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Subversive Spirituality
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188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 15, 2018
"I know what you probably think about Eugene Peterson, but you need to know that he has things to offer."
- something we didn't expect to hear in Systematic Theology class on a Tuesday morning this semester
This book is a collection of essays in the "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals" (Piper) style, coming from an evangelical pastoring in a mainline Presbyterian denomination (PCUSA) . If you ignore (or read between the lines of) the hippie parts of this book, it's actually very helpful and can teach us a lot about the practical nature of the Christian faith.
- something we didn't expect to hear in Systematic Theology class on a Tuesday morning this semester
This book is a collection of essays in the "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals" (Piper) style, coming from an evangelical pastoring in a mainline Presbyterian denomination (PCUSA) . If you ignore (or read between the lines of) the hippie parts of this book, it's actually very helpful and can teach us a lot about the practical nature of the Christian faith.
May 30, 2019
A collection of writings, musings, considerations, poetry, and conversations that imaginatively outline an imaginatively lived life. Peterson's the real deal - pastor, prophet, poet, writer, friend. Of those I consider my spiritual guides, mentors, templates - he is preeminent among them.
Read the book not merely for the book. Read it to meet Eugene (he's been telling us to call him that his entire life).
Read the book not merely for the book. Read it to meet Eugene (he's been telling us to call him that his entire life).
March 4, 2020
Eugene Peterson - St Eugene as my friend Joseph calls him - is most famous for The Message, a version of the Bible in contemporary language.
I was at university doing a degree in English around the time The Message first came out, and I was very sniffy about it. I thought it was distastefully colloquial and I used to go through unnecessarily dramatic internal contortions whenever it was read out. By making the language less refined and less literary, more colloquial, more of-the-moment, I felt he was making the scriptures too time-bound (rather than timeless) and less sacred.
As time has passed though, I've realised that in fact, by providing fresh eyes to see - possibilities about what is woven into scripture - he has introduced people to the everyday sacred.
That is beautiful work - and, in fact, his life's work - wonderfully captured in this collection of essays.
It's an oldish collection - came out a couple of years after The Message New Testament in the late 1990s - but it is Eugene at his pastoral, literary, subtle, direct, down to earth, profound best. Plenty to inspire, intrigue and quote. A real smorgasbord. Great stuff.
I was at university doing a degree in English around the time The Message first came out, and I was very sniffy about it. I thought it was distastefully colloquial and I used to go through unnecessarily dramatic internal contortions whenever it was read out. By making the language less refined and less literary, more colloquial, more of-the-moment, I felt he was making the scriptures too time-bound (rather than timeless) and less sacred.
As time has passed though, I've realised that in fact, by providing fresh eyes to see - possibilities about what is woven into scripture - he has introduced people to the everyday sacred.
That is beautiful work - and, in fact, his life's work - wonderfully captured in this collection of essays.
It's an oldish collection - came out a couple of years after The Message New Testament in the late 1990s - but it is Eugene at his pastoral, literary, subtle, direct, down to earth, profound best. Plenty to inspire, intrigue and quote. A real smorgasbord. Great stuff.
December 21, 2007
Eugene Peterson uses and views words so reverantly, thoughtfully, carefully, creatively and relationally (just as he views people), so I will let him summarize his absolutely brilliant, fresh, subversive book, giving you a taste of what this book of articles, poems, essays, and conversations is about: "the Christian life, in one of its main aspects, is a recovery of what was lost in the Fall. We happen upon, we notice, we reach out and touch things and ideas, people and events, and among these the Holy Scriptures themselves, that were there all along but that our ego-swollen souls or our sin-blurred eyes quite simply overlooked -- sometimes for years and years and years..." If you often miss Christ and his redemption in the busy, commercialized, materialistic day-to-day world we live in, this is a book you must read to see Christ living and working in the midst of it.
June 28, 2019
Loved this compilation of articles and interviews. While largely written for pastors, this is Peterson, a humble consistent voice for entering into what God is doing in the world, a wise gently man.
June 7, 2025
I admit. I abandoned this after the first few chapters because I just couldn't handle more dense, theological prose. I rejoined later in the book (pastoral readings) and ended up loving from there to the end. Authentic. Ambiguous. Magical.
February 22, 2018
Excellent read on articles and interviews by Peterson over the years.
July 19, 2019
A collection of articles and talks that Peterson has contributed over the years. If you’ve read a lot of his stuff, this may be a little redundant.
