John Eldredge
Thomas Nelson Books
October 2005
John is currently one of the controversial voices in Christianity. Yet not in the way most are; those on the left and those on the right dislike him equally. If you do a Google search on John Eldredge and Wild at Heart, you will get sites praising him as a new voice for Christianity and for men, and just as many condemning him and his writings as heretical. John is best known for his book Wild at Heart, which has been sweeping through churches across North America and the world. On the community forum on his ministry’s website, http://www.ransomedheart.com/forum/ there are members from around the world.
What is this book about? It is a devotional reader, it has 365 meditations or excerpts from his other writings, The Sacred Romance, Wild At Heart, Waking the Dead, Journey of Desire, Epic and Captivating. This book would be a great primer on John’s thought or as a reminder for a fan who has read his works. It’s like borrowing a book from a friend who has underlined the best passages and you skim those to get the guts of the book. This is “the guts” of his full progression of thought.
You might ask what is the basic idea of his works? I would say that it is three-fold; first that our hearts are good, second that we need to learn to listen to our hearts, and finally we need to be living from our true hearts or our truest self. Waking The Dead begins with a quote “The Glory of God is man fully alive,” Saint Irenaeus. One of the things I like about this book, and all of John’s writings, is that he draws from such varied sources; he loves to quote from movies and use movie illustrations, and he draws from a wide range of Christian sources- the desert fathers, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, Chesterton and many, many more.
This book would be great to get a feel for what the controversy is all about, or to keep beside your bed and randomly open each night for a little reminder that your heart is good and that it matters to God.
(First Published in Imprint 2005-10-14 as 'Small Reminders of Faith')
No comments:
Post a Comment