Mother Tongue: How Our Heritage Shapes Our Story

Sweet (From Tablet to Table), professor at Drew Theological School, shares the life of his mother, Mabel Boggs Sweet, a holiness preacher, fervent believer, and resourceful woman who was dedicated to raising her three sons in the way of Jesus. Drawing from his mother’s journals and his own memories, Sweet considers 24 “artifacts” from his mother’s life—among them the family Bible, an upright piano, and the healing liniment she would prepare from an old family recipe—and puts these reflections together with his own understanding of the Christian faith. Sweet writes that his “whole ministry is both a reaction against my upbringing and a reflection of it.” This tension is unresolved throughout the book; Sweet attempts to discern redemptive aspects in some of his mother’s extreme religious views (dancing was demonic, movies were “mind molestation,” and novels were a frivolous waste of time) while praising a woman who, though not educated beyond high school, insisted that her children go to graduate school and beyond. Sweet can certainly tell a story and turn a phrase, but readers may feel that the accumulation of anecdotes and proverbs, however memorable, makes for an unfocused volume. (Apr.)