Not Afraid of the Antichrist, by Michael L. Brown and Craig S. Keener

When I was in college at a large Baptist university, I served for a year as a youth pastor at a tiny Southern Baptist church in a tiny town a short drive from campus.  When I started, the pastor sat me down and said, We are a pre-millennial church.  He wanted to know where I stood.  I replied, with my 20-year-old attitude, "I'm a pan-millennailst; I believe it's all going to pan out in the end."  A philosophy degree, an M.Div., and 30 years later, I have to say I might still answer the same way.

Micheal L. Brown and Craig S. Keener, on the other hand, have put a whole lot more thought and study into to answering the question.  They make a couple of things clear about their mission in this book.  First of all, they vehemently disagree with pre-millennial dispensationalism, and the accompanying anxiety about the antichrist and the tribulation.  Second, they absolutely affirm that they recognize that good, faithful Christians may disagree on this subject and do not intend any spiritual superiority.

They challenge the pre-trib position with a blatant statement: show me a scriptural justification for it, and we will show you the context of the passage and explain why, when viewed in context, no scripture upholds a pre-trib theology.  The good news is that even while covering a large amount of scripture and complex theological questions, the authors maintain a readable, accessible tone.

The bottom line here is very convincing.  I could, with a bit of confidence, challenge my old pastor (lovingly and respectfully, of course) with a bit of discussion.  I still don't understand why churches break fellowship with one another over this issue.  I still believe it will all pan out in the end.  We may or may not personally experience persecution and tribulation, but we know that at every stage of church history, many Christians have.  Brown and Keener write, "the martyrs of the past are not calling out from their graves and urging us to be cautious and fearful.  Instead, they are urging us to stand strong, to be of good courage, and to speak the truth boldly and without compromise."

I like Brown and Keener's conclusion: "Scripture announces one glorious future coming that is our hope, when the kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ."  Maranatha.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Suffering Is Never for Nothing, by Elisabeth Elliot

Jennifer Lyell has done readers a great service.  She has taken a collection of CDs, recordings of Elisabeth Elliot speaking at conference, edited the talks, and published the content as a book.  As anyone who knows of Elliot or has read her prior work knows, anything she writes is worth reading.  This is no less true of this posthumous book, Suffering Is Never for Nothing.

Elliot is no stranger to suffering.  She lost her first husband, Jim Elliot, when he was murdered along with several other missionaries by members of a tribe they were trying to evangelize.  She lost her second husband to cancer.  But throughout her life, her writing and public ministry demonstrated a faithfulness and joy that could rejoice in suffering. 

She defines suffering like this: "Suffering is having what you don't want or wanting what you don't have."  It sounds almost too simple.  But either way, she writes that "there are a good many things in this life that really can't do anything about, but that God wants us to do something with."  She continues, "The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering."

We can start by living life with gratitude.  Elliot has lived her life with gratitude, and looked toward her own transfiguration.  God works in us redemptively to shape us into his image.  "God calls us to stand alongside Him, to offer our sufferings to Him for His transfiguration and to fill up in our poor human flesh."  Amen, sister. 


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Buried Deep, by T.R. Ragan

I don't know about the real Sacramento, but the Sacramento of T.R. Ragan's world has more than its share of unsavory characters.  Buried Deep is the fourth book in Ragan's Jessie Cole series.   In each book, private investigator Jessie Cole manages to uncover the seamier side of Sacramento.  Buried Deep is no different.

All the characters from the prior novels are back for Buried Deep.  Jessie Cole is still searching for missing persons, while Ben Morrison is still working as a crime reporter and dealing with his missing past.  A lawyer from another state approaches Jessie about finding a woman who ran away from home as a teen but who he thinks might be living in Sacramento under an assumed name.  Her grandmother has died and left her a large inheritance, but no one in the family has heard from her in years.  Unfortunately for her, her husband has made many enemies in his business life, and one of them seeks his revenge by kidnapping the couple and burying them.  Deep.

Jessie juggles this case with a few others, deals with her deepening relationship with her boyfriend, and tries to keep her assistant (Zee, the young lady with multiple personalities) out of trouble.  This is the kind of book that you want to read in one sitting, with cliffhangers and a fast pace.  Unfortunately for me, things like work and sleep kept getting in the way, so I had to put it down from time to time.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, like a gripping crime TV show or movie.  I look forward to more from Ragan and Jessie Cole.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Relentless Forward Progress, by Bryon Powell

My measure for what makes a great running book is whether after I read it, or, better, in the middle of reading it, I'm ready to head out for a run.  Byron Powell's Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons hits that mark.  Runners may know Powell from his web site, https://www.irunfar.com/.  He's been a fixture in the ultrarunning and trail running communities for years.

