Three books I would recommend…
1. Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winer. Lauren became a Jesus follower after a childhood in Judaism. She is a funny and intelligent writer.
2. Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton. This book speaks of many disciplines addressed previously on the blog including Sabbath.
3. The Sabbath by Abraham Heschel. Eugene Peterson, who first taught me about Sabbath, considers this the authoritative book at this point. Hopefully he is more accurate with this recommendation than he was in comparing The Shack and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (I enjoyed the Shack, but a classic on the level of Bunyan’s allegory is a mighty stretch).
Two things I would recommend for your reading that are online for free….
First, this blog post is an interview with Eugene Peterson, the man who wrote the paraphrase of the Bible entitled The Message. He is one of the first church leaders that I heard speak on his own commitment to Sabbath-keeping.
Second, this essay on Sabbath-keeping had some insightful comments…taken from the official blog of Asbury Seminary…
Hopefully, these resources will be helpful for you. If you have any other suggestions or comments to make on these, post away!
-Savage
What is the deal with The Shack? My Dad was visiting last January and I took him to our church and a Sunday School teacher there highly recommended this. Dad got online and before the one week trip was over he had a copy of the book on CD or something and was listening to it. He couldn’t get what the big deal was. In the amount of it that I got to listen to I wasn’t exactly blown away either. The part I was listening to is after the kid goes missing and they are searching and the police are helping them. I haven’t heard the thing through beginning to end and I haven’t asked my Dad about it lately to find out what he ultimately thought of it.
Is there something that I missed or that I should have been looking for? Please let me know. Send me an e-mail or something. I’m curious now.
the book is a powerful, emotional story of God’s love for a man experiencing brokenness and pain. In fictional form, it gives a picture of the Trinity that was refreshing. A lot of people felt it was heretical or blurred the line of fiction/non-fiction. The arguments are complex and this is isn’t the best place to explore it. But you could google it or follow reviews via Amazon to get an idea.
That’s cool. I appreciate the quick response. Your description makes it sound sort of like C.S. Lewis’s Shadowlands.
I understand about it not being something we can explore here.