December 16, 2023
In my copy of Eugene Peterson’s Subversive Spirituality (Eerdmans), there’s a second-class Trenitalia ticket tucked between pages 90 and 91. This ticket—stamped for the international “Como S. Giovanni → Lugano” route—has been in exactly that spot for 18 years, ever since a backpacking trip around Italy (and a brief foray into Switzerland) with two college buddies.
I must have started reading this ragtag collection of journal articles, magazine columns, and interviews on the red-eye from Philly to Rome. I kept reading as we made our way north through Tuscany and destinations beyond. But I never finished it. I got distracted or bogged down, the evidence would suggest, smack dab between a pair of chapters on the book of Revelation. Go figure.
This Italy trip was the experience of a lifetime for me: touring the Vatican, walking the cobble-stone streets of Assisi, lounging on the beach in Cinque Terre, eating pasta, drinking Chianti, riding trains, sleeping in hostels. I guess I wasn’t in the mood for apocalypse.
Recently, though, fellow Eugene Peterson devotee David Taylor tweeted a quote from Subversive Spirituality (a provocative quote, some might say), which reminded me about that train ticket and how I’d always hoped to finish the book—or, better, go back and read it from the beginning.
I’m glad I did. This is vintage Eugene Peterson here, if a little rough around the edges. Some of the chapters contain the seeds of ideas that would later grow into mature books. Elsewhere, we come across material that feels (to me) completely fresh. As with any collection of disparate writings, it feels disjointed in places and there’s some repetition. Because it’s Peterson, I don’t mind too much.
Most of Subversive Spirituality is enjoyably soul-stirring and thought-provoking. But there are some isolated—though not insignificant—exceptions. In a couple of chapters, we see (not for the first time) Peterson’s unfortunate tendency to go out of his way to make a punchline out of journalists and journalism—without ever bothering to distinguish between courageous truth-tellers on the one hand and partisan, gossipy hacks on the other.
This pattern isn’t just unfortunate. It’s also perplexing, given Peterson’s dedication to the spiritual formation of the laity, not just on Sunday mornings or during “quiet times” but for their daily working lives as well. And it’s strange in light of Peterson’s own personal and professional commitment to the cultivation of words as a meaningful—even sacred—craft. Surely Peterson was aware that journalists were among his readers, among his parishioners? Surely he could have imagined that at least some principled journalists might see their work through a lens of faithful stewardship? Surely he would have wanted to encourage, challenge—and yes, pastor—such caretakers of words in their fraught, frequently lambasted work? Apparently not.
I recognize I’m making a bigger deal of this tendency than another reader of Subversive Spirituality might consider warranted. But I think this anomaly serves as a good reminder that even when we are intimately acquainted with an author’s writing, when we love and return to it more than nearly any other author’s oeuvre… even so we will now and then come across stuff in that body of work that we dislike, that we think is uncharitable and unhelpful.
And I’m here to say, that’s OK. It’s nothing to be threatened by.
Authors of books are—or can be, if we let them—conversation partners. Which is another way of saying that authors are humans like the rest of us. A conversation partner who sees everything the way I do is a boring conversation partner.
And Eugene Peterson is rarely boring, which makes him one of the best. Even, in these rare cases, when he’s wrong. Even, God help me, when I sometimes need a break.
I must have started reading this ragtag collection of journal articles, magazine columns, and interviews on the red-eye from Philly to Rome. I kept reading as we made our way north through Tuscany and destinations beyond. But I never finished it. I got distracted or bogged down, the evidence would suggest, smack dab between a pair of chapters on the book of Revelation. Go figure.
This Italy trip was the experience of a lifetime for me: touring the Vatican, walking the cobble-stone streets of Assisi, lounging on the beach in Cinque Terre, eating pasta, drinking Chianti, riding trains, sleeping in hostels. I guess I wasn’t in the mood for apocalypse.
Recently, though, fellow Eugene Peterson devotee David Taylor tweeted a quote from Subversive Spirituality (a provocative quote, some might say), which reminded me about that train ticket and how I’d always hoped to finish the book—or, better, go back and read it from the beginning.
I’m glad I did. This is vintage Eugene Peterson here, if a little rough around the edges. Some of the chapters contain the seeds of ideas that would later grow into mature books. Elsewhere, we come across material that feels (to me) completely fresh. As with any collection of disparate writings, it feels disjointed in places and there’s some repetition. Because it’s Peterson, I don’t mind too much.
Most of Subversive Spirituality is enjoyably soul-stirring and thought-provoking. But there are some isolated—though not insignificant—exceptions. In a couple of chapters, we see (not for the first time) Peterson’s unfortunate tendency to go out of his way to make a punchline out of journalists and journalism—without ever bothering to distinguish between courageous truth-tellers on the one hand and partisan, gossipy hacks on the other.
