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bhnmt61's review against another edition
4.0
But although Burning in My Bones is clearly written by a long-time friend and colleague, it turned out to be a fairly even-handed, realistic picture of his life and ministry. It is not a detailed, scholarly biography, although I’m sure that will be coming one day, but neither is it a Christian celebrity bio that glosses over dark times and recasts controversies in a biased light. If you have any interest in the church and the pastorate, or any interest at all in Eugene Peterson, A Burning in My Bones is definitely worth reading.
bickleyhouse's review against another edition
5.0
I already loved Eugene H. Peterson, having read many of his books and enjoyed his Message Bible. But Winn Collier has given us a glimpse into the life of this man that is life-altering. I learned things that I never knew about Peterson, some of them rather surprising. For example, he was raised Pentecostal. I had no idea. And, at one point, early in his career, he was, apparently good friends with Pat Robertson. That appears to not have lasted very long, though, and I'm somewhat grateful for that, as well. That's all I'm going to say on that subject.
But Eugene H. Peterson was a very humble man, and I had no idea of the scope of this humility. He never wanted to be a celebrity. He just wanted to serve people, and then he wanted to write. And write he did. Besides being a pastor of a Presbyterian church in Maryland for many years, he also taught for a number of years at Regent College in Vancouver, while advancing his writing career at the same time.
Mr. Collier uses material from Peterson's own memoir, The Pastor: A Memoir, as well as material from the many letters and journals that Eugene kept. He also interviewed many people that Peterson influenced along the way, as well as family members. And he spent some time with the man, himself, before he passed away in 2018.
One person was quoted as saying that Eugene was "fastened in God." That's a description that I had never heard before, but I would certainly like to be describe that way, myself. He always said he wanted to be a saint. I believe that he accomplished that, but one of the true characteristics of a saint is that they don't know that they are one. And Peterson never felt that he had "arrived." In fact, he constantly felt himself to be inadequate to the task, and this was more evident as he translated The Message.
I love the many quotes that we get from Eugene, throughout this book, especially as he moved away from the traditional "evangelical" label. "Evangelicalism is too combative and clear-cut for me," he is quoted as saying. I find myself in agreement with that statement. He was also very interested and focused on prayer. "When we pray, we don't become more like anyone else, especially the 'great ones,' we become more like ourselves."
It pained him greatly to see the amount of hatred spewed out by so-called Christians. "How the so-called Christian community can generate so much hate is appalling. Haven't we learned anything about civil discourse? Will we ever? And it is so debilitating - we have this glorious gospel to proclaim and give away and we gang up against one another and throw dogma-rocks." "[The schismatics] cancel out any truth that they are contending for by the hate they vomit in the sanctuary."
I feel indebted to Winn Collier for giving us this book, this intimate glimpse into the life and legacy of Eugene H. Peterson. It will hold a prominent place on my shelves and a special place in my heart for years to come.
cherylyou's review against another edition
5.0
Here are Collier’s own words, after listing Peterson’s tremendous achievements: “But what mattered to me—to so many of us who knew and loved him—was something so much deeper, something none of us can really explain. You would just have to sit with the man. You’d have to encounter his warmth, his welcome, the hospitality of his silence. You’d have to encounter the way he knew God.”
Most of us who resonate with Peterson’s spirituality and approach to pastoral ministry would not have had the opportunity to sit with him but Collier has helped us do just that: encounter Eugene Peterson and the depths that he embodied. I’m a fast reader but I deliberately savored this book and I think it will stay with me for a while.
lucyisabella's review
colormedorie's review against another edition
5.0
siguirimama's review against another edition
4.5
adamrshields's review against another edition
5.0
Takeaway: I enjoyed it even more with the second reading.
On my second reading of A Burning of My Bones, I am not sure how to say something new or roughly the same things without making it seem like there was no value in rereading. But after sitting with the second reading for a little while, my thoughts are pretty similar and I finished reading the book deeply encouraged.
I still am not really fond of the start of the book, and I don't really find myself drawn in until the chapters on seminary and early ministry. I am honestly not sure what it is about the early chapters that do not speak to me, but I suspect it is related that there is just less material for Winn Collier to draw on. I re-read this again as part of the Renovare book club. And one of the reasons I enjoy the book club is that they have resources to give background and understanding to the book. Most of the time, there are multiple interviews with the author, a couple of essays, and then a message board for readers to discuss. In one of those interviews, Winn Collier talked about reading Peterson's journals and letters and sermons and books, and I have to imagine that the resources that Collier could draw on for Peterson's early life were limited.
