Looking Around for God: The Oddly Reverent Observations of an Unconventional Christian

by James A. Autry

James A. Autry, author of Looking Around for God , thinks that the true message of the old spiritual is not just that God has an eye on the sparrow— it’s that God is demonstrating that if these details are worth God’s attention they are certainly worth ours. It may be that we will more readily find God in the details of this world— and of our own lives— than anywhere else. Looking Around for God , Autry’s tenth book, is in many ways his most personal, as he considers his unique life of faith and belief in a God often clouded by church convention. In assembling these personal essays, stories and poems, Autry strives to share how God has been revealed in many different circumstances of his life, while at the same time offering a few ideas for how the Christian church might better serve in making God’s love and presence manifest in the world.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 18, 2007

About the author

Poet, lecturer, and management consultant James A. Autry was born March 8, 1933, in Memphis, Tennessee, but he grew up in Benton County, Mississippi, and in 1955 received a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi, where he was later named a Distinguished Alumnus and elected to the Alumni Hall of Fame. A former president of the Meredith Corporation’s Magazine Group, publisher of such magazines as Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Successful Farming, he took an early retirement in 1991 to focus more on his present career as speaker and management consultant.

Autry has published ten books, two of which are volumes of poetry. In 1991, the Kentucky Poetry Review published a special issue devoted to Autry’s poetry, and he received national prominence as one of the poets featured on Bill Moyers’ special series The Power of the Word on PBS.

He and his wife, Sally Pederson, live in Des Moines, Iowa.

Reviews

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set of essays and poems. Two parts to the book: 1) Looking for God in the every day, and 2) Looking for God in the church.

Part 1 is much stronger. There are some beautiful reflections -- a favorite was "Simple Gifts," about discovering the every day ways people serve and love.

Part 2 is much crabbier. Autry seems to be working through his fundamentalist Southern Christian upbringing by reclaiming God and Jesus for himself. That's fine, but he comes off with a tone of "NOW I have the Truth, and all those other people don't," which seems to me to be exactly the claim he's condemning his home church for.

Glad I read it, but ambivalent about the second half.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it is that I know of the author and his family or that a good friend recommended the book, but I found that it spoke to me in my world of confusion about religion.

[Carol Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thoughtful introspective look at the world of the christian