I have run 11 ultras myself, and have picked up bits and pieces of tips from Powell and others over the years.  Many experienced runners won't find much of anything new in Relentless Forward Progress, but it's useful to me to have this information all together in a handy resource.  Like any book, the information is static, but Powell frequently references his web site, where content is regularly updated.

One of the strengths of RFP is the logistical planning.  If you have only run road races, and/or have only run races of marathon distance or shorter, you have to be aware that trail ultras are a different animal.  What do you bring, what do you wear, how do you deal with the variety of weather and lighting conditions you might encounter, what kind of support do you need to have?  These and other questions are answered (some in more detail than others).  Obviously, learning from your own experience is invaluable, but Powell distills his experiences, as well as many others who contribute short selections, and puts it all together here.

While he offers guidance on eating before and during an ultra race, and presents a variety of training plans for ultras, these two areas are, in my opinion, the most questionable to put in a book like this.  Every runner is so different that no plan can adequately meet the needs of all.  Powell clearly agrees with this sentiment, and presents enough information that most any runner can take the raw material here and develop his or her own successful training plans and race strategies.

It's been a few years since I've completed an ultra, but reading Relentless Forward Progress put a little fire in me to up my weekly mileage and sign up for a run.  Let's hit the trails!

God's Big Plan, by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Theodore Hiebert, illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

Like many people, I have always thought of the Genesis 11 story about the Tower of Babel to be an account of God's punishment for man's pride.  The people said, "Let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. . . ."  God notices the tower and notes that if they can accomplish this, all speaking the same language, "then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  So he "confused their language" and "scattered them from there all over the earth."

Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Theodore Herbert take exception to that interpretation.  In their children's story book, God's Big Plan, they write, "The people who were building Babel had a little plan to stay together.  But God had a bigger plan.  God wanted to fill the world with different languages, different people, and different ways of living."  The story, with illustrations by Katie Yamasaki, has a good message, but is out of synch with the scriptural account.

When they write (in the notes for parents and educators) that "interpreters throughout history have read this story in a way that presents difference as a problem" they set themselves above the consensus of Bible scholars.  That is problematic.  They go further, saying that this interpretation leads to a view that "the world's diversity is God's penalty for sin."

I don't think one necessitates the other.  I think you can affirm diversity as a gift from God and celebrate the many ways we are different, while not butchering and jettisoning a traditional interpretation of a Bible story.  God's Big Plan has a good message marred by faulty biblical scholarship.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Colored, by Èmilie Plateau

Before Rosa Parks, another young lady refused to give up her seat on a bus, was arrested, and helped spur the Montgomery bus boycott.  Her name was largely lost to history, but Èmilie Plateau has done her part to keep her memory alive in Colored: The Unsung Life of Claudette Colvin.

When she was only 15, Claudette got on her regular bus to go home from school.  When she was asked to give up her seat for a white passenger, she refused.  She was arrested, thrown in jail, and charged.  Rosa Parks and other local leaders talked about a bus boycott, but they thought Claudette wasn't an appropriate public face of the boycott: immature and pregnant out of wedlock, they didn't want to invite additional criticism.

When Rosa Parks took her stand on the bus, she was 43, and as anyone who has heard her story knows, she was a saintly community leader, respected by both black and white citizens.  So she became the face of the bus boycott.  Claudette was forgotten.

Colored, simply illustrated and told, clearly reminds us of the deep sickness of segregation in the South.  Even though it was just a generation or two in the past (Claudette and other figures in this story are still living), it seems like another world.  Plateau reminds us of this history, while also pointing out the leading role that Claudette and other women had in the Civil Rights Movement.  Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., and others were certainly inspiring, but while the called for equal rights for blacks, they certainly did not consider equal rights for women.

Plateau does Claudette a great service by telling her story, and does the rest of us a great service by reminding us of these heroes who risked so much to work for equal rights.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Three Felonies a Day, by Harvey Silverglate

Attorney Harvey Silverglate has been in the mix in a variety of high-profile cases.  In Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, I was reminded of the old line from Soviet days: How do we know they're guilty? The secret police never arrests an innocent man.

