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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Sarah Bessey has accomplished exactly what she set out to do! This is a beautiful companion to anyone in the Spiritual wilderness - the place where your faith is evolving or you’ve felt like you don’t belong. This book is a unique guide; she does not offer a step-by-step process to deconstruction. Rather, she attests to her own evolving faith and invites the reader to discern and embody the practices that have guided her. Re-imagine the wilderness, go slowly, see it all as sacramental, find good teachers and companions, reclaim what’s been twisted, tell the truth, know that the wilderness does not negate belonging, and you cannot escape God's love: these are just a few of the rich and hopeful words Bessey offers.
Thanks to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and Convergent Books for the ARC!
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
I always appreciate the grace filled way that Sarah Bessey approaches nearly any topic. Initially upon beginning this book I wondered if this wasn't the book I wished that I had been given several years ago - perhaps not entirely startling considering I've walked with Sarah Bessey through much of a similar journey to hers online - but as I continued through it I found ideas that expanded my own, some suggestions to rumble with, and several teary moments.
This is a book for people who are feeling ill at ease with established religious spaces. It might even be a book for people who this is the second or third time you've felt ill at ease here. It is a book for remembering that you belong, even in the wilderness, and that beauty can be found in those spaces. If you're just beginning this journey, this might even be a five star book for you. But even if you've been wandering around the wilderness for a while and you just need a reminder that you're not alone? This book is a solid four stars with plenty of grace, hope, and joy to go around and you'll probably pick up some new ideas along the way.
This is a book for people who are feeling ill at ease with established religious spaces. It might even be a book for people who this is the second or third time you've felt ill at ease here. It is a book for remembering that you belong, even in the wilderness, and that beauty can be found in those spaces. If you're just beginning this journey, this might even be a five star book for you. But even if you've been wandering around the wilderness for a while and you just need a reminder that you're not alone? This book is a solid four stars with plenty of grace, hope, and joy to go around and you'll probably pick up some new ideas along the way.
Sarah Bessey says this book is about “practices for an evolving faith” - and it is - but for me, even more importantly, it is also a series of love letters to all of us who have been hurt and broken by the church that we keep trying to love. I read only a chapter or 2 at a time, savouring this book and I cried often as I read it, because it felt like Sarah was speaking to my soul. So, yes, read this if you are ready to move forward, bravely, into the wilderness. But also read it if you still just need to sit by a tree with your blanket in the wilderness hoping someday maybe you will be able to get up again. I’m still the second one and I’ll be buying this book when it comes out to reread for that me but also with hope that someday I’ll be the me who is ready to move forward, bravely.
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!
Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!
Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith is a collection of tenderly written letters offering encouragement and companionship for those in “the wilderness” of an “evolving faith”. Sarah valiantly embraces curiosity and gives permission to address doubts with openness and honesty. While I recognize not all will not come to the same theological conclusions as Sarah, I think her book’s overarching themes of hope, compassion, and belonging can be appreciated by many. Thank you NetGalley and Convergent Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.