Category: Christian

For Such a Time as This

An Emergency Devotional

by Hanna Reichel

William B. Eerdmans, 2025. 192 pages.
Review written October 14, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com.
Starred Review

For Such a Time as This is an opportunity for Christians to think through current events and what our role and response should be. It’s written by a scholar who has studied the Confessing Church who stood against Nazi Germany – and the book draws heavily on their writings. Yes, it was written in response to Trump’s reelection.

At the front, “How to Read This Book” explains the author’s approach:

“We’ve been here before” applies not only to the diagnosis but also to the resources. There is nothing new in the individual lessons or the trajectory as a whole. They present the very foundational assumptions and practices of Christian faith, refracted through the light of this particular situation, illuminated by this particular cloud of witnesses. But maybe, presented in this way, old practices will appear in a new light and offer a renewed promise.

The voices and illustrations are primarily those of Christians in the mid-twentieth century who resisted National Socialist ideology and politics out of their religious convictions. I draw on these voices not because they are canonical figures or flawless moral exemplars, not because they are uniquely authoritative or the most radical and faithful voices out there. They are not.

They are simply what I have to offer to the current moment, based on my biographical background and my scholarly area of expertise – the contribution I can make to the table around which we are gathering. We will need many different sources of wisdom, experience, and insight in this conversation. I hope you bring yours as well.

What I observe from where I stand is only part of the picture. What is called for in one situation might be a disaster in another.

You will even find that some of the lessons stand in tension with one another, sometimes forming complementing pairs, sometimes taking the same idea into a different, or even opposing direction. There are no unequivocal beliefs, incontestable conclusions, or cure-all recipes. I am not asking you to agree with what I say and go apply it. I am inviting you to reflect and ponder, put into perspective and complement.

Resolving all tensions is a hallmark of ideology. Easy answers and clear-cut solutions are what authoritarianism offers. Part of the task upon us today is to resist these lures.

We must build up tolerance for complexity. We must train our capacity to hold things in tension. We must exercise our communal ability for nuance and contestation. Everywhere, discernment will be needed. Only so can we do justice to reality and to one another.

The book that follows is an Introduction and 28 devotionals, each only a few pages. As you can tell from the above, they don’t tell you what to do. They do give you plenty to think about. And you’ll hear from voices of Christians who stood in the past – the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his colleagues.

Here’s how she begins the Introduction:

As a scholar, I have closely studied this nation. It prided itself in its influence in the world, its intellectual leadership, its technological innovation, its economic prowess. But as global orders shifted, its social and political system, built for simpler times, crumbled. Political and economic crises damaged trust in the government. Polarization increased and made coalition building ever less feasible. Widening gaps led to social unrest, economic instability, and even violence in the streets.

The nation was overwhelmed and disoriented. Betrayal by political opponents explained any defeats. Perceived humiliation turned into resentment, feeding a desire to “be great again.” Political rhetoric shifted into ever more belligerent registers as enemies abroad and minorities at home were scapegoated. A muscular strength was projected out of swagger, false claims, and ever more overblown claims to greatness. Special leaders – claiming for themselves special powers – rode waves of public disgruntlement against immigrants, intellectuals, and those visibly “other.” Democratic processes were manipulated, checks and balances hollowed out. Executive overreach became the order of the day.

The nation I am talking about is Germany; the time is roughly a century ago. But maybe my description sounded familiar to you today. Maybe, like me, you find yourself thinking: We have been here before.

She doesn’t apply the wisdom of those who went before blindly. I like the caveat in this paragraph:

I am not arguing that history is repeating itself. Every context is different, and we do well to attend to the complexity of our world today. But noting certain similarities directs us to models we could learn from. Those who had to navigate the breakdown of a democratic order and the rise of a fascist regime in another time and place might have some wisdom to offer us today.

I think of this as a book of resources, a book to provoke thought. There’s a Study Guide at the back with Reflection questions, “Try this” exercises, and “Dig deeper” resources. I didn’t notice the Study Guide until I was halfway through the book – which I decided was excuse enough to read it over again.

