The Healing Path: How the Hurts in Your Past Can Lead You to a More Abundant Life

Rating:
Summary: Not much to say...
Review: "Don't waste your pain", says the publisher's note on the rear cover of "The Healing Path", a recent offering from the prolific and popular Dan Allender. Allender suggest that life inevitably entails suffering, and that the key is to suffer successfully. Suffering leads to redemption and life, but most suffer pointlessly and unconstructively, not knowing how to suffer properly.

Healing Path wanders about to a great degree, as Allender ranges over what seems a disconnected landscape in what must be taken as his current reflection on the nature of the world and its suffering. He addresses in turn, 1) suffering as a sacred activity, 2) its pervasive nature, 3) aspirations toward healing, 3) the pain of betrayal, 4) the ubiquitous mistake of suffering improperly, 5) the value of living existentially, 6) the pain of powerlessness, 7) living with ambivalence, 8) fighting doubt with faith, 9) "redemptive living" at arms-length from conventional church forms, 10) a diagnosis of modern evangelical enfeeblement due to centralization, and 11) immersion in provocative cultural conversation as the best means of redemptive change. The result is a fairly incoherent and chaotic ramble through Allender's musings on the nature of a sinful world and his attempts to find integrative principles.

Healing Path offers little by way of substantive reflection or practical remedy. The treatment of redemptive living makes almost no reference to Christ; indeed the entire book could have been written by a conscientious Mormon or moralist, so sparse are any references to Christian theological frameworks or Scripture. Allender attempts to integrate the discontinuous series of chapters by running a few anecdotes across the spans, but this effort largely fails.

He captions subsections with such embarrassingly gushy titles as "Hearts That Embrace-The Dance of Passion", and follows with observations that seem to evidence his mood on the day he drafted the chapter. Some chapters read as if you found him sitting in the bright sunshine of his study with an inspirational piece of music playing. Other sections sound like you caught the author entrenched in morose reflection on a rainy Monday afternoon. In all, the tone is uneven and the purpose is difficult to detect.

Allender may have reached the point in fame and stature where popular Christian culture requires nothing more of him than regularly released, mass-market soft-cover publications, offered in tandem, of course, with a small group study guide.

"My calling is to intrigue, disrupt, and invite the other person to consider his heart," says Allender. Far better for pastors and congregations would be a rich exploration of 1 Peter, where Christian suffering is seen to precede a staggering, disproportionately large recompense, and promise conformity to the delightful countenance of Christ.


Rating:
Summary: In the top 3, most profound books I have ever read
Review: As a Christian for 30 years and an evangelical pastor/US Army chaplain and licensed Therapist, I have read lots and lots and lots of books. This book by Dan is truely one of the most profound books that I have ever read. It is worth reading and re-reading. His stories and narrative portions put images and real-life flesh and blood on our living out the true power of the Gospel and Christ's love into our own real-life worlds.

Rating:
Summary: In the top 3, most profound books I have ever read
Review: As a Christian for 30 years and an evangelical pastor/US Army chaplain and licensed Therapist, I have read lots and lots and lots of books. This book by Dan is truely one of the most profound books that I have ever read. It is worth reading and re-reading. His stories and narrative portions put images and real-life flesh and blood on our living out the true power of the Gospel and Christ's love into our own real-life worlds.

Rating:
Summary: True Healing and Preparing for a better place.
Review: Chapter 8 has so much to offer. Hope in the biggest since. I love what Dan Alender does with words. Some things require deep meditation. As I read I feel myself coming alive in a way I never knew before. And as I read I think of all the hurting people I know who could be helped by reading, actually taking in this book and allowing themselves to be consumed by it. True healing does come and joy returns, or for some who have never experienced true joy, will expereince it for the first time. I think everyone should read this book. I want to put it into the hands of all of my loved ones. It has done me good. I wish to share the good with others. Thank You Dan Allender, you are my hero.

Rating:
Summary: True Healing and Preparing for a better place.
Review: Chapter 8 has so much to offer. Hope in the biggest since. I love what Dan Alender does with words. Some things require deep meditation. As I read I feel myself coming alive in a way I never knew before. And as I read I think of all the hurting people I know who could be helped by reading, actually taking in this book and allowing themselves to be consumed by it. True healing does come and joy returns, or for some who have never experienced true joy, will expereince it for the first time. I think everyone should read this book. I want to put it into the hands of all of my loved ones. It has done me good. I wish to share the good with others. Thank You Dan Allender, you are my hero.

Rating:
Summary: HP is a travel guide to the odd, glorious journey to God.
Review: HP reflects my 10 year labor to wrestle with what it means to love God in a fallen world. It centers on how we are to be grounded in faith, hope, and love and then asks: how does evil wish to destroy those components of our character. Redemption frees us to embrace doubt, despair, and disappointment and see each transformed in the light of God's troubling, compellng love.

Rating:
Summary: Embracing Life
Review: I highly recommend this book. Dr. Allender clearly communicates what it means to embrace life, including the disappointments and trials. There are no quick fix-it answers offered. In the opening chapter, Dr. Allender states "Healing in this life is not the resolution of our past; it is the use of our past to draw us into deeper relationship with God and His purposes for our lives. We need a new understanding of how to deal with past hurts, one that acknowledges the damage to the human spirit while charting a path toward the abundant life God promises." The very notion of not trying to resolve, or fix the past is revolutionary. Instead, the author invites us to embrace our life, to recognize the value of our "story" and to be willing to enter into the lives of others. He does not sugar coat this process, on the contrary, he states "The healing path plunges us into the depths of our doubt, where a new faith can be born. This faith...frees us to remember a past not only with loss, but with redemption." The great part is that Dr. Allender spends as much time on the redemption, hope and true community as he does honestly examining the pain that life often includes, then encourages the reader to consider what it means to live with the realization of hope. This book is a thoughtful, compassionate rendering and would benefit for anyone who has been dealt pain in their life, no matter what the pain is. Chapter topics include: betrayal and the loss of faith, the loss of hope, the loss of love, the wager of faith, the dream of hope and creating a community of sojourners.

Rating:
Summary: This book is worth it!
Review: This book is a lighthouse to those who are dealing with various struggles. Dr. Allender communicates to the reader exactly how to begin travelling down that healing path. He will point you to where your focus needs to be, and help you through the process. I am so thankful that I chose to read this book!