Gifts of the Dark Wood: Seven Blessings for Soulful Skeptics (and Other Wanderers)

Dante defined the "dark wood" as fearsome. Elnes (Asphalt Jesus) redefines it as a place that gives graceful gifts to Christian believers. Failures, vacuums, and doubts might not seem like "gifts"; however, they cannot (and should not) be avoided, Elnes counsels, because the seeming negatives prove critical for "finding your place in this world at the very point where you feel furthest from it." Seven of the nine chapters in this intelligent and understanding book describe the gifts: uncertainty, emptiness, being thunderstruck (voiceovers by the Holy Spirit), getting lost, temptation, disappearing, and misfits. Some are more surprising than others: for example, temptation does not refer to sex, drugs, and rock %E2%80%98n' roll but to doing the wrong good%E2%80%94"work that is not yours to do." Throughout, Elnes shares personal tales, quotes poetry (particularly David Whyte's), and retells Scripture stories%E2%80%94especially Peter's. At the end, he movingly addresses the church today. Elnes's style is friendly, familiar, even woodsy, exploiting the second-person "you" to guide and assure. (Sept.)