Silverglate covers example after example of people in business, politics, and other fields who have found themselves on the unwelcome receiving end of federal prosecutors' attentions.  This book was frustrating to read.  In cases which which is was a little bit familiar, I had to face the fact that I have bought the media's superficial reporting.  (E.g., Martha Stewart is clearly guilty of insider trading, and Michael Milken is a crook.  Neither is true.)  But Silverglate descibes the cases of people whose convictions are nebulous and the "crimes" they are accused of are vague or nonexistent.  Federal law enforcement has a bad habit of slapping the "wire fraud" label on any activity they don't like.

And that's the theme of the book.  The feds find some activity they don't like, and they poke around looking for a crime.  Again, like the Soviets used to say, Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime.  Silverglate shows that living clean, following the rules, and having personal integrity is not enough.  If they feds see you doing something they don't like, they will, one way or another, find a way to charge you.

(By the way, this book was published in 2011, so Silverglate, obviously, doesn't address the Trump era.  But I couldn't help thinking of all the Trump associates who have been convicted of one thing or another.  Surely some of them were legitimately guilty of something, but I couldn't help thinking that many of them have been targeted in the manner Silverglate describes.  On the other hand, it's remarkable that Trump himself hasn't been convicted of something, not because he's a criminal but because so many in government want him to go down for something, anything!  Maybe Silverglate will write a new edition. . . .)

Transhumanism and the Image of God, by Jacob Shatzer

Chances are, you haven't given a lot of thought to transhumanism.  Theologian Jacob Shatzer has, and writes about it in Transhumanism and the Image of God: Today's Technology and the Future of Christian Discipleship.  First of all, don't get distracted by the term transhumanism.  By this he simply means the modern technology that moves us toward "a future created by the next stage of evolution (the posthuman), moving beyond what it currently means to be human."  He discusses social media, smart phones, wearable technology, virtual reality, and more arcane subjects like whole mind uploading and artificial intelligence.

The first half or so of the book explores these technological ideas and how we interact with them.  He points out that "humans make tools, but tools also make humans."  Technologies like computers and iPhones are tools, but they have altered the way we live, think, and interact with others, perhaps irreversibly.  The "brain's nonconscious mapping changes and redefines action and the relationship between the agent and the world."  The tools of modern technology "are more powerful [than earlier tools] and therefore create great change in the self-world boundary." 

In the second half of the book, Shatzer explores how our relationship with technology affects our sense of place, our relationships with others, and our self-image.  After a rather technical (but accessible) discussion of the technology, Shatzer comes to a low-tech solution.  We may think we are connected to others via technology, but to truly connect we need to recapture the age-old tradition of sharing meals.  Homemade food, engaging story telling, and strong fellowship keep us connected in ways that social media never can.

Further, he recommends incorporating "practices into our lives that give us space away from and formation in the face of encroaching immersive technology" primarily by practicing a Sabbath rest.  Shatzer tackles technological issues thoughtfully and in such a way that the average American reader won't have much trouble recognizing and relating to the discussion.  His solutions are rather obvious, but welcome and no less important in their application.  The first step to recovering Christian discipleship in a technological age is recognizing how technology shapes us.  Shatzer gets us on the path to do so.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Legislated Rights, by Paul Yowell, et al.

In Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation, an eminent international team of legal scholars have collaborated to make the argument implied by the book's subtitle: that legislatures, not judicial bodies, have "a special role and responsibility . . . in securing human rights in positive law."  By examining the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other similar documents, the authors demonstrate that while the courts play a role in interpreting rights, the legislature has a primary role in establishing human rights in society.

In the American context, for instance, much is made of Supreme Court decisions during the Civil Rights movement.  However, the legislation passed during this period of time had a greater impact on actual changes in racial equality.  (Arguably, the courts perpetuated racial inequality and segregation.)  The Civil Rights era in the US demonstrated that "human rights are most effectively9 secured not by looking to courts to be their guardians, but by the painstaking, everyday work of legislatures seeking to craft laws to promote and protect the full range of rights and freedoms in the Universal Declaration."

Judicial review has a rather revered status as the arbiter of human rights.  While not rejecting the importance of judicial review out of hand, the authors of Legislated Rights present a solid argument for legislatures to promote and protect human rights.

Jesusfreak, by Joe Casey

When you have no idea what to expect, you won't be disappointed.  That describes my experience with Jesusfreak, by Joe Casey and Benjamin Marra.  This graphic novel is a sort of retelling of Jesus' life and ministry.  That said, it has very, very little connection to the historical and scriptural accounts of Jesus' life.

