Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls

Rating:
Summary: Pastoral Guide for the Restless Soul
Review: In a society in which almost everyone is from somewhere else, and where they are likely to move on again before very long, how does one combat or respond to a profound longing for home? This is the problem M. Craig Barnes addresses in this timely book. Barnes writes stirringly about the need for home. He cites many studies that show the rootlessness of our contemporary society and he offers anecdotal examples of our wanderlust. Barnes explains that he experienced this collective craving among the members of his congregation, while serving as a pastor in our nation's capital, often a way station for those who serve for a time in government. Everyone was from somewhere else and spoke of that somewhere else as "home." He argues that most congregations will have this same challenge: many church members who long for a place that is far away and days that are long past, which they think of as their home.
Barnes reminds us that our home is not Duluth or Pomona or wherever else we were born, but rather home is "...the place where we were created to live from eternity and to eternity..." Further, Barnes tells us that "When God created humanity, it wasn't until he breathed the holy ruach into the nostrils of Adam that he became a living being. (Both quotations are from page 33). Not only is our rightful place with God, but God is the source of all that we are. We have come from God, we are going toward God: this is what it is to be human. Christians are the people who recognize this truth and who have as their companion on the journey God in the person of Christ Jesus.
Throughout the book, Barnes utilizes insights from the works of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Barnes argues that Dante is a helpful guide for those who are restless, spiritually; and applies the poetic and theological views of the great Italian poet's Divine Comedy to the twenty-first century world. The longing, the homesickness and restlessness are all factors that prompt us to turn toward God. What we are seeking is, Barnes insists, the "holy embrace" of God. It is in this embrace that we are blessed by transformation, or in Dante's terms "transhumanization", which Barnes says is "to change and yet become more the same" (page 160). This blessing of transhumanization sounds much like Jesus' word to Nicodemus about being born "anew" or "again". We become more and more what God intended us to be, through the power of Christ. There are other blessings in addition-says Barnes-one of which is the growing awareness of the beauty of God and of God's creation. He also has several brief passages about the blessings of predestination and of vision, both of which the reader may wish had been developed in greater detail.
M. Craig Barnes served as pastor of the National Presbyterian Church for more than a decade and currently holds the dual posts: Meneilly Professor of Leadership and Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, PC(USA) and pastor of The Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. Barnes' previous books deal with similar issues about the struggle for meaning among the faithful.

Rating:
Summary: Pastoral Guide for the Restless Soul
Review: In a society in which almost everyone is from somewhere else, and where they are likely to move on again before very long, how does one combat or respond to a profound longing for home? This is the problem M. Craig Barnes addresses in this timely book. Barnes writes stirringly about the need for home. He cites many studies that show the rootlessness of our contemporary society and he offers anecdotal examples of our wanderlust. Barnes explains that he experienced this collective craving among the members of his congregation, while serving as a pastor in our nation's capital, often a way station for those who serve for a time in government. Everyone was from somewhere else and spoke of that somewhere else as "home." He argues that most congregations will have this same challenge: many church members who long for a place that is far away and days that are long past, which they think of as their home.
Barnes reminds us that our home is not Duluth or Pomona or wherever else we were born, but rather home is "...the place where we were created to live from eternity and to eternity..." Further, Barnes tells us that "When God created humanity, it wasn't until he breathed the holy ruach into the nostrils of Adam that he became a living being. (Both quotations are from page 33). Not only is our rightful place with God, but God is the source of all that we are. We have come from God, we are going toward God: this is what it is to be human. Christians are the people who recognize this truth and who have as their companion on the journey God in the person of Christ Jesus.
Throughout the book, Barnes utilizes insights from the works of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Barnes argues that Dante is a helpful guide for those who are restless, spiritually; and applies the poetic and theological views of the great Italian poet's Divine Comedy to the twenty-first century world. The longing, the homesickness and restlessness are all factors that prompt us to turn toward God. What we are seeking is, Barnes insists, the "holy embrace" of God. It is in this embrace that we are blessed by transformation, or in Dante's terms "transhumanization", which Barnes says is "to change and yet become more the same" (page 160). This blessing of transhumanization sounds much like Jesus' word to Nicodemus about being born "anew" or "again". We become more and more what God intended us to be, through the power of Christ. There are other blessings in addition-says Barnes-one of which is the growing awareness of the beauty of God and of God's creation. He also has several brief passages about the blessings of predestination and of vision, both of which the reader may wish had been developed in greater detail.
M. Craig Barnes served as pastor of the National Presbyterian Church for more than a decade and currently holds the dual posts: Meneilly Professor of Leadership and Ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, PC(USA) and pastor of The Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. Barnes' previous books deal with similar issues about the struggle for meaning among the faithful.