Book Review: Water from a Deep Well

I’m a product of late 20th Century evangelicalism.  I have no sense of Christian history, other than a vague sense that Catholics got things wrong and Protestants fixed them.  We were on a search for a new book for our small group, and my husband suggested a book on Christian history (you know, so we can learn how we got the books in the Bible that we did).  And I very nearly tormented our small group with some painful tome of names and dates until I was SAVED by this book I read about on the blog of Josh Reich. 

This is a WONDERFUL book that covers Christian history from the Apostle Peter to Desmond Tutu.  It is written by Gerald Sittser, a professor at Whitworth University, who takes his students on a retreat to cover this material.  And that is how the book reads – experienced, erudite, but determined to advance the reader’s own relationship with Christ. 

Each chapter covers not only a part of Christian history, but also a spiritual strength found in the Christians of that day.  I learn about five or six major characters from that time, I get a few dates, I get a small sample of their writing.  I get a beautiful set of suggested further readings, references, and even study guide questions.   But each chapter also provides “practices” to help me apply what I learn to my own spiritual walk.  And Sittser’s heart for Christ and his desire to see the Church rediscover its depth of faith fills the pages.  It was a fabulous book for our group.

“We live in the tension between the “already” and the “not yet.”  We know who God is in the face of Jesus Christ, what God has done through Jesus Christ to save and redeem the world, and what God has promised to do in us through the work of the Holy Spirit.  We know that God commands us to serve his kingdom, no matter what the cost.  Our task is to do the hard work of living for God day in and day out.  He has not left us without resources.  The rich history of Christian spirituality shows how our brothers and sisters from the past drew upon divine resources to live for God right where they were.  They drank from the well of living water, and they call us to drink from that same well.  Their voices continue to echo across the centuries, “There is more.  So much more!”

So I am by no means an expert now in Christian history.  But I have a framework and an understanding for all the wonderful writings and art and architecture still available to me.  I have a better appreciation of how the Catholic faith is part of MY history and my faith.  I feel like I found the family I didn’t know I had lost.