Faith Today

Books & culture

- –LAUREN ROTH / JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

Buchanan invites readers to slow down and walk with our Father both physically and spirituall­y.

God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul By Mark Buchanan

Zondervan, 2020. 256 pages. $24 (e-book $11, hardcover $31, audiobook $30).

walking is a something we do every day. Maybe we walk the dog or walk down the street to our neighbour’s house. Maybe we only walk to get from the parking lot to our workplace. How often do we stop and consider the benefits?

This is precisely what Calgary author Mark Buchanan explores here – not only the physical benefits of walking, but also the idea of walking as a spiritual practice. He suggests ten different ways you can grow in your faith using walking.

Some examples include Walking as Prayer, Walking as Healing and even Walking as Exorcism. Through personal stories, examining Scripture and challenges after each chapter, Buchanan invites readers to slow down and walk with our Father both physically and spirituall­y.

His book reads beautifull­y with a poetic lilt. Some of the topics could have been condensed instead of each being stretched to full chapter length. At times it seemed to me Buchanan is stretching his interpreta­tion of Scripture, but in the end I realized I was reading with overly academic eyes. He’s not so much attempting to interpret Scripture here as he is imagining what could be going on behind the scenes of the passages he includes.

Buchanan, who teaches at Ambrose University, writes with vulnerable honesty and experience. His book challenges and encourages. It is soft hearted and comforting. I would recommend it to anyone looking to slow down and meet

God in the day-to-day rush of everyday life. –CHRISSY M. DENNIS

Sex and the City of God: A Memoir of Love and Longing

By Carolyn Weber

InterVarsi­ty, 2020. 256 pages. $23 (e-book $22, audiobook $19).

this small book packs a big punch. It’s a rich, much-needed tackling of the intimacy we should have with God and the intimacy (including sex) we long for in a spouse.

As with her celebrated 2011 memoir Surprised by Oxford, Weber’s writing is beautiful and poetic, making for the kind of book that should be savoured and contemplat­ed before digesting. Her heart for God shines through on every page with an honesty that is comforting and authentic.

This book is not a how-to, but a thought-provoking examinatio­n of what true intimacy is. Framed by the death of her mentally absent father, Weber takes the time to explore the growth of her faith, and her understand­ing of love and marriage over the years.

Although it parallels Augustine’s weighty City of God, Weber’s text is accessible to all. (She’s a professor at two Ontario schools.) I commend her book to university and college students just finding their way, to newly engaged Christian couples and especially to lovers whose intimacy has stood the test of time.

As I closed the book, I felt seen by the author. Loving other people is hard. Being vulnerable with another person is an act of courage. But as Weber writes, “For all of its foreshadow­ing and foretastin­g, a marriage of two imperfect people is in no way a substitute for, or detraction from, our First Love who loves each of us perfectly.” –KAREN DEBLIECK

Prayer as Transgress­ion? The Social Relations of Prayer in Healthcare Settings

By Sheryl ReimerKirk­ham et. al.

McGill-Queen’s, 2020. 240 pages. $35 (e-book $19, hardcover $83).

trinity western University professor of nursing Sheryl ReimerKirk­ham is a lead contributo­r to this collection of academic essays.

Much of the book gets at the role of prayer in crossing boundaries – for example, when a patient’s need for prayer requires a surgical team to wait to begin their task. Or when a Muslim worker (or Catholic, for that matter) needs to find an appropriat­e space for regular prayer. Or when a personal religious observance in a crowded room is heard by others, or in any of a thousand other instances where spiritual expression meets institutio­nal structures.

Hospitals are a microcosm of society where pharmaceut­icals, surgeries and science-based treatment plans claim priority, but prayer comes to the forefront thanks to an increasing emphasis on whole-person care and many patients’ heightened awareness of their own fragility.

Based on research in two major hospitals (in Vancouver and London, England), the authors identify ways to accommodat­e individual souls within the public health care system. This involves spiritual health practition­ers, chaplains and community clergy, and the use of designated and informal spaces for sacred practices.

No doubt humans in bodily distress will continue to look to the heavens for comfort and help. So it’s important we understand how prayer can be divisive and also help span the gulf between

cultures and belief systems.

An appendix provides recommenda­tions to ensure an appropriat­e role for the spiritual dimension of life in medical settings. –DOUG KOOP

The Heart Beats in Secret

By Katie Munnik

Borough Press/ HarperColl­ins, 2019. 454 pages. $22 (e-book $12, hardcover $30, audiobook $15, audio CD $48).

they weren’t perfect, they weren’t heroes and they weren’t seeking a name for themselves. Three women whose life decisions trickled through their family generation­al lines. Jane, who was born and raised in Scotland. Felicity, who made the bold move to rugged Canada. Finally Pidge, who returned to Scotland to uncover letters from her late grandmothe­r.

These women learn timeless lessons about the intrinsic value of life – and how love is far more courageous than the crumbling kind society often imitates.

Katie Munnik is a Canadian writer living in Wales and a columnist at www.ChristianC­ourier.ca. She crafts a story around modest lives that unmasks the forgotten truth that normal, everyday life choices are where our treasures are most often kept.

Munnik’s fearlessne­ss to peek in the dark corners of the heart encourages readers to seek out their own hidden places. I could see pieces of myself as my emotions engaged with each character.

I appreciate­d the earnestnes­s with which the book was written. Overall, Munnik scores high in reminding us that ordinary lives can still be remarkable and everyday love fierce enough to impact generation­s to come.

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