SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION

What's in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause

by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Eerdmans. 2014. 144p. bibliog. ISBN 9780802871145. pap. $14. REL
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McEntyre (medical humanities, Univ. of California, Davis) is by no means the first or only poet to care deeply about matters of faith, but her history as a writer (Patient Poets; Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies) suggests an unusual, subtle, and touching concern for the words in which faith is conveyed, carried, and treasured. Structured around the broad categories of "assurance," "invitation and admonition," and "mystery and surprise," these brief reflections—really miniessays—respond to a variety of different syncopes from the Bible; they are a kind of close reading of text, but from a spiritual as much as a literary point of view.
VERDICT McEntyre's elegant writing and sensitive awareness of nuance make this brief book a pleasure as well as a source of instruction and insight, excellent for poets and general readers as much as for Christian and spiritual ones.
Reviewed by Graham Christian , May 15, 2014
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