Book Review of The Soul's Slow Ripening, by Christine Valters Paintner

Review of The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred, by Christine Valters Paintner

Reviewed by Kerry Greenhill
June 8, 2022 

I have not yet been to Ireland, but I have long been enchanted by the imagery of lush green landscapes, and I am drawn to the theological themes and poetry of Celtic Christian prayers and practices. So I came to Christine Valters Paintner’s book, The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred, with an expectation of delight, spiritual resonance, and familiarity. I found all three, but I was also pleasantly surprised by the uniqueness of some of the Celtic practices she describes.

The practices included here are Thresholds, Dreaming, Peregrinatio and Seeking Your Place of Resurrection, Blessing Each Moment, Soul Friendship, Encircling, Walking the Rounds, Learning by Heart, Solitude and Silence, Seasonal Cycles, Landscape as Theophany, and Three Essential Things. Some of these I have learned about, studied, and practiced, in spiritual formation classes or out of personal interest. Others, such as Walking the Rounds, were quite new to me, and fascinating.

I found myself in a hurry to try to take it all in, to learn about everything as quickly as possible. But this is a book to savor, to read slowly and with intention, pausing frequently to reflect, to digest, to engage the practices suggested in each chapter. Paintner has written an introduction to these specific Celtic Christian practices that has the contemplative spirit of invitation and gentle attentiveness one might experience in spiritual direction, or on a retreat. She provides intellectual and historical background, personal experience and anecdotes, and guidance in how to engage the practices in creative and embodied ways.

Paintner also engages each practice through the lens of discernment, “a way of listening to our lives and the world around us and responding to the invitations that call us into deeper alignment with our soul’s deep desires and the desires God has for us” (p. xvii). As someone who seems to be always in discernment about whether I am “on the right path,” or living in the center of God’s desires for my life, I think I will be rereading these chapters over time, to let the poetry and deep spiritual insight wash over me again when I need to be reminded of the grace and beauty of the journey.

I especially recommend The Soul’s Slow Ripening for lovers of Celtic Christianity, practitioners of Christian spiritual formation, contemplatives, people seeking to discern some question or choice in life, and fans of Irish history and culture, but would not hesitate to lend this out to someone with no experience in any of these subjects, who was merely curious or intrigued by the title or cover. Well worth the time to read.

You can find an excerpt from the book here: https://mikemorrell.org/2022/01/the-souls-slow-ripening-christine-valters-paintner/ 

And the book can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Slow-Ripening-Practices-Seeking/dp/1932057102/

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

 

Book Review: Call and Response: Litanies for Congregational Prayer, by Fran Pratt

Call and Response: Litanies for Congregational Prayer, by Fran Pratt (Outpost Press © 2018)

Reviewed by Kerry Greenhill

Fran Pratt’s Call and Response: Litanies for Congregational Prayer is a meaningful addition to any pastor or worship leader’s bookshelf of resources. She brings the passion of a convert to liturgical worship, with energy and fresh, contemporary language to lead a congregation in coming into God’s presence with new awareness.

The introduction (“Or, How Liturgy Saved My Life”) beautifully summarizes the power of written corporate liturgy for spiritual formation and stimulating the prayer lives of individuals and the church as a whole. Pratt’s litanies cover a range of spiritual needs, social issues, and liturgical seasons, from Litanies for Looking Inward, Looking Outward, and Coping, to Church Rituals, Communal Worship, Advent, and Lent.

 Theologically, the liturgies will speak to a wide range of Christian traditions, as many include scripture woven into the prayers. The author offers a mix of God’s transcendence and immanence, and social issues include attention to racism (in the US context), and victims of sexual violence, where Jesus accepting “all genders” is as close as the author comes to affirming LGBTQ+ people.

A minor distraction for me was seeing the vocative “O” (as in, “we pray to you, O God”) rendered as the interjection “Oh.” I can’t tell whether this was an intentional attempt to update seemingly archaic language, or an editorial oversight.

Over all, the content is powerful, authentic, poetic prayer that works for both individual and communal use, and I highly recommend it to anyone planning worship.

+++

Disclaimer: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

Link Love:

Call and Response on Amazon
Fran Pratt’s Website
Fran Pratt on Instagram
Fran Pratt on Facebook
Fran Pratt on Twitter

#CallAndResponse 

Book Review: God and Hamilton

God and Hamilton:
Spiritual Themes from the Life of Alexander Hamilton & the Broadway Musical He Inspired

By Kevin Cloud

Reviewed by Kerry Greenhill

In God and Hamilton, Kevin Cloud has written a thoughtful exploration of twelve spiritual themes found in Alexander Hamilton’s life and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s phenomenal Broadway musical.

