GOD ON MUTE
By Pete Greig
David C. Cook. 400 pages. £11.99
ISBN 978 0 830 780 716
God on Mute by Pete Greig was a visceral experience for me. It’s quite a writer who can churn at your guts, your heart and somersault epiphanies in your head.
In describing experiences of pain, prayer and perseverance, I smiled, I winced, I shed tears listening to Pete, whose voice felt audible. That too is a skill, to be taken on a complex journey but by a writer who befriends the reader.
Saturated with Bible commentaries and their often more cerebral deconstruction of Scripture, I began a bit resistant. What I encountered, though, was: doctrine – sensitively and imaginatively handled; experience – raw and real in its communication; tradition – the saints, mothers and fathers of the faith are handled in a way that makes their wisdom so accessible; and their insights – even catalogued at the back of the book for handy reference.
So if Pete taught without being didactic, shared and yet didn’t self-indulge and drew from tradition without showing off his erudition, could he open up the Scriptures, too, in new ways? I wasn’t asking for the world, but perhaps for the Anglican square of Tradition, Reason, Experience and Scripture and yes, to anchor all those insights and experiences in Christ’s Holy Week to Calvary, I encountered fresh understandings which will shape me as a preacher for years to come. I was also taken, on a personal level, to moments in my own life of ‘unknowing’ and could bring either new assessments to those times or some salve. What I had wondered at the time is the wondering of one pilgrim amongst many.
This is a profound read, and not just for those more challenging times in your walk with Christ. This is a book for Easter. It is a book to tune the pastor’s heart more keenly to the plight of others. It is a book to keep returning to. It is one I often grab for words as I take my community through the daily office of morning prayer. When we come to pray for the world and the church and ourselves, there is always some gem from a psalm or saint. I am happy to borrow from the rich store that is there. Thanks, Pete Greig. A moving and shaping read.
