Earth Filled with Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments, and Other Ancient Practices of the Church

This informative outing by pastor Damiani (The Good of Giving Up) explains sacraments from the vantage point of a disaffected evangelical. Examining such sacraments as communion, baptism, and the liturgical calendar, the author tells how he came to embrace them and helps Protestant nonliturgists understand their appeal. The death of a friend’s devout Christian father while Damiani was in college led Damiani to question his evangelical upbringing, but he recounts reconnecting with his faith after attending a new church, whose emphasis on liturgy provided him a fresh means of communing with Christ. Defending the Eucharist, the author posits that it asks Christians to view all creation, including wine and bread, as worthy of the reverence Christ had for God’s handiwork. Damiani describes how the early church understood baptism as spiritually aligned with the stories of God bringing forth life from water in Genesis and Moses splitting the Red Sea in Exodus, viewing water as a “womb for people who want to be born into God’s family.” The folksy prose keeps things light, with references to The Lord of the Rings and the Chicago Cubs, helping render the logic behind the sacraments accessible for the uninitiated. This probing volume makes for a solid primer on Christian rites. (Aug.)