Beginning with an enthusiastic appreciation of the musical itself, with consideration of the ways that theater can be a spiritual “thin place” to experience moments of transcendence, Cloud then focuses each chapter on one of his identified themes. He examines the theme as played out in Hamilton’s life and in the musical, and connects it with personal, biblical, historical, and contemporary examples.

This is a thorough, accessible, well-researched and compelling book, worthy of individual reading and group study. There are certainly instances where I felt Cloud left some problematic theological assumptions unexamined, as when he relates a story by another author of an infant’s drowning, without a theological response to the explicit statement that “God could have stopped it.” His chapter on Equality is a good beginning to inviting readers to address contemporary issues of racism and sexism, but could have gone much further. Cloud also engages in imaginative speculation about what Hamilton or other historical figures may have thought or felt in particular situations, which sometimes felt a bit forced to fit his chapter’s themes.

Overall, I enjoyed reading God and Hamilton. It is thoughtful, sincere, rooted in faith without being too preachy, and I would comfortably recommend this book for anyone who loves the musical and is interested in connecting Christian faith to history and daily life.

God and Hamilton on Amazon
God and Hamilton Website
Kevin Cloud on Facebook
Kevin Cloud on Twitter

#GodAndHamilton

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

Book Review: Lessons in Belonging

Lessons in Belonging from a Church-Going Commitment Phobe, by Erin S. Lane

I am less than halfway through this book, and in the midst of a busy Advent season at church with all the typical preparations for Christmas of a family with a young child. I want very much to sit down and spend a couple hours reading more of Erin Lane's story. She writes compellingly of her own spiritual journey, her skittishness about settling down longterm in a place, a community, and yet her half-embarrassed desire to feel a sense of belonging and connection that she can trust.

As someone born on the cusp of Generation X and the Millennial generation, and as a fellow seminary graduate, I resonate with some of what she describes, while other sections are more individually her particular experience or personality. But throughout, I appreciate her theological reflections along the way, and her thoughtfulness about what parts of her own story might be broader, typical of her generation or of humanity in general.

I believe that American society in the 21st century is deeply skeptical of earnestness, intimacy, discipline, and commitment, and the Christian faith offers meaningful resources to consider and respond to the culture around us. I love the idea of the church as "a vehicle of disillusionment" (p. 14), in the best sense - stripping us of the romantic-but-ultimately-unhelpful visions we have of relationships and life in general, helping us to see more clearly and live more truly and deeply.

I recommend Lessons in Belonging for anyone who likes the idea of church, but not the reality; anyone who loves and is invested in the church, who wants to understand younger, less-committed-to-institutions generations a little better; anyone else who identifies with the statement, "I want to belong, but I don't know how."

Erin Lane's website
Lessons in Belonging on Amazon

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

Book Review: Pray Like a Gourmet

Pray Like a Gourmet: Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul, by David Brazzeal
Reviewed by Kerry Greenhill

I am a prayer book junkie. I love books on prayer and spirituality – I love buying them, love reading them, and sometimes I even put them into practice. Sometimes. So while I liked the premise of Pray Like a Gourmet: Creative Ways to Feed Your Soul, I didn’t expect to learn much that was new, or gain insights I hadn’t heard before. I was pleasantly surprised.

The extended metaphor of prayer as a meal we can enjoy in God’s company works on many levels. I have to admit, the first couple chapters I was resisting the author’s style and found it a little cheesy. But that may say more about my inherent skepticism than a flaw in the writing.

The insight I found most intriguing is the idea that you can plan your prayer time – like a menu – based on types of prayer (praise, confession, lament, joining, etc.) and modes of expression (writing, music, movement). I realized that my unexamined expectation was that you schedule your prayer time, then it just happens – maybe with words, maybe with silence, but spontaneously, as the Spirit leads. I like the idea that the Spirit can lead you through planning a richer, more diverse, and more creative combination of approaches than whatever your default is.

I also appreciated the specific suggestions for how to experiment with the different types and modes of prayer. There are lots of ideas for practical application here, along with sound theology that leaves room for readers of a variety of perspectives.

I love the high-quality paper and full-color artwork that graces the pages. One minor frustration was that some of the text is in yellow or orange, making it difficult to read. Fortunately, these are generally only a word or phrase here and there, so it doesn't interfere significantly with the book's readability.


Ultimately, I found Pray Like a Gourmet to be an interesting, accessible read that would work well for individual or group study. I commend it to all who are seeking to expand or deepen their prayer life.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.