By Jim Heffernan
Braver Angels has a library* of sorts. There aren’t any real books there, but there’s a growing list with summaries and reviews for about 130+ books. These are books people have chosen because they’ve liked them and because they are consistent with the Braver Angels goal of bridging the divides that sadly separate us.
The library grew a little quicker than expected and has reached a point where searching through the books became unwieldy. They needed somebody to put the book titles into a Excel workbook and I volunteered. Spreadsheets and books, what’s not to like?
That’s how I found this book. The title ” A Gentle Answer” just called out to me. I can’t think there’s anything we need more right now than A Gentle Answer for each other.
The author Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. This is his sixth book and he’s crafted his writing skills very well. He talks about very heavy subjects, yet you feel as if you’re sharing coffee at a quiet table.
The book is divided into eight chapters. It’s not a good book for speed-reading. I found myself often pausing and re-reading to better absorb the material. As if that wasn’t enough to slow me down, he ends each chapter with 3 or 4 very personal questions that force you into deeper thought about what he has to say.
The titles of the last five chapters could be a good list of New Year’s (or any other time) resolutions. They are “We grow thicker skin, we do anger well, we receive criticism graciously, we forgive all the way, and we bless our own betrayers.”
Sometime in the past, I became a little too hip for Christianity. I substituted it with a hand-rolled theology of “Space-Ship Earth and we’re the crew”. This book made me realize that my hand-rolled theology fits together very well with the bedrock morality of Christianity.
Here’s a couple of excerpts.
Page xx introduction
“While true faith is filled with holy fire, it is a fire that is meant for refining and healing, as opposed to dividing and destroying. If our faith ignites hurt rather than healing upon the bodies, hearts, and souls of other people—even those who treat us unkindly—then something has gone terribly wrong with our faith.”
Page 43
“Whether conservative or progressive, whether religious or nonreligious, we must be careful, in our passionate zeal against the spirit of the unloving Pharisee, that we do not become unloving Pharisees ourselves—a hate group who is harsh, manipulative, and condemning with anyone who disagrees with us. This truth applies not only along ideological and doctrinal lines but also along economic and cultural and moral ones.”
Best of all, he ends the book with St. Francis’ prayer of peace:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring you light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
*Here’s the link to BA library. https://braverangels.org/library/
As always, discussion is welcome at codger817@gmail.com
224 Pages Published June 2, 2020
Available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita, Tillamook Public Library (Hoopla Only),others
4.42 average out of 5 on Goodreads. 1068 ratings