I am a follower of Jesus, and I think he had a sense of humor, so I'm not completely opposed to literary presentations that take liberties with truth.  Thus, I won't go so far as to call Jesusfreak sacrilegious.  But it's neither very entertaining nor particularly inspiring.  They present a Jesus who is more Eastern mystic and kung-fu master than teacher, rabbi, or savior.

I was mildly interested, sometimes wondering if they were stretching for some crude allegories, but mostly I was just perplexed as to why they told the story they way they did.  In case you were wondering, don't buy this to give to the kids in your Sunday school class.  (Don't get me wrong, they in no way present this as a graphic novel version of the gospels.)

Jesus is Lord.  The details of his life and his interactions with the Romans during his life make for some interesting reflections about power and oppression.  Jesusfreak doesn't add to that conversation.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi

John Scalzi writes fun and engaging sci-fi.  Fuzzy Nation fits that bill with a story that has the fun of a Saturday matinee with some thoughtful speculative elements that keep you thinking.  Fuzzy Nation is inspired by H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy books (Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Sapiens, and Fuzzies and Other People).  I'm only vaguely aware of Piper, who died in the 1960s, but I should become more familar; he wrote lots of novels and stories and appears to have been rather trend-setting.

In Fuzzy Nation, Jack Holloway is a mining contractor working on a planet called Zarathustra.  He discovers a vein of a sought-after stone that promises to make him a billionaire.  However, when he encounters intelligent, cat-like bipeds near his home, that future of wealth is threatened.  If a sapient species is discovered on a planet, all mining operations must cease.  Thus, ZaraCorp, the massive mining conglomerate that controls mining on the planet, has a vested interest in proving the Fuzzies are not sentient, or, if they are sentient, exterminating them.

As Jack defends his new friends, he becomes a target as well.  He's a lovable rogue, a selfish loner who becomes a hero with heart.  Fuzzy Nation may be a bit more pulp-fictiony (presumably drawing on Piper's tradition) than some of the harder sci-fi Scalzi has written, but it's great fun to read, and if a book doesn't at least have that going for it, it's got nothing. 

Code Name Lise, by Larry Loftis

Odette Sansom was born and raised in France, but married an Englishman and moved with him to England and had three children together.  When World War 2 was firing up, she was recruited to work as a British spy in occupied France.  Larry Loftis tells her remarkable story in Code Name Lise: The True Story of the Woman Who Became WWII's Most Highly Decorated Spy.

Loftis has done yeoman's work gather source material to present a first-hand account of her experiences.  Odette worked as a courier, transporting supplies and cash to the French Resistance, as well as working with her team to assist other spies entering the country by air or by sea.  Even though she was married, she ended up falling in love with her commanding officer.  After a few years they were captured and held in a Paris prison and later in a concentration camp.

In spite of horrific torture and extreme deprivation, which nearly took Odette's life, she never broke.  She protected the identities and locations of allies who had not been captured and who were able to continue the work of their network.  She was ultimately honored by the Queen, had books and movies made about her, and married her commanding officer.

Despite her protestations that she was just an ordinary woman, Odette was truly a remarkable woman.  Loftis does a nice job of presenting the timeline and events in her life, personalizing it with reconstructed scenes and conversations.  While her story is interesting and inspiring, in a way it lacks a plot and crucial moments that would make this a truly great book.  I was left with only a vague picture of her day-to-day operations before her capture.  The conditions and experiences in prison were more detailed but not as eventful or consequential to the war effort.

I enjoyed the book, and enjoyed this perspective on the war in Europe.  Odette may not have been a battlefield hero, but she was a hero nonetheless.  Thanks to Loftis, her story will be heard by a new generation.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Unholy Trinity, by Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh is a leading conservative commentator and provocateur.  His social media posts make the viral rounds, and his columns appear in The Daily Wire.  In The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left's Attack on Life, Marriage, and Gender, Walsh discusses these hot-button issues and calls on Christians to speak up for conservative Christian values.

The root of the problem is liberalism, which he boils down to self-centeredness.  The original liberal was Satan, and liberals continue to want to make their own way and reject moral norms.  Liberalism has distorted life, marriage, and gender.  Walsh offers a strong, no-holds-barred defense of conservative positions.