This isn’t all about activism. One of the early devotionals is about how to not get too obsessed with current news, to reflect on what spiritual practices ground you and help keep your perspective. But the whole thing gets you thinking and reflecting on what your part can be in all this before God.

This, then, is the task this little book sets for itself. It is meant for regular people who – regardless of our position on this or that policy that a current government may be advancing, and regardless of our vocation and standing in life – feel uneasy about the rising authoritarian tendencies. People who are looking for some insight as to how to live as Christians in such a time as this. The lessons are particularly for those among us who are not necessarily looking to die a hero, but who are concerned about how to keep on living as followers of Christ.

eerdmans.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/for_such_a_time_as_this.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

Subscribe for more reviews and talk about books.

Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?

The Tears of Things

Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage

by Richard Rohr

Convergent Books, 2025. 173 pages.
Review written July 5, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com
Starred Review

Richard Rohr has done it again! His latest book helps me see the prophets with new eyes – and see how the themes speak to us today.

Since prophets are looking at injustice and suffering, of course they’re applicable today, and give Richard Rohr gives us insights for approaching those things. I like the way he points out a pattern of growth in the prophets:

My favorite thing about the prophetic books of the Bible is that they show a whole series of people in evolution of their understanding of God. Like most of us, the prophets started not only with judgmentalism and anger but also with a superiority complex of placing themselves above others. Then, in various ways, that outlook falls apart over the course of their writings. They move from that anger and judgmentalism to a reordered awareness in which they become more like God: more patient like God, more forgiving like God, more loving like God.

I love that he points out that God’s abundant love and compassion is found over and over again in the Old Testament, and yes, even in the prophets.

The title of the book comes from a quotation from Virgil, which he expands on in the first chapter:

Prophets and mystics recognize what most of us do not – that all things have tears and all things deserve tears. They know that grief and sadness are doorways to understanding life in a non-egocentric way. Tears come from both awe and empathy, and they generate even deeper awe and deeper empathy in us. The sympathy that wells up when we weep can be life-changing, too, drawing us out of ourselves and into communion with those around us. This is continuously exemplified in the writings that we have received from the Hebrew prophets.

So the prophets begin by looking at what’s wrong with the world. They don’t flinch from the truth of the world. But Rohr emphasizes that they don’t stop there.

By following the prophets’ full journey from anger to sadness and beyond, we can mature in belief, as they had to do themselves. All the prophets started with anger, or even rage, at all the right things: injustice, oppression, deceit, misuse of money, power, even religion itself. But with only a couple exceptions (Nahum and Obadiah, who remained angry), they did not stop there. They were not just reformers; they were also mystics who were captivated by the wholeness and beauty at the heart of reality at the same time as they were confronting injustice. I hope to make those distinctions clear in this book. We miss the point when we confuse prophets with mere liberal humanists.

That gives you an idea of where the author is going with this book. He claims that for a mature prophet, it’s all about God’s unconditional love – and the journey to get us there presents ideas I’d never considered before.

My church went through this book, using it as a springboard for three meetings of “holy conversations.” We didn’t really study the book, but it got us talking to one another in fascinating ways.

I recently finished going through Richard Rohr’s book The Universal Christ with my small group, and we all agree that his books are not light reading, but they’re full of good things. This book is the same. He is a mystic, and his books are filled with mysticism, and my rational mind can’t always keep up. But I do know that I like the way he gets me looking at the world. And I love his affirmations of God’s love – even though the world is full of tears.

cac.org
convergentbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/tears_of_things.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Worth Fighting For

Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending

by John Pavlovitz

Westminster John Knox Press, 2024. 154 pages.
Review written June 10, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I think of John Pavlovitz as someone who comes across as angry. However, even though this book features a picture of boxing gloves, it’s ultimately a book about making compassion our primary characteristic as Christians. And he indeed makes a strong case that this is worth fighting for.

