God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul

Buchanan (The Rest of God), a pastor and associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, argues that walking provides a route to the companionship of God in this cheery testament. Focusing on the physical act of walking, he writes that when the Bible talks about “walking in the Spirit or walking the light... it means this in more than a figurative way.” Invoking biblical stories, such as the exodus from Egypt and Jesus’s peripatetic lifestyle, Buchanan explores the connection between walking and remembering, and between walking and healing. Personal anecdotes—such as the value of a long walk to calm down, performing a walking prayer, or the pleasure of walking a dog—show the benefits of taking walks with intentionality. Sometimes the focus on walking veers into the metaphorical, as in Buchanan’s rumination on the Via Dolorosa (the route Christ followed to his crucifixion) as a metaphor for “the way of suffering.” Nevertheless, Buchanan’s many personal stories and accounts of Christians being transformed by meandering meditations on God are fresh and inviting. Christians looking for a more physically active faith practice should check this out. (July)