Confused and confusing.

Johns decries the de-enchanted perspective that modern, secular people have on the Bible, in which the text a mere object to be studied. But she doesn't quite define her desired alternative in any way I could follow. She jumps from vague idea to vague idea, never stopping to explain what she means. She throws out block quotes and citations from a myriad of different sources, but these sources (apart from Charles Taylor) don't feel like they've been fully integrated.

It's also hard to tell exactly who her models are. In one moment, John Calvin might be a champion of enchanted Christianity, while in the next he's one of the key figures who ushered in our disenchanted age. The same goes for figures throughout history from Augustine to Hans Boersma. What does she want? She accuses most of the Reformed tradition of perpetuating disenchantment, but I just can't agree. It seems to me her reading is just shallow -- perhaps that's why her sources are so poorly integrated.

In the end, I came away not knowing exactly how the author would have me do differently. For a book that is so clearly trying to motivate me to do <i>something,</i> I think that's a total failure.

It is easy to underestimate the influence the Enlightenment has had on Western thought, the Church, theology and our view of the Bible. Cheryl Bridges Johns argues that this has left us with a modern version of the Bible that is devoid of power, life and mystery. Both Liberalism and fundamentalism, formed in either response to, or rejection of the Enlightenment, has robbed the Bible of its sacred “otherness” and left behind a lifeless shell. Pentecostalism, however, had arisen outside of these two dominant streams of Western Christianity, offering a path back to a “re-enchanted” Bible that valued its life, power and mystery. Unfortunately, as the author argues, Pentecostalism also quickly became influenced by fundamentalism.

The author observes that many of our current generation are restless with where Evangelicalism has left us. Dissatisfied and disillusioned with views that reduce scripture to a natural, disempowered text, many younger evangelicals are hungry for a better way to approach scripture. Humans are instinctively aware that there is more to this world than materiality. Cheryl Bridges Johns speaks to that dissatisfaction and longing by helping the reader to reawaken the ancient view of the cosmos where, like the Möbius strip, the natural and supernatural are inseparably woven together.

The first three chapters of this book alone make this a book worth buying. These chapters define the problem and how this problem arose. These chapters are accessible and flow well. The rest of the book is more dense and takes some effort to walk through but are also well worth the effort of attentive reading. I am now waiting in eager anticipation of authors next book that she hints of.

As an ordained Pentecostal minister, I have learned a great deal from the disciplines of modern Biblical and Theological study, but the study has also left me nagging suspicion that something had been left out. Occasionally, through the writings of the likes of Eugene Peterson and a few others, I would hear the distant echoes of what I had sensed but without enough clarity to define it. Cheryl Bridges Johns has given language to what I and many others of my generation have intuitively sensed.

I recommend this book to all who are dissatisfied with where the Enlightenment and its children, liberalism and fundamentalism, have left us. If you love to think deeply, theologically and spiritually, you will enjoy this book.

Made it a few chapters in before being disappointed at how she chose to paint the words of several other authors. I couldn't get past the apparent lack of self-awareness some of the comments showed.

Wonderful, accessible read. Uplifting and challenging. Have many readers to recommend this to due to the grace with which it simplifies complex concepts.