The sections in this book are short, so it made an easy morning read to read one section. I found myself talking about what I’d read with other Christians, especially this passage:

What we believe about faith and God and the afterlife is not as fixed as we often like to think. It is rather an ever-shifting point in space and time. Very likely, you believe quite differently than you did ten years ago in both subtle and substantial ways, and ten years from now the same will almost certainly be true. In this way I like to think of theology as a place – as the specific location where you are right at this moment.

This is important as you interact with others, because it helps you recognize your limitations and potential. You cannot make someone be where you are. It’s not your job or your right to forcibly pull someone to your faith perspective, to make them see as you see or agree to the givens you’ve established in your mind. Your responsibility is to openly describe the view from where you stand and hope that something in that is helpful or encouraging or challenging to people. I never feel I need to convince someone to believe what I believe, only to let them know where I am and ask them to meet me there in relationship.

I love that perspective, because I hadn’t stopped to think about it, but, yes, my beliefs are quite different than they were ten years ago, in many ways. I think sometimes we feel like we’ve seen the light and been set straight in one particular area – so we want to set everyone else straight, too. But why would someone else have to follow the same path as me? John Pavlovitz comes at faith with a deep respect for each person’s journey with God – even of those who berate him.

Yes, John Pavlovitz often comes across as angry, but that seems to be coming from a place of compassion, for those who try to exclude others from the table.

He doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to be inclusive and welcoming. But compassion is worth fighting for.

Love is still the greatest weapon we have in the face of fear. It is still the antidote to all that afflicts us. No, opposing hatred isn’t hateful. Opposing hatred is how we embody love.

And he’s absolutely right that hatred and exclusion are becoming more and more common in our society. In the chapter “The Future We Want,” he includes a section on “The America Worth Fighting For” and encourages us to help make a future America that stands against white supremacy and defends the vulnerable. He encourages us all to use our own abilities to do what we can to make a better future.

Affirm life, speak truth, defend the vulnerable, call out injustices – and gladly brave the criticisms and the wounds you sustain in doing it, knowing that they are a small price to pay for the nation that could be if you speak – or the one that will be if you do not.

So that gives you an idea of what you’ll find in this book – encouragement to stand up and be more compassionate. Here’s another passage I marked:

Compassion is what defines the community we feel called into.

In this shared desire to care for one another and for this planet, we who are a disparate assembly find an affinity that transcends the other boxes. It is the bigger table we are building, the expansive community we are forming.

And this is the side we choose regardless of the other boxes: the side of empathy and equality and benevolence and diversity. These don’t come with a prerequisite doctrinal statement or political affiliation, nor with any condition regarding race or orientation or pigmentation. No group has a market cornered on such selflessness and decency.

The powerful thread knitting together this new chosen family in these days is humanity that gives a damn about other humanity. This is the place where like-hearted people can all find belonging and live fully and heal wounds and fix broken things.

And this compassionate coalition of those who give a damn is what will save the world.

johnpavlovitz.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/worth_fighting_for.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?

How We Learn to Be Brave

Decisive Moments in Life and Faith

by Mariann Edgar Budde

Avery (Penguin Random House), 2023. 201 pages.
Review written April 7, 2025, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

Mariann Edgar Budde is the Episcopal Bishop of Washington who asked Trump to his face in an inaugural service to have mercy on people. When I was commenting on that, one of my friends asked if I’d read her book – written after she spoke out about Trump’s photo op in front of her church during the Black Lives Matter protests. So I ordered a copy right away.

In the Introduction, she talks about a moment during the BLM protests when she was inspired by the words of Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign.

As he spoke, the weight I had been carrying all week fell off my shoulders, and in that moment, I knew my place in the larger struggle for justice. I heard myself say to God and to the universe, “I want to be among the coalition of the faithful. I want to be among those working for the change we need now.” That’s the decision with which I need to align my life every day. It wasn’t a new thought for me, but I felt it in a new way. It won’t always burn in my heart the way it did that week, but I don’t want to forget it. Like everyone else, I need grace, courage, and perseverance to be true to my decisive moment after the passion fades.

The theme of the book is decisive moments, and how we can make brave choices during decisive moments.

