Radical Spirituality: Repentance, Resistance, and Revolution

A former reporter for High Times and Forbes, Storbakken now has a new beat as a Mennonite pastor at Manhattan’s Bowery Mission and as a cofounder of Radical Living, a Christian cohousing community in Brooklyn. His first book delivers a mélange of soapbox sermons, devotional discourses, and a gripping Orange Is The New Black-style memoir that recounts Storbakken’s time in a South Korean prison for using hashish. “My faith at the time was syncretic,” he writes. “I was smoking charas, but I was also reading the Bible.” Building on his own Anabaptist heritage as well as time spent with reggae and Hare Krishna communities, Storbakken relates the countercultural practices of the Hutterites, Amish, and Mennonites that influence his now flourishing primitive Christianity. Readers get a peek into this corner of the contemporary Christian renewal movement, which includes the emergent evangelicals and the New Monastics. “There is a rhythm to everything,” writes Storbakken. “The purpose of our rhythm is to express our love to God, one another, and neighbors through Jesus Christ.” Rather than abandoning his wild, religiously disparate past for his evangelical present, Storbakken integrates both into an engaging globe-spanning spiritual journey for seekers today. (Sept.)