The Jesus I Never Knew (by Philip Yancey)

(Amazon UK link)

I have very much appreciated Philip Yancey’s books over the past fifteen years or so, and have most of them on our shelves. He is an American Christian journalist, who grew up in a fundamentalist environment but realised, as a teen, how unpleasant some of the teaching and practices were. He came to a new, relationship-based faith and in his writing explores many issues that believers struggle with. I’ve started re-reading Yancey’s books, some of which I have not picked up for a long time.

In ‘The Jesus I never knew’, which I last read in 2007, he decides to look at Jesus from the perspective of the first century, reading the Gospels as if for the first time, looking at different translations, and also different movie portrayals to try to build up a realistic picture of who it is that we follow, rather than the inaccurate images so often portrayed by the media, and even, for several centuries, by many Christian artists.

The first section of the book looks at the Jesus the author thought he knew, and then goes back to the Jewish background and roots, and the environment where Jesus grew up. We don’t know a great deal about his childhood from the Bible, other than one important incident when he was twelve; but from other historic documents a reasonable picture of the life of a carpenter can be built up. The author looks at the start of Jesus’ ministry, too, when he was thirty years old, including the temptations in the desert and what they would have meant.

The middle section examines the question of why Jesus came to earth at all. He points to the Beatitudes, how Jesus turned upside-down many of the precepts and sayings that the people of his time would have expected, and shows us just how offensive the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ would have been to his audience. We who have grown up hearing and reading the Scriptures cannot comprehend what much of his message would have meant to those around him.

The Crucifixion and Resurrection are covered in some depth, following discussion of Jesus’ miracles and what they would have meant. Inevitably some of what he writes is his own ideas and opinions, but even though I had read this before, I found much to think about, and gained some different insights about Jesus’ life and ministry.

The last section begins with the Ascension, when Jesus returned to heaven, and what he left behind. Looked at in the light of the rest of the book, there is, again, much to ponder. I don’t know that I will keep all this in mind, but may well refer to it again when discussing this topic. The style is straightforward, referencing other writers (such as CS Lewis) from time to time, and very readable.

The book is meant for Christians, or for those interested in finding out who Jesus was and is. A measure of faith is important; the author assumes the existence of God and the veracity of the Gospel accounts, while acknowledging that they were written by human observers and writers, who inevitably used their own perspectives on recent events.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's Book Reviews

A Swiftly Tilting Planet (by Madeleine L'Engle)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m enjoying re-reading favourite books by authors I’ve enjoyed, interspersed with some new ones. So I delved into my Madeleine L’Engle collection, and in the past year I have re-read both her best-known classic for older children, ‘A Wrinkle in Time’, and its sequel, ‘A Wind in the Door.’.

I’ve just finished the third in the author’s Time Quintet, ‘A Swiftly Tilting Planet’. I would like to say I have re-read it, but after the first few chapters I realised that I have absolutely no recollection of ever having read it before. This makes sense, when I think about it: the novel wasn’t published until 1978, by which time I was eighteen, and had little time for reading fiction. 

We acquired our paperback edition of this book in the late 1990s when my sons were young teenagers. Either they read this or my husband read it to them, but I never read it myself.

Until now. I emerged from the story feeling quite elated, although also a tad confused. Elated because it’s a powerful story, blending history, mythology and Christian faith, with an awareness of evil in the world that is very topical. Naturally there’s a positive ending - this series was written for older children and younger teens - but there’s an exciting path along the way.

At the same time I was somewhat confused because there are a lot of characters, many of them with similar names, in several different time periods. This is deliberate: Charles Wallace, the fifteen-year-old hero of this book, has to travel through time (on the back of a unicorn) in order to make minor adjustments to history in order to ensure that a crazy dictator doesn’t start World War III.

The way it’s written is very clever. Charles’ older sister Meg, now married and expecting her first baby, is able to ‘kythe’ with him to keep him on track, and to know where and when he is at every point. Charles is under attack; the ‘echthroi’ - the enemies of humanity - don’t want him to change anything, and he’s armed only with a poem - a ‘rune’, as they call it - calling heaven’s powers to himself, in a paraphrase of part of the famous St Patrick’s Breastplate prayer. Each chapter title then focuses on a separate part of the rune, as Charles learns more about his task.

Perhaps if I’d read more slowly, or kept notes of the time periods and specific names, it would all have been clearer. Perhaps, if I’d known a bit more about American history, it would have made more sense. As it was, I got the general idea, and enjoyed each brief scenario in itself, but entirely lost track of several threads and missed the eventual significance of how Charles actually succeeds in his mission.

It doesn’t matter; a deeper theme of the book, which struck me powerfully, was that of waiting for ‘the wind’ to guide, rather than trying to work out what to do based on reason and logic. I liked the way Charles Wallace - and the unicorn Gaudior, his angelic guide and transport - was given the freedom to follow his own reason, even against advice, and gradually had to learn to listen and trust that he would be led in the right path.