On abortion, he makes no compromise.  Life is life, no matter how it was conceived.  The liberal position, that a fetus is a parasitic bunch of cells, reveals the death cult that is liberalism.  He makes an argument I've never heard before, connecting the ubiquity of the birth control pill to the increase in divorce rates.  On one level, that's obvious, as the pill ushered in the sexual revolution.  But he takes it a step further, linking the alteration of women's hormonal makeup to larger changes in attitudes.  Feminist  celebration of reduced birth rates reveals the anti-family agenda of so many liberals. 

Walsh's arguments against so-called euthanasia are powerful as well.  "Death with dignity" is a total misnomer.  Another misnomer is "gay marriage."  There's no such thing, he writes, just as there's no such thing as a square circle.  Calling a gay couple married is a rejection of the very definition of marriage, making it meaningless, and opening the door to calling the union of any combination of people a marriage.

Another compelling discussion was his argument that transgenderism is a rejection of feminism.  The two positions must be at odds with one another, which makes the promotion of transgenderism by feminists particularly odd.  For decades, feminists have been arguing for the destruction of gender categories, but now we see people trying to claim a category into which they were not born.  If feminists argue that there's no such thing as a "female brain" because of equality, how can they argue that a biological male has a female brain?  Arguments become nonsensical.

Walsh has been called homophobic, sexist, and worse.  The crazy thing is that on these topics, his position was, until very recently in our history, mainstream.  I think he still is very mainstream, but most people are fearful of offending anyone today.  Not Walsh.  He calls out liberals and is not afraid to call what they believe evil.  I wish he backed his positions with more research and documentation, but his arguments are certainly strong.

Stop Looking at Your Phone, by Son of Alan

Everyone knows smart phones have impacted the way we live and go about our days.  Son of Alan has a message for you: Stop Looking at Your Phone.  With simple graphics and illustrations, he communicates simple steps you can take to engage with people and the world around you.  Actually, it's one simple step: put the phone away (or maybe just trash it).

He illustrates the many perils to our bodies, social lives, relationships, and health that our phones may cause.  Missing out on meeting new people or enjoying our families, falling down stairs or into a manhole, or falling over a waterfall during a botched selfie are bad enough.  When we're glued to our phones, we might also miss the best part of a concert, or get caught up in filming or posting about something without truly enjoying it.

Funny and sarcastic while giving good reminders to put the phone away, Stop Looking at Your Phone is sure to hit a nerve and make you sheepishly put your phone in your pocket.  That's a good thing.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Warner Boys, by Curt and Ana Warner

Curt Warner made a name for himself as a running back for Penn State and the Seattle Seahawks.  (He should not be confused for Kurt Warner, the quarterback who won a Super Bowl with the Rams.)  Curt Warner and his wife Anna have two children with autism.  In The Warner Boys: Our Family's Story of Autism and Hope they tell their story of the struggles they endured raising their twins. 

Without going into a lot of detail about autism itself, their goal is simply to chronicle their experiences.  As people who know autism can tell you, the range of effects varies widely.  As they say, "If you've met one child with autism, you have met one child with autism."  The Warners's twins behaviors and manifestations will not bring much encouragement to parents whose young children have been recently diagnosed.  But the grace and perseverance with which Curt and Ana have lived their lives as parents certainly gives inspiration.

I would suspect most children with autism are not quite as violent and destructive as the Warner boys were.  Among other things, they would continually kick holes in the walls.  One of them went on a stabbing attack on the sofa (He imagined it was a dragon from a Disney movie.).  Later he burnt down the house.  (He imagined that he was Pinocchio in the whale, and need to start a fire to escape.)  The boys required a high level of vigilance so that they would not hurt themselves or others.

The Warners are nothing if not honest.  What you get here is an honest look.  "This is what our kids did.  This is how we responded.  These are the medical, environmental, and dietary solutions we tried." The book is by no means prescriptive, but descriptive.  The "hope" in the subtitle is the fact that the boys are adults, living independently from Curt and Ana in a group home setting, and seem to have a good relationship with the rest of the family.

I enjoyed meeting the Warners via their book.  They have an important, supportive voice from which other parents of children with autism can learn and be encouraged.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Life is a Marathon, by Matt Fitzgerald

Matt Fitzgerald is that rare individual whose hobby is also his career.  He has built his living around writing about running and competing in triathlons.  For his latest book, Life is a Marathon: A Memoir of Love and Endurance, Fitzgerald puts together a cross-country marathon quest to run eight marathons in eight weeks. 

