The God of Second Chances

This penetrating miscellany of meditations on the dialogue between human limitations and divine grace successfully blends inspiration with practicality, the therapeutic with the theological. A writer, psychotherapist and former minister at New York's Riverside Church, Kolbell asserts that in a contemporary climate of incivility, religious intolerance, poverty and war, we could use a “second chance” more than ever. It is in this context that he mines the Latin prefix “re,” or returning, to explore the scriptural foundations and modern applications of words like reconciliation, reflection, retreat and restoration. Weaving his encounters with friends and patients into his reflections on Old and New Testament figures like Moses and Nicodemus, the author manages to strike a tone both realistic and encouraging—no mean feat. While there is little that would be offensive to conservative readers, the book is more likely to appeal to those who share Kolbell's passion for social change and his conviction that modern believers urgently need to align their wills with the God who keeps forgiving them and inviting them to try again. (May)