The chapters take us through “Deciding to Go,” “Deciding to Stay,” Deciding to Start,” “Accepting What You Do Not Choose,” “Stepping Up to the Plate,” “The Inevitable Letdown,” and “The Hidden Virtue of Perseverance.” So you see, we get all aspects of bravery beyond any big public decisions, and I like the way it builds to day-to-day work of keeping on. She illustrates the book with her own journey that eventually took her to Washington, D. C.

Some of our decisive moments require action; others, acceptance. Some are dramatic and there for all the world to see; others are internal, known only to the self and to God. Ultimately, what I want to communicate in these pages is that heroic possibilities lie within each of us; that the inexplicable, unmerited experience of God’s power working through us is real; and that we matter in the realization of all that is good and noble and true. We can learn to be brave.

And of course this book is all the more applicable during a second Trump term. May we as Christians rise to the moment.

Here’s how she ends the book:

My prayer is that, by grace, we all will be emboldened to lean into the wisdom, strength, power, and grace that come to us, whenever we find ourselves at a decisive moment. May you and I dare to believe that we are where we are meant to be when that moment comes, doing the work that is ours to do, fully present to our lives. For it is in this work that we learn to be brave.

mariannbudde.com
penguinrandomhouse.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/how_we_learn_to_be_brave.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Strength for My Path

52 Devotions from the Hiking Trail

by Maureen E. Wise

BroadStreet, 2024. 176 pages.
Review written March 24, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

Full disclosure: Maureen Wise introduced herself to me online after finding my Sondermusings Substack and Sonderjourneys blog, saying we seem to have a lot of views in common. I love finding kindred spirits online! Then she offered to introduce me to her agent – and her agent enthusiastically read the full manuscript of my Psalms book and told me she enjoyed reading it but couldn’t represent me because it was too similar to a book by one of her existing clients, and it wouldn’t be fair to her. But anyway, I’m always interested in books by kindred spirits – so I’d already ordered myself a copy of this book, and yes, was predisposed to like it. But liking it is not at all a stretch.

It’s a book of devotions – so it’s an encouraging way to start your morning – and they all relate to hiking in some way. For example, “The Washed-Out Path” is about how Jesus is with us when our life feels in need of repair. “An Unexpected Storm on the Trail” encourages you to think about God’s perspective when your plans go awry. “What God Sees in Canal Paths” talks about how old abandoned canal paths have been turned into hiking trails – and God recognizes that we are valuable and worthy of care and protection. “Not Only the Destination But Also the Journey” has a rather obvious life application beyond enjoying your hike not just for the panoramic vista at the end.

Every devotion takes up two small pages, followed by a page with a prayer and a “Nature Connection” – Background facts about the topic of the day – and super interesting wide-ranging tidbits are included here.

I have to also give a shout-out to the book’s design. It’s got a soft and flexible suede-like cover, a ribbon bookmark attached, and a small trim size that makes you want to tuck it in a backpack and bring it on a hiking journey. I am a hiking dabbler – I love hiking, but prefer day trips so short that I can carry everything I need in my pockets. I do look for short hikes when I go on vacation, and this book got me wanting to hit the trail.

And of course the highlight is the devotions. I enjoyed this daily reminder to connect with nature – and to connect what I see in nature with God. To give you a taste, here’s a bit from the first devotion, “Jesus Valued Time in Nature”:

Follow Jesus’ lead and pray in wild places too. We don’t have to meet God only in set-aside places such as churches, Bible study meetings, Sunday school, and prayer rooms. While these places and times are sacred and important, we can connect with God anywhere. He is everywhere, after all. By intentionally choosing outdoor spaces to pray and be with God, we can also connect with creation and reflect on faith topics in a different way. Away from distractions and our human-made structures, immersed in the beauty of creation, we can find a deeper intimacy with the Creator.

And this book made me want to go out and do just that.

maureenwisebooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/strength_for_my_path.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?