Interspersed among Fitzgerald's road stories and race reports, he writes about his life, particularly about his marriage.  Through the hardships of his marriage to a woman who struggled with bipolar disorder, he demonstrates this truism: "Because life truly is long and difficult, it demands endurance, fortitude, patience, resilience, and long-suffering.  The marathon develops all these fundamental human coping skills."

Fitzgerald's marathon times aren't quite elite, but he is definitely a front-of-tbe-packer.  However, the rest of middle- and back-of-the-packers can relate to his struggles in training and on race day.  He writes, "if you run marathons, you will fail.  The marathon is no respecter of persons.  It humbles everyone sooner or later--and I mean everyone."  Most of his races attest to this, and if have ever run a marathon you surely agree. 

So why do we do it?  Fitzgerald say he has "become a connoisseur, of sorts, of this unique brand of suffering.  The pain of endurance racing is to me now as wine is to the oenophile."  After a painful race, which he won in three hours flat, he said he "rose smiling, not about the medal but about my scorched esophagus and throbbing calves, welcome signs of a body well tested--an acquired taste, to be sure, but like many acquired tastes, superior to most easy gratifications."

As much inspiration as he provides in the world of running, his endurance as a husband is admirable as well.  His bipolar wife had several episodes of manic violence in which she literally attempted to kill him.  After brief hospitalizations, she would return home for another chance.  It's a miracle they're still together.

Fitzgerald said he wanted to find the magic of the marathon.  I agree with his conclusion, that "in the pain of a marathon we learn who we are, discovering within ourselves both the weaknesses and flaws that hold us back and the strengths and virtues that drive us forward, which are different in each of us."  I enjoyed reading about Fitzgerald's racing and training, and, like any good running book, he inspires me to get out and run and sign up for another marathon!


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Adam, God's Beloved, by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Henri Nouwen, theologian, professor, and priest, is know for his deeply reflective writing.  He manages to inspire while relating to the intense struggles of loneliness and depression.  In his last book, Adam, God's Beloved, these themes come through, but the sense of celebration of life comes through even stronger.

When Nouwen moved to L'Arche, a community of people with intellectual disabilities, he was assigned to assist Adam Arnett.  For two hours each morning, he would help Adam dress, take care of his personal needs, help him to breakfast, and help him get to his day program.  He writes about his time with Adam, who became Nouwen's friend, teacher, and guide.

Adam "offered those he met a presence and a safe space to recognize and accept their own, often invisible disabilities.  He radiated peace from his center. . . . He was simply present, offering himself in peace and completely self-emptied. . . . Adam was a true teacher and a true healer."  He goes on to compare Adam to Jesus in his ministry and vulnerability.

To a certain degree, I understand and appreciate Nouwen's perspective.  I love the fact that he's calling all of us to look to disabled individuals for what they can offer us, and to take time to include even those with profound disabilities in our lives.  You can never emphasize enough that everyone, no matter the extent or nature of their disabilities, is made in the image of God and has a purpose to fulfill.  I have a disabled child who is nonverbal, yet can communicate more with a gesture or body language than many people can with a paragraph.  I also spent several years visiting regularly with a friend who lives with cerebral palsy and could not speak and had very little means of communication, but with whom I formed a bond.

The problem I had with Adam, God's Beloved, is that Nouwen said so little about why he felt this sense of ministry from Adam.  Adam is nonverbal and, in Nouwen's telling, could do very little in the way of response.  In fact, Nouwen's descriptions almost made me thing Adam was in a catatonic state.  "Adam often looked at me and followed him with his eyes, but he did not speak or respond to anything I asked him.  He seemed unaware of all that was happening around him and through him. . . . He seemed to be without concepts, plans, intentions, or aspirations."  Adam's "communication" with Nouwen seemed to consist of totally passive silence.

So was Nouwen looking to Adam as a teacher, counselor, mentor simply a result of Nouwen's  being forced to slow down and be quiet?  As I was reading, I was reminded a bit of Peter Sellers's character in Being There, who either remained silent or offered tidbits of gardening tips, while people around him thought he was a brilliant fount of wisdom.  On another level, I was reminded of people who say their pets are great listeners and provide a sense of calmness and unconditional love.  (Forgive me if that sounds crude, but that's just how I felt.)

I am all in with Nouwen on the dignity of the disabled, and allowing ourselves to learn from and be blessed by them, no matter what their disability is.  But to me, Adam, My Beloved simply didn't make that case.