The God Who Won't Let Go

Rating:
Summary: my favorite author
Review: As a Protestant I started reading books by Catholic writers about 10 years ago starting with books by Henri Nouwen. I found they spoke much more to my circumstances than the Evangelical Protestant books I was used to reading. Instead of further instruction on "biblical living" they told me of a God who was with me in my troubles and constant failings, a God who I found very winsome. As van Breemen would say "a God who loves me as I am and not as I should be". However, as I would read these books my Protestant thinking would kick in with questions about how scripturally based they were as I read about this almost-too-good-to-be-true God. I worked my way through various authors, Nouwen, Basil Pennington, and others, as when one author would quote another author I would often check out the second author if I liked the quoted material. This finally led me to Peter van Breemen who has since become my favorite.

Van Breemen writes of a "loving God" to match any of the other authors I liked and yet his books are also very grounded in scripture (and satisfy my Protestant paranoia)! They blend presenting a God who loves us unconditionally and eternally with all the challenges that Jesus and scripture present us with as we are called to conversion. And because these challenges to conversion come in the context of descriptions of God's ever-new love they enable my faltering and faint heart to sometimes say "yes"!

I would highly recommend this and any of vB's books. My only caution is that his books often seem to come from oral presentations he has given and therefore have a different feel to them than a book that was written from scratch as a book.

Rating:
Summary: my favorite author
Review: As a Protestant I started reading books by Catholic writers about 10 years ago starting with books by Henri Nouwen. I found they spoke much more to my circumstances than the Evangelical Protestant books I was used to reading. Instead of further instruction on "biblical living" they told me of a God who was with me in my troubles and constant failings, a God who I found very winsome. As van Breemen would say "a God who loves me as I am and not as I should be". However, as I would read these books my Protestant thinking would kick in with questions about how scripturally based they were as I read about this almost-too-good-to-be-true God. I worked my way through various authors, Nouwen, Basil Pennington, and others, as when one author would quote another author I would often check out the second author if I liked the quoted material. This finally led me to Peter van Breemen who has since become my favorite.

Van Breemen writes of a "loving God" to match any of the other authors I liked and yet his books are also very grounded in scripture (and satisfy my Protestant paranoia)! They blend presenting a God who loves us unconditionally and eternally with all the challenges that Jesus and scripture present us with as we are called to conversion. And because these challenges to conversion come in the context of descriptions of God's ever-new love they enable my faltering and faint heart to sometimes say "yes"!

I would highly recommend this and any of vB's books. My only caution is that his books often seem to come from oral presentations he has given and therefore have a different feel to them than a book that was written from scratch as a book.

Rating:
Summary: A Lovely/Loving Book
Review: Dutch Jesuit Peter van Breemen has scored a spiritual winner with "The God Who Won't Let Go." Divided into twelve chapters or reflections, the book is based on the premise that "Christianity reveals a God-who-seeks us, a God who loves us far more than we love ourselves." Working from this foundation of God's unconditional, unchanging, and unstinting love, van Breemen discusses a variety of topics, including freedom and its Magna Carta, the ten commandments; forgiveness; mission and the role of the "shaliach," the one who renders the master present and active; attentiveness; respect; prayer; the mystery of self-emptying as the heart of the Trinity; and an understanding of liturgy as looking toward the future, not just as remembering the past. An especially attractive feature of the book were the poems/prayers that ended each section. They were written mostly by Huub Oosterhuis with several by Sabine Naegeli.

I was moved by Fr. van Breemen's two reflections on forgiveness, the first on our need to be forgiven and the second on our need to forgive. He sees our own forgivingness not so much as a moral demand but as an existential necessity. Without forgiving others, we can never grasp the truth of our own forgiveness. Recognizing the difficulty of forgiving, van Breemen argues that we must engage in a process that begins with a willingness to forgive, followed by a desire to forgive taking place in our intellect and will power, and culminating in a forgiveness that comes from the heart.

Rating:
Summary: A personal exploration of forgiveness, mercy, compassion
Review: Jesuit Peter van Breemen's The God Who Won't Let Go is a superbly presented and personal exploration of forgiveness, mercy, compassion, and resurrection written specifically for the men and women of today. The basic and core message is simple and timeless: nothing can ever sever the relationship of God's love for us and that each of us are directly and personally invited to experience God's love and base our very life upon that spiritual and emotional foundation regardless of our secular circumstances. The God Who Won't Let Go is devoutly recommended to all students of spirituality within a Christian context.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Book By A Respected Spiritual Writer
Review: Peter van Breemen, a Dutch Jesuit, is a popular author who has penned a number of books on spirituality. His writings reflect his training in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and are peppered with his vast knowledge of many subjects and his keen understanding of the human condition. The readers of THE GOD WHO WON'T LET GO will certainly see these characteristics of van Breemen at work.

Van Breemen would probably be the first to admit that what he says is not all that new or original, but he presents the material in a manner that is both fresh and engaging. He focuses on a variety of themes common in the Christian tradition: God's love, the heart's deepest desires, vocation, redemption and forgiveness. These themes are based on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and van Breemen pays special attention to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as he explores these themes. The chapters of the book seem to flow from one to another rather than read like a treatise, and readers may wonder in what direction van Breemen is leading them. Yet after the book is completed, it is easy to see how it works as a whole, much like talks on a retreat. Since van Bremen does retreat work and spiritual direction, it is likely that he conceived of the idea for this book based on his retreat experience. The book is not meant to be read in one sitting and readers who do so will probably miss much of what van Breemen has to say. The book is ideal for spiritual reading. The chapters are concise and do not take a great deal of time to complete. The chapters also end with short prayers which can lead to further reflection.

While the book can be appreciated by just about any audience, it will probably be best appreciated by people familiar with Ignatian spirituality. Van Breemen writes in a style that can reach people at just about any spiritual level in a way that is respectful of a person's intelligence and challenges those who believe they have heard it all before.