I must confess that I have never read an Alister McGrath book, until now. Three years ago a friend recommended The Journey: A Pilgrim in the Lands of the Spirit while I was on one of my journeys to the RTS Orlando Bookstore for a sale. At some point I started to read it, but got stuck along the way.
Fast forward to my trip to PA earlier this month. Seemed like a good book to bring. I’m wondering why I put it down in the first place. It was very appropriate for the place in life where I find myself.
Alister McGrath confesses that it is too easy for him to intellectualize his faith. Here he is not advocating an anti-intellectualized faith, but internalizing the truth of our faith so it produces hope in the midst of life’s journey. To do this he spends some time advocating biblical meditation (see my post on this). This is part of the map he provides for us to persevere on the journey.
He takes Exodus as his template with alternating stages of wilderness and oasis. To promote trust and hope in the midst of the suffering that will often mark this journey, he talks about remembering what God has done and anticipating what God will do. These are essentially the past and future aspects of biblical meditation.
“The present was thus sustained by the memory of past events and the hope of future events.”
Along the way the introduces a series of landmarks from a biblical theology (creation, fall, redemption), and some companions for the journey. He recognizes the need to learn from those who have gone before us. He chooses men like Jonathan Edwards, J.I. Packer, C.S. Lewis, John Bunyan and more.
Cavman Considers 