But again, in this reading, I settled into the pastoral years, and I was encouraged both by Peterson's growth as a pastor, his love and orientation toward the people in the parish, and his limitations. Limitations are so important to recognize and embrace. And it is not that we embrace our limitations as an excuse or as a way to overcome them, but we embrace them because we are human, and part of what it means to be human is to have limitations. Those limitations are part of why I personally turn to God. I think the denial of human limitations is what is spiritually dangerous about wealth and much of our culture of autonomy.
I read Wendell Berry's novel Jayber Crow soon after finishing A Burning in My Bones, and part of what I felt about the parallels in that novel and the story of Eugene Peterson is that they both pointed to the reality of the community as part of what is essential for a human-focused life. So much of our culture, whether in the 2020s or the 1950 and 60s that was the focus of Jayber Crow, is the orientation toward progress as a way to overcome our human limitations. I am not against tools or modern conveniences, I am highly dependent on them, and I love them. But as so many have pointed out, we often become dependent upon them in ways that make us the servant of the tool and not the other way around.
Eugene Peterson pushed back against culture in ways that were not for everyone. His resistance to email and the internet was part of his time; you could resist email and the internet differently in the 1990s to the early 2010s than you can now. It isn't about the particularities of his push against dehumanizing tools as much as that his example reminds us that we, too, should be pushing back against our dehumanization. And not just for ourselves, but for others as well.
After my first reading, Eugene Peterson's weaknesses were the most encouraging part of the book for me. Of course, I know that will not be true for everyone. But when the weaknesses of many spiritual leaders are being revealed regularly, I appreciate that there is space to see weaknesses that are not rooted in the abuse of others. And that Eugene tried to grapple with in spiritually healthy ways. And that he didn't stop struggling to be who God wanted him to be when he turned 50, but in many ways, it was more of a struggle as he aged because he because more aware of himself and God over time.
I do not want to idealize Eugene Peterson, which would be easy for me to do. However, the particulars, I think, really help add nuance and humanity to my view of him in ways that still allow him to be human.
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First reading Summary: The first full (and authorized) biography of Eugene Peterson
I have long been a fan of Eugene Peterson. There is something about him and his imagination of what it means to be the church and what it means to pastor people that resonates with me deeply. When his memoir came out, I read it twice in less than six weeks and then again about six months later, and I have read it at least once since then as well. I can't think of any other book that I read three times in less than a year. So when I heard about a new biography, I jumped at the chance to get an advance copy.
It has been about a month since I started and about 2-3 weeks since I finished the book. I have been sitting with it. My last meeting with my spiritual director primarily talked through my response to it. One of the thoughts that came to me as I was reading was that in many ways, without really using the language of spiritual direction (although he does have one book where he does talk about spiritual direction), I think his pastoral method was spiritual direction. If you are not familiar with spiritual direction, that doesn't mean anything. But to me, who is in training to be a spiritual director, it was revelatory to what draws me to his approach so strongly.
The early chapters, on Peterson's childhood and family, felt light and almost verging on hagiography. There were problems identified, especially the distance between Eugene and his father and between his father and mother. But his childhood was presented as near idyllic. Collier points primarily to Eugene's mother as his spiritual teacher, in part because the church does not seem to have mattered much at all. But something drew Peterson to God in ways that we can see both here and in The Pastor. But in neither was I really satisfied that it was explored enough.
In the college, seminary, and early years of the pastorate, I think there is a much clearer grappling with the whole of the man that became, eventually, the Eugene Peterson that many of us hold as a saint and mentor. I am not going to retrace his story in detail. I will re-read A Burning in My Bones again when it officially comes out on March 23, and maybe I will write about the book again then and trace it a bit more clearly.
But the most significant parts of A Burning in my Bones was the recounting of Euguene Peterson as a man who struggled. He struggled with calling. He struggled in seeking after God. He struggled as a father and husband, with alcohol, and with the life laid out before him. Those struggles did not turn me off of him but encouraged me as someone that also is trying to seek after God but certainly still struggles. Seeking after God does not mean that there is no struggle or that there is an always clear path laid out before our feet. What it does mean is that God is with us through the struggle. And what I was encouraged by more than anything else is seeing the life of a man, and his family, that strived to be faithful and who, from what I can see, was faithful in deeply encouraging ways.
I have no desire to read a hagiography. And I have no desire to lionize Peterson in unhelpful ways. But I want to seek after saints from prior generations and learn from them how I might also be faithful in ways that may help generations younger than I am.
gjones19's review against another edition
5.0