| Living Loved |
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| Sunday, 02 March 2008 | ||||
Peter Wallace Seabury Publishing, 2007 For some people Valentine’s Day can be a day of no wine and no roses. It’s for the no-roses days that Peter Wallace wrote this book. His message is that we need to know that we are loved—that Jesus is there when lovers have dropped off the face of the earth, the children are out to lunch, friends are otherwise occupied, and you can’t find a book that isn’t depressing. How does one experience Jesus? How does one find him? These are the questions Wallace explores in these ninety meditations. {mospagebreak} Wallace takes us on a journey with the book of John, “the beloved disciple,” to illuminate Jesus’ love. Since the book of John often uses abstract language, Wallace uses a singular translation of the Bible by Eugene Peterson, one that author and journalist Phyllis Tickle calls a “paratranslation” . . . in other words, stripping the words from the meaning and recasting the meaning into the idiom of our time. I’m not a big fan of some translations of the Bible—those that sound stilted, e.g. “bands of cloth,” or are insensitive to the poetry—but these translations are thought-provoking. They bring to mind Coleman Barks’ translations of Rumi. Wallace has questions for the reader about this passage. One is: The book is divided into three sections: Knowing His Love, Experiencing His Love, and Sharing His Love. The meditations, enriched with quotes from sources such as Henri Nouwen, Barbara Brown Taylor, and William Blake, guide the reader toward understanding what it means to be loved by a deeper exploration of his or her own soul and reaching out to others. Peter Marsden Wallace, the host and executive producer of the ecumenical radio ministry Day 1, is also the author of six other books and is vice president for the Alliance for Christian Media. An Episcopalian, he lives in Atlanta. The website for Day 1 is www.Day1.net .  Anne Lovett, a Georgia native, began her writing career with a humor column for her high school newspaper, hoping to write science fiction. She was educated at Emory and Georgia Tech, receiving a Ph.D. in natural products chemistry. She helped to found a manufacturing and technical supplies company now doing business nationwide and eventually made her way back to writing, though not science fiction. A member of Georgia Writers, Georgia Romance Writers, AWP and Rosemary Daniell’s Zona Rosa Alpha Babes, her short fiction has appeared in Aethlon: Journal of Sport Literature, The Distillery, The Jewish Women’s’ Literary Annual, and Red Wheelbarrow. Non-fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared locally, and several novels are in the pipeline. She is a regular contributor to the online journal The Grapevine Art & Soul Salon (www.barbaraknott.net). |
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