In Him All Things Hold Together

Jesus, as Comfort, Challenge and Company

The book tracks Jesus's story and its implications in prose and poetry--in scripture, story and song, sketches and snippets of essay. After starting with a chapter on ways of being with scripture (taking it seriously but often not literally) and suggestive chapters on God and the Old Testament, it moves from Jesus's incarnation through his ministry and passion for the Kingdom of God to his Passion and bodily resurrection. These are followed by chapters on "what happened next," including two chapters on contemporary Christianity, the good and the bad of it. The "take" on Jesus, as both title and sub-title suggest, is broad, in some ways quite orthodox but insisting on his call for compassion, social justice, inclusiveness and wholeness for all. It's also about Jesus alive and with us now, albeit in a different dimension from those with which we are familiar. The many meditations are often brief, and the poetry is "for people, and not just for critics and other poets"! There is much here to think about, but it's not an academic tome. It can be provocative, and often it's just plain fun!