Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Book Review: As Kingfishers Catch Fire

Title:  As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Subtitle:  A Conversation on the Ways of God Formed by the Words of God
Author:  Eugene H. Peterson
Genre:  Christian Devotional
Publisher:  WaterBrook, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC
Number of Pages:  372
My Rating:  4/5

The stunning watercolor cover of a man deep in thought captures so well what is laid out for us in the pages of this unusual devotional book. Eugene Peterson -- professor, theologian, pastor, author -- found himself struggling to bridge "the chasm that had developed between the way (he) was preaching from the pulpit and (his) deepest convictions on what it meant to be a pastor."

And so he compiled this never-before-published collection of some of his sermons (49, to be exact) into seven distinct themes that I can only describe as coming from the mind of an philosopher, the heart of a saint, and the soul of a human. Peterson's style of writing about the meaning of specific scriptures and how it relates to our lives is both insightful and poetic, and because I seem to view much of the Bible and the human experience with a similar lens, I fell in love with this book from page one.

The devotional is divided into these seven sections:

He Spoke and It Came to Be (Preaching in the Company of Moses)
All My Springs Are in You (Preaching in the Company of David)
Prepare the Way of the Lord (Preaching in the Company of Isaiah)
On Earth as It Is in Heaven (Preaching in the Company of Solomon)
Yes and Amen and Jesus (Preaching in the Company of Peter)
Christ in You the Hope of Glory (Preaching in the Company of Paul)
In the Beginning Was the Word (Preaching in the Company of John of Patmos)

Within each section are seven sermon transcripts that Peterson originally preached to his congregation at Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland, over the course of 29 years. The publisher's editorial team, in its Letter to the Reader, lets us know that this compilation is an effort to allow the rest of us to be "a fly on the wall" as we listen to Peterson "unpack the whole counsel of God." What an inspiring and beautiful privilege.



Disclaimer:  I received this book from www.bloggingforbooks.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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