THE CRIME OF LIVING CAUTIOUSLY: Hearing God's Call to Adventure

Poet, writer and septuagenarian Shaw begins this slim book with an account of her recent bungee jumping in New Zealand. While her book covers such topics as fear, loss, conflict and relationships, the most interesting subject Shaw explores is her own life. In her chapter on conflict, for example, she writes candidly about what it's like to straddle the literary and evangelical worlds: "A common assumption... is that a Christian must write sanctimonious hymns or sentimental verses.... If my work is clearly 'literary'... I may be accused of watering down the gospel." These insights, along with a brief remembrance of her friendship with Madeleine L'Engle, give some vitality to this otherwise conventional, somewhat underwhelming book. Ironically, while Shaw's content focuses on the risks God calls Christians to take, the book itself never strays from safe, well-traveled evangelical territory. Her biblical examples, such as Moses' attempt to convince his people to take the promised land, may support her argument that we must obey God even if it feels risky, but her observations about these passages are not particularly original. Yet Shaw writes beautifully, includes generous helpings of poetry (both her own and others') and, in her own gentle way, injects a subtly feminist, pluralist sensibility into this orthodox book. (May)