Some have complained that there’s too much of Christianity in these books; some complain the Christian parts are too pagan or ‘liberal’. I found the blend exactly right; this is science fiction at its best, in my opinion, with an underlying Christian worldview and a message of good triumphing over evil. It can be read at several different levels, by children, teens or adults, and provides a great deal to think about.

Highly recommended. It stands alone, but is probably best to read after the preceding two books in the series.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's Book Reviews

Daily devotions (by Brad Haven)

(Amazon UK link)

Before I travelled to the UK in the Spring, I downloaded this free ‘devotional’ ebook for my Kindle. I had never heard of the author, Brad Haven, and can't find anything about him online. But it was on offer, free, and claimed to be a different way of studying the Bible over the course of a few months.

‘Daily devotions’ is subtitled, ‘walking daily in the New Testament and Proverbs’. The introduction explains that there are 89 chapters in the Gospels, and that by reading one chapter per day, plus two chapters from other New Testament books in order, one can complete reading the entire New Testament in under three months. The author decided to add a ‘twist’, a section of the book of Proverbs, divided into 89 short sections, so that one of those is read each day.

The first few pages are quite interesting, outlining the system, the reasons behind it, and even some historical background. This is apparently known as the Rule of Optima in some monastic orders. The author briefly explains how it works, and also some excellent reasons for making a daily habit of reading the Bible. He also insists that one should not give up or feel like a failure if a day or two get missed.

I then discovered that this, plus the Biblical text, is all there is to the book: there are no extra ‘thoughts’ or commentary. The author has done nothing, after the introduction, but compile together the system for reading the New Testament and Proverbs in this way. That’s not to say that it’s a bad thing: it is a very convenient way to read them, as everything is laid out, a day at a time, with the sections intended for reading. So I didn’t have to find different places in a Bible, either on my Kindle or a print version, in order to read the different sections in this way.

The idea is a good one, albeit not original. I was a little surprised to find, towards the end, that sometimes there was only one extra New Testament chapter attached to a Gospel chapter, rather than two. However a little research explained this: there are 260 chapters in all, in the New Testament; subtracting the 89 which are part of one of the gospels leaves only 171: not quite sufficient to enable two per day.

I wasn’t all that impressed with the particular Bible translation used. I’m not sure which one it is, and didn’t recognise it, but in places found it quite convoluted in its use of language. It didn't have the beauty of some of the older versions, nor the clarity of some more modern ones. Perhaps this was for copyright reasons; it wasn’t a problem as I had read all these passages before, many times. But for someone reading them for the first time, it could make it sound rather complex, even the Gospels which were originally written in quite straightforward Greek.

However, as a constructive way of reading set sections of the Bible while travelling - and it took me over six months to finish, interspersed with other things, and sometimes only reading half of the day’s assigned passages - I would rate the idea, and the layout quite highly.

For anyone interested in this way of reading the New Testament, it's certainly worth downloading if it’s still offered at no cost. Only available on Kindle, as far as I know.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's Book Reviews

The Herb of Grace (by Elizabeth Goudge)

(Amazon UK link)

After reading Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘The Bird in the Tree’ recently, it was time to enjoy its sequel again. This is a book I first read in my late teens, with no idea that there was a previous book, although I was aware of an untold backstory running through it. I loved the book then, and have enjoyed it more, probably, each time I have re-read it.

‘The Herb of Grace’ is the name of an inn not too far from Damerosehay, the old house belonging to the elderly Lucilla. Lucilla might be frail in body, but her will is as strong as ever, and her instinct tells her that her son George is not happy in London. George’s wife Nadine, whose thwarted love affair is sensitively covered in ‘A Bird in the Tree’, likes her smart and convenient London place, and has no thought of ever moving into the countryside. But the Herb of Grace is for sale, and Lucilla makes her plans.

Meanwhile George and Nadine’s five children - including the imaginative five-year-old twins Jerry and José - have met and befriended a young woman called Sally Adair, who lives with her talented artist father John. Sally has also met David, George’s nephew, and her father happens to have met Nadine on a train. Their stories are told separately, gently introducing people and situations, until - by John Adair’s determination - they find themselves in in the same place.

There’s another story involving the mysterious barge-travelling odd-job people Malony and Annie-Laurie, whose story gradually unfolds in the warmth of the family home. There are a lot of people in the book, who are much easier to understand if read as sequel to ‘A Bird in the Tree’. This novel certainly stands alone, but minor characters - Lucilla’s daughter Margaret and son Hilary - could be seen as almost irrelevant without knowing the background.

I vaguely remembered the storylines, in particular something dramatic and of great historical interest that is discovered by accident by the twins, but I had forgotten about many of the interactions between people, and the way each character develops imperceptibly, finding healing and wholeness in the welcoming atmosphere of the inn.

Elizabeth Goudge’s writing is full of poetic description, something I have often skimmed or even skipped in the past, but I made sure to slow down and savour her words, as she tells us about the countryside, the views, and the immense charm of the Herb of Grace. I almost felt myself there, and delayed reading the last chapter so that I could be part of this engaging community of people for a little while longer.

Definitely recommended. Widely available second-hand.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's Book Reviews