Read This Book

Ok, I've crossed a threshold in numbers of people to whom i want to recommend this book, so i'm just going to post it here. If you have any experience trying to navigate the strange netherworld between "evangelical" and "liturgical" and find yourself increasingly critical of the former, but not quite ready to abandon it altogether, please consider that i have looked you in the eye, and said, "Listen, friend, you must read this book."

I here publicly confess (but not so publicly as a review on Amazon) that i do not think it is a great work of literature. But the author does not set out to write such a thing. He set out to write a book about St. Francis. He decided that what was needed in the ocean of books about St. Francis would be best told as a (fictional) personal narrative. Cron's research and viewpoint is presented through an American Evangelical who faces a crisis of faith in the American Evangelical Way and discovers the unexpected relevance of St. Francis' Way to his Western life. In that, i think he succeeds. He gave me lots of things to think about, anyway.

And i hope that whoever found my copy on the Super 80 jet that flew me to Dallas is transformed by it!

P.S. I don't really recommend reading the reviews on the Amazon page. They're pretty cliche'd "Wow this is great. Look at me summarize the story for you" reviews, and are likely to put a funny taste in your mouth, since part of the whole ISSUE is our Jump-on-the-Relevant-Trendy-Bandwagon tendency.

So maybe you shouldn't read this book. Or, at least, i shouldn't be telling you what you should do :)