Brett Webb-Mitchell Cascade Books, 220 pages. Reviewed by Kenneth E. Kovacs Like Brett Webb-Mitchell, I have long viewed the Christian life as pilgrimage. A Christian is a pilgrim – a wayfarer – on a journey. We are people of the Way. We follow, as Webb-Mitchell says, “Jesus, the Pilgrim God,” walking with him and being transformed in the walking. We are people on the way, leaning into God’s future, moving toward the horizon of God’s advent. It’s said that pilgrimage is belief in action. My beliefs about pilgrimage were put to the test several years ago when I became a peregrino (pilgrim) and walked over 500 miles across Spain on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Since then, the pilgrim life has become even more precious to me, continually informing my life and service as a pastor. Webb-Mitchell’s “Practicing Pilgrimage” is an excellent guide for those wanting to explore the importance of pilgrimage in the Christian tradition. This book won’t tell you what to pack or … [Read more...]

Kate Bowler Random House, 208 pages Reviewed by Rebecca Messman “I have loved you forever. I have loved you forever. Please take care of our son.” Kate Bowler, a scholar only in her mid-30s, poured out this exquisite and excruciating phrase as she dove into her husband’s arms the first time they saw each other after she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. I want to tell you how this book offers the clearest Christian theodicy that I have ever encountered. I want to urge you to read it and share it with your friends before they toss “reasons” to people drowning in pain. I want to share beautiful and brutal quotes from her narrative, one after the other, that highlight the fragility of this life and the stunning urgency of love. And I want to shine her bright light on the temptation of 21st-century Christians to peddle the trinkets of the prosperity gospel that might not always look like toothy megachurch pastors driving Bentleys, but might look like right Protestant … [Read more...]

MaryAnn McKibben Dana Eerdmans, 216 pages Reviewed by Susan Forshey For me, the word “improv” brings back memories of embarrassment in high school drama class, college theater and moments on stage when I forgot my lines. That is, until I read MaryAnn McKibben Dana’s book — a loving reflection on the art of improvisation as a foundation of faith and life. In changing my understanding of improv, she helped me lay aside the memories of poorly taught theater exercises and notice how principles of improvisation are at work every time I get up to teach a class, preach a sermon or lead worship. Improv flows from deep listening and responding to the gifts given by a situation in every moment. A skill that can be cultivated, improv is also something we do without thinking as life offers us the unexpected. Writing from the perspective of pastor and amateur improv performer, McKibben Dana deftly weaves art, personal experience, theological reflection and embodied spiritual practice into … [Read more...]

Walter Brueggemann Westminster John Knox Press, 165 pages Few contemporary scholars are more prolific than Walter Brueggemann. Such profusion often results in boredom for readers who grow weary of familiar themes repackaged with shiny new covers. Gladly, this is not the case for Brueggemann. His students and colleagues continue to gather wisdom from his sermons, essays and comments gathered in collections such as this one. “A Gospel of Hope” is full of readings that the author honestly describes as audacious. In confessing the audaciousness of repeating what one has already said, he points toward the audaciousness of all proclamation that is rooted in the radical claims of the gospel. All preachers and teachers who dare to speak of the hope of God’s presence in troubled times belong to a long line going all the way back to the beginning. Brueggemann is keenly aware of the times we are living in and the necessity for counter-narratives of hope strong enough to shape the people of … [Read more...]