JourneyOnline
SCM Canterbury Press – Rainbow Books 2008
RRP: $34.95
In the mid 90’s Dave Tomlinson wrote his first pivotal book Post-Evangelicalism.
It caused a stir amongst some, while many others identified with his journey from an Apostle in the UK House Church Movement through Holy Joes (a gathering of searchers n a pub each week in London) into mainstream Anglicanism.
Re-enchanting Christianity is his long overdue follow up.
The book claims to be written for people within and beyond the church who would like to discover a re-enchantment withy Christianity.
It cover tough questions in honest yet enticing ways. Questions like Is re-enchantment possible? Can we feel at home in the world? What does resurrection really mean? How do we make sense of prayer? Is God contained by Christianity? What does Christianity mean in an emerging culture? What does it mean to explore and live within the mystery of God?
The book is a self stated reflection from a journey rather than a systematic. It is full of excellent quotes from other journey makers from Jürgen Moltmann to David Tacey, Nick Cave to Walter Brueggemann and Madelein L’Engle to Brian McLaren.
It is eclectic and cannot be put into a box. Yet it offers what he refers to as a “Progressive Orthodoxy” as he notes that “to stay the same we must change”.
Re-enchanting Christianity will not necessarily bring you to conclusions (though it might crystallise thinking in some). It may however translate the reader to some new places where they may well recognise some ancient understandings growing in fresh gardens with new scents and colours.
People who are yearning for some re-enchantment and are tired of the polarising imaginations of modernity and its theologies, could find some rumours of hope in this book.
And in case you have not picked it up – I liked it!
Reviewed by Fuzz Kitto Director of Spirited Consulting and consultant in mission, youth ministry and emerging church.