This pattern isn’t just unfortunate. It’s also perplexing, given Peterson’s dedication to the spiritual formation of the laity, not just on Sunday mornings or during “quiet times” but for their daily working lives as well. And it’s strange in light of Peterson’s own personal and professional commitment to the cultivation of words as a meaningful—even sacred—craft. Surely Peterson was aware that journalists were among his readers, among his parishioners? Surely he could have imagined that at least some principled journalists might see their work through a lens of faithful stewardship? Surely he would have wanted to encourage, challenge—and yes, pastor—such caretakers of words in their fraught, frequently lambasted work? Apparently not.
I recognize I’m making a bigger deal of this tendency than another reader of Subversive Spirituality might consider warranted. But I think this anomaly serves as a good reminder that even when we are intimately acquainted with an author’s writing, when we love and return to it more than nearly any other author’s oeuvre… even so we will now and then come across stuff in that body of work that we dislike, that we think is uncharitable and unhelpful.
And I’m here to say, that’s OK. It’s nothing to be threatened by.
Authors of books are—or can be, if we let them—conversation partners. Which is another way of saying that authors are humans like the rest of us. A conversation partner who sees everything the way I do is a boring conversation partner.
And Eugene Peterson is rarely boring, which makes him one of the best. Even, in these rare cases, when he’s wrong. Even, God help me, when I sometimes need a break.
December 4, 2007
In this collection of essays, poems (yes, poems!), and interviews by/with Eugene Peterson, he presents a fresh approach to spiritual care of others. He challenged me to approach counseling with more prayer and more imagination as I seek to connect their story with God's Story as revealed in the Bible. He subverts the idea of a pastor as one who is primarily the business manager of a church or a need-meeter, but invites pastors (and those doing pastoral work) to focus on where God is already at work in people's lives. Which can only truly be done through prayer. He encourages pastors to read novels to nurture their thinking to this end: of approaching people as a novelist rather than a journalist.
A summary quote from his essay "Teach Us to Care, and Not to Care": "When care is restored to our lives in its true and proper context, the presence and action of God, our caring then becomes an extension of our prayer, instead of [prayer] just being tacked on to our caring."
A summary quote from his essay "Teach Us to Care, and Not to Care": "When care is restored to our lives in its true and proper context, the presence and action of God, our caring then becomes an extension of our prayer, instead of [prayer] just being tacked on to our caring."
August 7, 2014
I read and re-read Eugene Peterson often, to be reminded of what matters most in pastoral ministry. Actually, more than ministry; he lifts me to consider the richness of life itself. Unfailingly I am reoriented by the clarity of his vision and his insistence that pastors be counter-culture. This collection brings forth that vision in a variety of settings. This re-read is in preparation for a pastor-theologian retreat in which 10 pastors will join in conversation over this and other books. Peterson says, "Right now, one of the essential Christian ministries in and to our ruined world is the recovery and exercise of the imagination." Yes.
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November 30, 2023Enjoyed the essays and poems on the beatitudes the most. The interviews weren't the best except the last one. I think they were bad due to the leading questions.
Some takeaways for me:
- the Christian faith has a lot to do with the unseen and we need an imagination to deal with the unseen
- novels have helped Eugene Peterson form this imagination and given him images of what wholeness looks like through characters
- we are invited, not obligated into God's work, the more we realize that, the more we'll be able to love others
Some takeaways for me:
- the Christian faith has a lot to do with the unseen and we need an imagination to deal with the unseen
- novels have helped Eugene Peterson form this imagination and given him images of what wholeness looks like through characters
- we are invited, not obligated into God's work, the more we realize that, the more we'll be able to love others
March 4, 2007
Eugene Peterson is the author behind "The Message" (a modern day language translation of the bible), and I've enjoyed quite a few of his books. This one is perhaps his best one, articulating deep, inner spirituality that permeates all throughout life, rather than external forms and rituals that we often equate as "being spiritual."
November 25, 2013
Phenomenal look inside the mind and pastoral life of Eugene Peterson. Features a collection of interviews, journal articles, and biblical studies. The diverse selection provides spontaneity and depth. It was a great read!
July 6, 2013
My first introduction to Eugene Peterson. Very, very well written - this man can craft sentences. Not sure I agree with all of his perspectives, but a good read nonetheless.
November 21, 2013
good interesting stuff
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October 30, 2013When is doing pastoral work subversive? Almost always if being done according to God's calling. Peterson calls pastors to subversion, in the best sense of the word.
March 11, 2025
Beautifully written collection of essays, messages and interviews of pastor-author Eugene Peterson. 5/5 stars!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews