

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Wood Between the Worlds

A Poetic Theology of the Cross

by Brian Zahnd

InterVarsity Press, 2024. 206 pages.
Review written October 21, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

Here’s another book about the theology of the cross. This one, as seen in the title, takes a poetic approach. Here’s how he puts it in the first chapter, as he tells about a walking trip in Spain where he entered every church along the way and paid attention to the crucifixes:

For six weeks I saw different crucifixes every day, and as I walked, I meditated on what it meant that when the Son of God came into the world he was nailed to a tree. I heeded the Spirit’s admonition to resist a quick answer. This is the bane of tidy atonement theories. The idea that we can sum up the meaning of the crucifixion in a sentence or two borders on the blasphemous. Atonement theories have an unfortunate tendency to reduce the crucifixion to a single meaning. This is an enormous mistake. If you’re going to dabble in atonement theories, at least keep it plural. Reducing the cross to a single meaning quarantines the cross so it doesn’t touch too many areas of our lives.

So this book is more of a meditation on the cross than it is an explanation of the cross. There is an inset of color pictures of crucifixes from all over the world and from many different time periods.

Here’s another way he puts that thought:

The meaning of the cross is not singular, but kaleidoscopic. Each turn of a kaleidoscope reveals a new geometric image. This is how we must approach our interpretation of the cross – through the eyepiece of a theological kaleidoscope. That the word kaleidoscope is a Greek word meaning “beautiful form” makes this all the more apropos. I believe it is safe to assume there are an infinite number of ways of viewing the cross of Christ as the beautiful form that saves the world. In this book I seek to share some of the beautiful forms I see as I gaze upon the cross through my theological kaleidoscope.

But one thing you will not find here is any teaching that Jesus saves us from God.

The cross is not what God inflicts in order to forgive; the cross is what God in Christ endures as he forgives. This is an essential and enormous clarification! At the cross the Son does not act as an agent of change upon the Father. Orthodox theology has always insisted that God is not subject to change or mutation. Rather, God is immutable. Thus the cross is not where Jesus changes God but where Jesus reveals God. On Good Friday Jesus does not save us from God; Jesus reveals God as Savior! We don’t have to imagine the Son pacifying an angry Father in order to understand Good Friday as the epicenter of forgiveness.

Instead, Jesus shows us what God is like.

What do I see when I look upon Christ in death with a pierced side? I see that a soldier’s spear has opened a window into the heart of God. As I gaze into the heart of God I discover that there is no wrath, no malice, no threat, no vengeance; only compassion, mercy, and forgiveness. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:34). Jesus dies, not with a curse upon his lips, but with a plea for pardon. To see Christ upon the cross is to see into the very depths of the heart of God. Where once in our distant pagan past we imagined there lurked monstrous intent threatening harm, we now discover there is only tender compassion. On the cross we encounter a God who would rather die than kill his enemies. When we look through the riven side of Christ into the heart of God, we gaze upon a vast cosmos filled with galaxies of grace.

I like the way he also reaches for poetry, literature, music, and art to help us understand the centrality of the cross – as you can see in the title from C. S. Lewis.

The cross of Christ is the wood between the worlds – the world that was and the world to come.

Or you can see it in the chapter using images from Tolkien’s writings.

Just as Middle-earth could not be saved, only enslaved, by the Ring of Power, so Christianity cannot save the world by political power; it can only be corrupted by it. Jesus Christ crucified is the everlasting indictment on those who forsake the way of the cross to reach for the ring of political power. The power we are promised by our Lord is the power of the Holy Spirit – the power to love, forgive, and heal. If we try to wield the Ring of Power (or Caesar’s sword), it will only corrupt us.

There’s lots more in this book. I think I’m giving up on summarizing it and will be content that the quotations I’ve pulled out will give you an idea of what’s here. I recommend this book as an aid to meditating on the cross of Christ, the wood between the worlds.

brianzahnd.com
ivpress.com

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Review of Poverty, By America, by Matthew Desmond, read by Dion Graham

Audiobooks, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Poverty, By America

by Matthew Desmond
read by Dion Graham

Books on Tape, 2023. 5 hours, 40 minutes.
Review written October 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

First I have to apologize. I know that I grasp more details of an information-packed book like this one when I read it with my eyes instead of with my ears, because my memory is very visually oriented. But at the same time, I had this book checked out in print for months and didn’t get to it, but when I put it in my audiobook queue, it was no problem. So I’m glad I heard all that information, but I won’t be able to cite much of it in my review, since it’s not there in front of me to quote from.

This book is a study of the Why of poverty. And unfortunately, it shows the way we who are financially better off are complicit. We like buying things for lower prices, never mind if it means that workers are exploited. And then there are zoning laws that keep multi-family housing out of upscale neighborhoods because the current residents don’t want to mix with the poor.

There are many more things pointed out in this book. Did you know that when you look at tax breaks, the well-off get vastly more government assistance than those below the poverty line? Things like the Mortgage Interest Deduction give more benefit to those who purchase a large home, and nothing to those who can’t afford a mortgage. (I know that after my Dad gave me a down payment for my condo, my cost of housing went down, helped by that tax deduction. But I never ever could have saved up for the down payment, because I was only getting further in debt every year. All that changed after the gift from my Dad.)

Another aspect is that on its face, the Earned Income Credit helps the working poor. But you can also think of it as subsidizing employers who offer low wages. All told, there are many, many factors keeping the poor at a disadvantage, and this book explores many I’d never thought about before, along with some I had.

But he also challenges the reader to look at the ways you benefit from the exploitation of the poor, and see what you can do to mitigate that. Don’t buy from companies that exploit their workers, for example. Look into the zoning laws in your neighborhood, for another. Support laws and politicians (on both sides of the political spectrum) that seek to benefit the least of these.

I did jot down some quotations I liked from the last chapter, knowing I wouldn’t remember them any other way. He was talking about the opposite of using the “Scarcity Diversion” to keep from implementing programs to help reduce poverty. He said we have an “Economy of Abundance” and a “profusion of resources.” Why do we treat scarcity as a given? And here’s a quotation I especially liked:

Wealth means having enough to share.

So if you want a book that will open your eyes to many injustices, as well as challenging you to see how you can help, pick up this book. It will certainly make you think.

matthewdesmondbooks.com

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Review of A Well-Trained Wife, by Tia Levings

Biography, Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

A Well-Trained Wife

My Escape from Christian Patriarchy

by Tia Levings

St. Martin’s Press, 2024. 289 pages.
Review written October 18, 2024, from my own copy, purchased from Amazon.com
Starred Review

A Well-Trained Wife is a memoir from Tia Levings about her life in Christian fundamentalism, her abusive marriage, and how she finally got the courage to leave. Here’s an excerpt from the Prologue:

Allan screamed every night at the demons in the walls. He clutched at my neck as often as he tore his hair seeing those fiery red eyes. He swore he’d kill me. Or he’d take the kids “forever.” Finally, I begged him to see a doctor. I called him “unwell,” too afraid to call it insanity.

The church called Allan’s demons spiritual warfare. Seeing demons pointed to spiritual truth, not illness. Allan didn’t need medicine – I needed correction. They told me to submit more. Go to church more. And anyway, Allan refused doctors. That settled that.

And I was supposed to turn the other cheek. Divorce wasn’t allowed any more than doctors. Now, my long hair hid the scars resulting from my vows to love, honor, and obey. “Till death do us part” could mean by his hand, but who cared?

The Prologue tells us where the story is going, and then Tia’s story shows us how she got there. She starts out with her background in a fundamentalist church and her earnest desire to please God – as well as the boy her friend introduced her to who tried to molest her. And then guilt for that, and plenty of teaching about how a woman’s role is to get married and please her husband and have his babies. One of her best friends in high school was a guy she was afraid was gay – and believed that meant he’d go to hell if it were true.

And then she meets Allan. He is also looking for the woman God has for him. And he moves quickly. Tia relates their story with all the red flags that she didn’t realize were red flags at the time. They get married and get involved in increasingly more conservative churches. Both of them get discipled by people who tell them that Allan needs to be the one in control – complete with “disciplining” Tia and not letting her post anything online he hasn’t approved.

Tia’s story includes five kids and the excruciating story of an infant who gets heart surgery – and then passes away when only nine weeks old. Through it all, her husband is controlling and abusive – and Tia keeps thinking that if she does better, is more obedient, more pleasant, she can change things for them.

Until finally she realizes her life and her children’s lives are in danger, and she escapes in the night.

Tia Levings tells her story well. There’s lots of detail so we understand where she is coming from, and she speaks with compassion for her past self who went through so much and just wanted to please God. She talks about the many lifelines who helped her gain perspective, helped her even think about leaving, and helped her get her feet on the ground after she did leave.

I like these words of perspective in one of the later chapters:

But that’s the thing about puritanical high-control religion. All those God-rules had numbed the entire human experience. The good and the bad, the joy and the pain. The rules said there wasn’t more and I was wrong to thirst for it. Now here was reality, offering me drink.

And of course the book makes me reflect. Because I grew up in a conservative Christian home. I have described it before as not as extreme as those who were home schooled and deep into Bill Gothard’s teachings. We weren’t as extreme as what she describes here.

But then I think, hold on, the only reason my parents weren’t as extreme is that the churches they attended weren’t quite that extreme. But I attended Bill Gothard’s “Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts” many times. I think the only reason we didn’t go to the Advanced seminar (and maybe my oldest brother did?) was that it wasn’t happening nearby, and we’d never pay for plane flights.

I was third of thirteen children. We went to church twice on Sundays and on Wednesday nights as well. We went to Christian schools. Or at least we older kids did – the later kids were homeschooled. I went to a Christian university and married a young man I met there who had his own notebook from Bill Gothard’s Advanced Seminar.

I’ve long told myself that we had a good marriage for many years – until my husband let chronic resentment get in and had an affair and left me. But this book made me wonder how much I was fooling myself. I had wanted to be a stay-at-home Mom, but we couldn’t afford that and I worked part-time for most of the time we were married – and felt a little resentful about that. I happily followed his job around the country and the world – but I wonder if there would have been a better way to approach it. And of course, I knew absolutely nothing about sex when I got married. I always thought it was beautiful to learn together – but well, this book made me think more about those kids hurrying into marriage and thinking they knew “God’s right way” to do things. I’m just not sure I was any more clear-eyed than Tia was.

All that is to say that this book is compelling and well-written. And it made me think about what makes a good marriage – and that it’s perhaps not as clear-cut as my pastors used to try to make me believe.

I love this statement on the very last page:

I have a new spiritual practice now. One that is fluid and deeply private. There are no gurus or holy books of rules. My mycorrhizal network underground communicates through poetry, gratitude, compassion, reality, and supreme love. I’m a tree rooted to the deep with arms reaching for the sky. I’m a woman. A mother writer artist hiker friend, but more than any role. I am not half of another. Nor the completion of their aching soul. I don’t owe anyone my body or service. Training is for dogs. I’m a human soul on a journey home and I belong to me.

That makes me believe that Tia Levings is going to go on to live a good and joyful life. Not a perfect one, but a rich and lovely one, with plenty of joys and sorrows. And I believe that I am doing so, too.

Thank you for sharing your story, Tia! Here’s to a life free of rules but full of love and joy.

tialevings.com

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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Say More, by Jen Psaki

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Say More

Lessons from Work, the White House, and the World

by Jen Psaki
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 5 hours, 55 minutes.
Review written September 23, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book isn’t so much a tell-all as it is a self-help book on how to be a better communicator, peppered with super interesting anecdotes from the author’s years working in the halls of power.

Now, I didn’t read the book for the communication tips, fervently hoping that my days of public speaking are behind me, but I did still pick up some good tips for general communication, such as facing up to your mistakes sooner rather than later, and what to do when a communist dictator starts negative propaganda about you. (Okay, I definitely hope I’ll never need that tip.)

Still, reading this for the stories will definitely carry you through. There were lots of interesting glimpses into the characters of her particularly famous bosses John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. But there were also heartwarming stories involving her husband and kids, as well as stories from her path to those high-profile jobs. The stories are entertaining and interesting, and you get plenty of examples as to why her communication principles will help you in every aspect of your life.

I like reading books by political figures that show me their heart for public service. Here’s one more example of a young woman doing her bit to do good things in the world – and the audiobook ended up being uplifting and inspiring.

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Review of In God’s Holy Light, by Joan Chittister

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

In God’s Holy Light

Wisdom from the Desert Monastics

by Joan Chittister

Franciscan Media, 2015. 134 pages.
Review written August 27, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I don’t remember what prompted me to check this book out, but I was happy I did. The chapters are short, and perfect for a quick read over breakfast to give you something to think about during the day.

In each chapter the author, herself a Benedictine Sister, begins with a short segment from the writings of the Desert Monastics, “thousands of monks and nuns who went into the Egyptian wastelands in the third to sixth centuries.” The writings usually take the form of little stories or conversations, and they usually have something a little bit surprising.

Here’s one example from Chapter Three:

Some old men came to see Abba Poemon, and said to him: “Tell us, when we see brothers dozing during the sacred office, should we pinch them so they will stay awake?” The old man said to them: “Actually, if I saw a brother sleeping, I would put his head on my knees and let him rest.”

After that, she gives us a few short pages of reflections on the passage. In this chapter, that includes thoughts on pious practices and the spiritual life.

With this story, legalism and false asceticism pale in the light of greater virtue. What Abba Poeman calls for here is the godliness of mercy and compassion and forgiveness: the very holiness that pious practices are meant to sow in us and that rigidity for its own sake can never substitute. Nor does our failure to be unwaveringly faithful to the practice of them count against the value of those whose hearts are right even when their knees are weak….

In the spiritual life, we are meant to prod our souls to regular discipline so that in doing so our hearts will be softened to serve those whom Jesus served. The gentle Jesus wants clean hearts from us, not sacrifice; deep down basic commitment, not simply blue ribbons for winning the spiritual marathons we’ve run to make ourselves feel holy.

There are thirty-five chapters in this book, and that’s the kind of challenging yet encouraging thinking you’ll find in these pages. Recommended for anyone who wants to give thought to what it means to live a spiritual life.

joanchittister.org

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Review of The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris

Audiobooks, Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

The Truths We Hold

My American Journey

by Kamala Harris
read by the Author

Penguin Audio, January 2019. 9 hours, 26 minutes.
Review written October 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have a history of becoming a fan of female politicians after I read their books. It worked for Elizabeth Warren and Katie Porter, and now for Kamala Harris. In all three cases, their writing reveals a heart for public service that can’t be faked. Instead of contempt and disdain for those who get left behind in America, for whatever reason, these leaders ooze empathy and understanding – and a determination to call to account the powerful forces that messed up the lives of ordinary Americans.

In Kamala Harris’s case, her fight against the big banks was especially impressive. Yes, I’d heard about that as a political line. But getting the full story – how all fifty state attorneys general were meeting just after she’d been elected to that office in California, and they were prepared to settle for $2 billion and immunity for the banks against further prosecution – was truly impressive. She initiated a full investigation, met with actual people who’d been defrauded and lost their homes, and eventually got a settlement ten times bigger that went much further toward helping the people who’d been harmed.

Her life story helps the reader understand all that empathy. She was brought up by a single mother who was a cancer researcher but eventually died of cancer. Her mother purchased a home when Kamala was in high school, and was tremendously proud of that achievement, which gave Kamala all the more compassion for the folks who lost their homes during the recession.

This book was written in 2018 in the middle of Donald Trump’s presidency, so it was a politically different world than what’s out there now, but I did especially like the ending of the book, all about policy changes we need to have happen — and all of that grounded in compassion and empathy for ordinary Americans.

I haven’t heard her lately saying anything about Universal Basic Income and Medicare for All, but I love that those things are on her radar. (She mentions a pilot program happening with UBI, and there’s much discussion about how the healthcare system is broken, but we mustn’t go back to a time when people could be denied healthcare for having preexisting conditions.) Actually I appreciate that she’s politically savvy enough to go for changes that are politically possible, but will still help ordinary Americans.

I put this audiobook on hold as soon as Harris got the nomination, and my hold finally came in. Even though it was written six years ago, it showed me the heart of this smart and dynamic politician and made me trust that she truly is working to make lives better for ordinary Americans and to bring those who would harm them to account.

kamalaharris.com

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Review of The Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan

Audiobooks, Musings, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

by Amy Tan
read by the Author

Books on Tape, 2024. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written August 20, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This book is what the title suggests – the story of the birds who came to Amy Tan’s backyard, since 2016, when she took a class on nature journaling and started paying attention.

The nature journaling class was also about sketching birds – saying you notice better when you draw the birds. The audiobook is supposed to have an accompanying pdf, but I wasn’t sure how to access it, so I’ve put a hold on the book to glance through the pictures she drew.

And this book is excerpts from her nature journal, telling about her visitors, as she got to know them. Mind you, Amy Tan has a bird-friendly garden and a green roof on a home overlooking the San Francisco Bay. And she has multiple feeders out for different kinds of birds – in fact, some of the fun in these chronicles is her quest for feeders that are squirrel proof and scrub jay proof.

The book was a little repetitive in spots, I think because it was a journal. Occasionally she’d refer back to something that had happened before as if we hadn’t just heard about that in the earlier part of the journal. But that didn’t really detract from the meditative writing, all about noticing her visitors.

I listened to almost all of this book while obsessively doing a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and it was soothing and comforting, making me feel like I was observing nature while I was actually doing a puzzle and thinking about nature.

I am lucky – I live in a second-floor condo. My downstairs neighbor puts out and fills a bird feeder, so I can sit out on my balcony and be on the level of the birds lining up for the feeder. Although the book didn’t convince me to try sketching the birds, it did make me want to notice a little better, pay attention, and enjoy the visitors here.

So – this is a book about bird-watching. In the author’s backyard. In the hands of a skilled author, that turns out to be a delightful and interesting topic.

amytan.net

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Review of Somehow, by Anne Lamott

Musings, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Somehow

Thoughts on Love

by Anne Lamott

Riverhead Books, 2024. 194 pages.
Review written August 27, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Yes, when Anne Lamott brings out a new book, I need to read it. They are a little bit about faith, a lot about life, and always inspiring and encouraging.

Anne Lamott has a quirky perspective, and she knows how to bring the reader along with her, so we look at things a different way. She’s also self-deprecating and never makes you feel bad for being spiteful, angry, or whiny, because she tells hilarious stories of when she was all those things, too, and really, who wouldn’t be?

Anne Lamott writes about the human condition and helps us realize how much we have in common and that we’re all in this together.

I didn’t mark quotations in this one. There are lots of great paragraphs, but they’re generally all from a longer story and the power of her words is in the path she leads you down to get you there.

So I think for this review, I’m going to give you the first and last paragraph, to give you the flavor. Here’s how the book begins:

My husband said something a few years ago that I often quote: Eighty percent of everything that is true and beautiful can be experienced on any ten-minute walk. Even in the darkest and most devastating times, love is nearby if you know what to look for. It does not always appear at first to be lovely but instead may take the form of a hot mess or a snoring old dog or someone you have sworn to never, ever forgive (for a possibly very good reason, if you ask me). But mixed in will also be familiar signs of love: wings, good-hearted people, cats (when they are in the right mood), a spray of wildflowers, a cup of tea.

And here’s the last paragraph:

I’ll tell you what Blake actually wrote more than two hundred years ago: “And we are put on earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” If the younger ones in our lives can remember only this one idea, that they are here, briefly, a little space to love and to have been loved, then they will have all they need, because love is all they need, rain or shine – love, cough drops, and one another. Good old love, elusive and steadfast, fragile and unbreakable, and always there for the asking; always, somehow.

In between you’ve got the wonderful musings of Anne Lamott. I read a chapter each day and they always leave me feeling uplifted and more hopeful. If you haven’t read an Anne Lamott book yet, it’s time to dive in!

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Review of Making It So, by Patrick Stewart, read by the Author

Audiobooks, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Making It So

by Patrick Stewart
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. 18 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written August 16, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have no idea what took me so long to get this audiobook listened to, except maybe that since it came out in October 2023 when I was busy reading for the Morris Award, I may not have put it on hold, and then forgot when that reading was done. Anyway, I finally made up for lost time – and what a treat!

Understand that I’m a big Star Trek: Next Generation fan. My then-husband and I watched the show avidly, beginning some time in the third season, I believe. And on one of our car trips from Illinois to Phoenix, Arizona, for Christmas in the early 1990s, we listened to an audiobook on cassettes of Patrick Stewart reading Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. That was in the days before I even listened to audiobooks, but that one had my rapt attention.

So when I learned that he’d written an audiobook and reads it himself, you better believe I wanted to listen to it! 19 hours of listening to Patrick Stewart’s voice? Yes, please!

So it was fun to learn that the accent I know and love is not the one he was born with. He grew up very poor in Yorkshire, and learned the “BBC” accent in theater school. Everything about his childhood was fascinating. He had an abusive father, yet both his parents supported him going to theater school, and he got a scholarship from the local community to attend. He blames Margaret Thatcher for the fact that such scholarships aren’t available to young aspiring actors today.

Of course, my favorite parts were him talking about acting on Star Trek: Next Generation. He barely knew what Star Trek was when he was suggested for the part, though his kids had avidly watched the original series and were duly impressed.

My least favorite parts were learning about him cheating on his first two wives, and I was prepared to be judgmental when I learned his third wife is younger than his son. But then I thought – wait a second, someone my age or younger is married to Patrick Stewart? Okay, I can believe that she’s in love with him. And why would he mind marrying a much younger woman? He kept mentioning her throughout the book, and is clearly happy and in love and still happily working in theater, always striving to accomplish more – and I can only be happy for him.

He’s lived – and is still living – a rich, full, and interesting life. It was a delight to get a window into all that he’s experienced.

The audiobook ended with an excerpt from A Christmas Carol. Made me want to listen to that audiobook all over again.

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Review of Hunting Magic Eels, by Richard Beck

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Hunting Magic Eels

Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age

by Richard Beck

Broadleaf Books, 2021. 237 pages.
Review written August 21, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I picked up this book at exactly the right time. I’d just finished a book I was reading during my daily devotional time and was looking for one to bring on a retreat I was attending in North Carolina with Lorna Byrne. Lorna Byrne is the author of Angels in my Hair and has all her life been able to see and talk with angels. My natural tendency is to bring skepticism to her teachings – and this book helped me get out of my head and listen with my heart to her words.

Here’s a section from the Introduction where the author explains the magic eels of the title:

Llanddwyn Island was a famous site of pilgrimage because of its holy well. Inhabiting the well were enchanted eels that could predict your romantic future. According to the legend, if the eels disturbed a token thrown into the well, your lover would be faithful for life. Not surprisingly, the church became very wealthy due to all the pilgrimages. Who needs premarital counseling when you’ve got magic eels?

Today, there is no longer a well there with magic eels. And we hear the story with skepticism and condescension.

Five hundred years ago, life was enchanted. God existed, and the devil was real. The world teemed with angels and demons. There were magical creatures and dark, occult forces. It was a world of holy wells and magic eels.

But with the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world – in the West, at least – has grown increasingly disenchanted. We live in a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don’t believe in God anymore, to say nothing about believing in the devil or angels. We don’t expect miracles. We know that stage magicians aren’t sorcerers, that there’s a rational explanation behind their “tricks” and “illusions.” The world of St. Dwynwen is viewed as quirky and quaint but also naive and superstitious. We’ve grown up and left those fairy tales behind.

This is the topic of the book. Recovering enchantment with our faith. Getting it centralized not so much in our heads as in our hearts. Experiencing and encountering God, rather than just knowing about God.

And yes, there’s a section at the end about discerning the spirits – because not everything “spiritual” is of God. But overall, the book is about paying attention and being willing to have some enchantment with your faith.

The final page sums up much of where this book takes you:

And so, dear reader, this is my final encouragement: Love like the sunshine and the rain. Ask forgiveness of the birds. Be a drop more gracious, tender, and kind. Go gently in this mean world. Offer up prayers of Thanks, Help, and Wow. Recover your sacramental wonder. Count your blessings. Look to the horizon in the Valley of Dry Bones. Remember that you are a child of God. Rush to kiss the lepers. Listen to the voice in the night calling you to the cross. Turn yur attention to the God dancing right in front of you. God is everywhere present, breathing on this world and turning it to fire. Where you stand is the gateway to heaven. The world is shining like transfiguration. Even the eels.

It only takes a little willingness to see.

If you’re a Christian whose life seems lacking in enchantment lately, or even if, like me, you want encouragement to believe in mystical things like angels or miracles, to get your faith more in your heart than in your head – this book will encourage you along that path.

And I’m choosing to believe that my timing in reading this book wasn’t a coincidence, but was from God.

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