David Hansen InterVarsity Press, 168 pages  I have long believed that bird-watching is training in the practice of prayer. Both bird-watching and prayer have so much in common. In each it is necessary to slow down, listen carefully and pay attention. There are long stretches of time when nothing happens; you simply stand still remaining alert and listening. The bird appears and a few seconds of delight occurs. The moment passes, until it comes again. This is akin to prayer. When I discovered this book, I knew I had found a kindred spirit and a fellow practitioner of prayer. Hansen focuses on prayer that is seamlessly bound with ordinary life, and in particular with long wandering prayer that allows for the necessary attention akin to bird-watching. He is honest about the distractions to prayer. In fact, long wandering prayer allows for those distractions to come and go. There is a deep practical wisdom in Hansen’s guidance. Prayer is a relationship and all relationships take … [Read more...]

Eugene Peterson WaterBrook, 372 pages Few pastors in our time have had as much influence as Eugene Peterson, and from such an unlikely place. Peterson, who recently incurred some rare criticism for his garbled comments about marriage equality, spent 29 years with a small Maryland congregation where he was the founding pastor. Early on, he made a crucial decision to live what he describes as a congruent life, in which his words from the pulpit would match his real life. He wanted to be a human being, as well as faithful pastor. This book, a collection of sermons, displays that congruence. He writes, “The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence – congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it … the congruence of the Word made flesh in Jesus with what is lived in flesh.” The teachings in this collection are arranged in chronological order so one sees the development of Peterson’s theology alongside the … [Read more...]

Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso WJK Press, 40 pages This is a beautifully illustrated retelling of three of Jesus’ parables for young readers as well as their parents and teachers. “Who Counts” creatively lifts up the very act of counting as the woman searches for her lost coin, the shepherd looks for his missing sheep and the father rejoices that he has two sons home again. As with all good stories for young readers, adults will also find joy in this book as children delightfully count along. Remarkably, the authors who are Jewish bring to life these parables that are at the heart of the Christian witness. They do so with a slight twist. In a note to parents and teachers, they argue (gently) that these parables told by a Jewish teacher are not allegories about God, as traditionally understood by Christians. “In our reading, the three stories are connected. The first two set up the third. The main message is about counting, searching for what is missing, and celebrating … [Read more...]

  Frances M. Young Cascade Books, 141 pages One of the most brilliant living theologians – and least known to Americans – is British writer Frances M. Young. For decades she has been writing significant theology that explores how to understand and embrace the cross of Jesus without being locked into narrow atonement categories. In this book she continues that work, going deeply into biblical and patristic sources that pre-date “theories” of the atonement. The result is a construal of the cross that reveals life at the very heart of the instrument of death. Young describes her theological work here as theōria, “a kind of insight or spiritual discernment that comes through imaginative engagement or storytelling, rather than literalizing exegesis; through liturgy and living, rather than legal transaction; through poetry and preaching, rather than rationalistic system.” This method frees her to see the Passover meal as the original way early Christians understood the sacrifice … [Read more...]