First couple of reviews

We were really delighted to read the first couple of reviews of Fringe Dweller. One was in the latest newsletter of the Spiritual directors forum UK. It’s a short review but Melissa totally gets what we have tried to do with the book.

We said at the launch that there are several audiences for the book and it is no more for one of those audiences than another. But spiritual directors makes perfect sense. Jonny is one after all! Melissa has kindly said we can share her review so here it is

A refreshing series of forty reflections, practices and liturgies that frame Jesus as ‘Fringe Dweller’ (similar to Edge Walker, perhaps?) – One who reached out and advocated for those ‘outside the gate’ or who experienced a form of exclusion, and who experienced something of this in his own life on earth. The reflections are fruits of Ignatian ways of praying with the Scripture passages and they also draw on biblical scholarship and modern psychology. Each reflection is followed by an imaginative exercise or practice that looks either outwards or inwards and a short liturgy that is simple yet poetic and profound. They could be useful to support your own prayer life or to add to your toolkit of resources you may wish to share with your directees.

I find the reflections invite me to stand in a different place as I contemplate a well-known passage, and so I encounter Christ in a new way. I think they help to exercise my spiritual director’s “muscle” by drawing me to experience different perspectives and journey beyond the familiar. Perhaps they will do the same for you?
Melissa Pearce

The other one was in the Baptist Times last week. it was written by Simon Hall. It’s a bit longer so we’ll leave you with the quotes above. But do go and have a read.