Field Notes for the Wilderness

Practices for an Evolving Faith

by Sarah Bessey

Convergent Books, 2024. 235 pages.
Review written February 11, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

Field Notes for the Wilderness is for people whose faith is evolving. Perhaps you’ve grown up, like me, with certainty – faithful church attendance in evangelical churches, memorizing Scripture, singing in the choir, attending small group Bible studies. But something disrupts what you always knew as true.

[For me, it was a long process. I thought I could still attend my same church when I came to believe that the Bible teaches God will save everyone. Then I started believing that maybe LGBTQ people aren’t sinning… and my daughter came out as transgender (I’m still so very glad it was in that order). It wasn’t until my church decided to officially change their constitution to declare that LGBTQ people were sinning (so they could keep from renting out their new building for gay marriages, I think) – and the extreme lack of openness to discussion about it – that I finally realized I should look for a different church. And I was blessed that the first church I tried ended up being affirming, had a fabulous choir to join, and ended up being far more open to my theological ideas. But not everyone’s story progresses so happily.]

Here’s a section from the Introduction about why Sarah Bessey prefers the term “evolving faith” to “deconstruction”:

To me, an evolving faith is never simply about “deconstruction.” It has proven to be about the questions, the curiosity, and the ongoing reckoning of a robust, honest faith. An evolving faith brings the new ideas and ancient paths together. It’s about rebuilding and reimagining a faith that works not only for ourselves but for the whole messy, wide, beautiful world. For me, this has proven to be deeply centered in the Good News of Jesus. An evolving faith is sacramental, ecumenical, embodied, generous, spirit-filled, truthful, and rooted in the unconditional, never-ending love of God. It isn’t a linear experience of one and done and dusted. An evolving faith is a resilient and stubborn form of faithfulness that is well acquainted with the presence of God in our loneliest places and deepest questions. And an evolving faith has room for all the paths you may navigate after our time together in these pages.

Anyone who gets to the end of their life with the exact same beliefs and opinions they had at the beginning is doing it wrong. Because if we don’t change and evolve over our lifetime, then I have to wonder if we’re paying attention to the invitation of the Holy Spirit that is your life. Lisa Sharon Harper says that pilgrimage is about transformation. An evolving faith is a form of pilgrimage, and so yes, you are being transformed.

So you don’t have to be going through a crisis to enjoy this book, but if you are, I think it may help. The chapters are, essentially, about living a life of faith and walking on when things don’t necessarily go as planned. I haven’t particularly felt like I’m going through the Wilderness lately – and I still resonated with this book, marking more than a dozen passages for future Sonderquotes posts.

She talks about the “wilderness” as a place away from certainty and rules and only one way to do things. But being in that place helped her walk with Jesus, who promises rest for the weary.

The God I met in the wilderness reawakened me, recovered me, restored me to the Gospel of Love. This is the Gospel as I learned it at the feet of Jesus, hanging on to the hem of his humble garment. The width, length, height, and depth of God’s love is not fearful or restrictive or small or dull. It is a wide-open, sharp love that sets us free. It is a love that never steals, kills, or destroys us – it came that we might have life, and life that is more abundant. It is this love that brings us rest, that lifts burdens, that restores souls, that opens hearts, and changes lives.

And here’s why she calls the book a “Field Guide”:

This isn’t much of a rule book – rules rarely belong in the wilderness – but more of a field guide, a companion of sorts. Even theologically, I won’t have a lot of answers here for you; there are many good guides on the particulars of what you’re grappling with – from how church should or shouldn’t look to how to raise your kids, from rearranging your thoughts on sex to finding a new path for faith. I encourage you to honor your search for specifics; what I’m offering you is mostly companionship, the hope to help you adapt and survive in your journey even if it differs from my own.

If any of this sounds good to you, I recommend giving this book a try. I read it over a couple of weeks, and each time I dipped into it, I came away encouraged and uplifted in my own journey. Because fundamentally she communicates a belief that God is good, and God loves you and is walking with you.

sarahbessey.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/field_notes_for_the_wilderness.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

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.

What did you think of this book?