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Woven: A Faith for the Dissatisfied
‘This book is about Jesus. It is about my journey toward Jesus. Which may sound strange to some of you, but it is true. It is a journey of losing a Jesus that was too small and looked way too much like me, to a Jesus that began to mesmerise me. A Jesus calling me to something much grander and more holistic and more inclusive than I had thought possible. A Jesus who was drawing me into the true and into the beautiful.’
This is not a book of cookie-cut spirituality. It is not a book of answers, nor programmable spiritual growth. This book is a question. An invitation. A beckoning toward movement and a faith that can weather the storms of life.
In Woven, Joel McKerrow dares to put forth that our questions, struggles and doubts are not something to be feared, but may actually provide us with the path toward a vibrant faith. Joel takes us on a pilgrimage, from childhood belief to grief over a lost religion, to a richer, more sustaining faith that was previously unimaginable to him.
This is a demanding and compelling account of what it means to rethink our Christian beliefs and find both a restoration and a reconstruction into the expansiveness of God’s story.
This is not a book of cookie-cut spirituality. It is not a book of answers, nor programmable spiritual growth. This book is a question. An invitation. A beckoning toward movement and a faith that can weather the storms of life.
In Woven, Joel McKerrow dares to put forth that our questions, struggles and doubts are not something to be feared, but may actually provide us with the path toward a vibrant faith. Joel takes us on a pilgrimage, from childhood belief to grief over a lost religion, to a richer, more sustaining faith that was previously unimaginable to him.
This is a demanding and compelling account of what it means to rethink our Christian beliefs and find both a restoration and a reconstruction into the expansiveness of God’s story.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2019
21 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 7, 2020
There are moments of great beauty in this book, where McKerrow's calling as a poet shines through. It is a good addition to the formational canon and particularly valuable for those making the arduous journey from fundamentalist versions of Christianity to a credible faith in the twenty-first century. It is an honest book, that brings the realities of human experience in touch with our spiritual longing and aspiration. I look forward to the depth that will come in future work as McKerrow continues to weave together his faith and his life journey.
May 20, 2020
A phenomenal book on the journey to independent faith.
April 22, 2020
Although there is much I disagreed with in “Woven” (which I’ll get to shortly), Joel is certainly a great writer. There was some really beautiful prose and poetry in this book. In terms of content, I thought his strongest section was section 1 - the Sculpted Self - which demonstrated very well the communal nature of formation; the way the traditions and people groups we are immersed in shape us so profoundly, often without us even realising it. I appreciated and was challenged by some of his analysis of our Western “fishbowl,” and also some of his critique of the church he grew up in (which happens to be the church I grew up in as well). His honesty about his own experience during his time of unravelling was also really interesting, and a helpful insight into what happens for many people in the teenage and young adult years.
However, the second and third sections were not nearly as strong. Still beautifully written, but there was so much that was concerning here.
Firstly, Joel revels in doubt, uncertainty and the unravelling experience in a way that the Bible does not. In fact, at one point, he suggests that doubt is the “very building block” of faith and that “faith can only exist in the midst of doubt.” But what about Hebrews 11:1? “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” What about John’s stated purpose in writing his Gospel, that we would “know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name”? What about Paul’s prayers that his readers/hearers would “know the hope to which God has called them”? I agree that doubt and questioning can be helpful (and even essential) in faith formation, especially in the teenage and young adult years, but the goal of such questioning is surely to move towards confidence in the truth about God revealed in his word.
But sadly, there is little evidence of such confidence in Woven. Particularly revealing is how little Joel interacts with the Bible throughout his work. One extended discussion on the parable of the Good Samaritan, a couple of quotations of the Bible here and there, and a couple of references to passages without much comment is basically all there is. Strange, especially in a book being touted as the next “Christian classic.”
Most concerningly, the Bible doesn’t seem to be much of an authority in Joel’s ‘re-weaving’ of his faith. He says “I try to refer to God as a she just as much as a he these days.” But does the Bible do this? No. So where’s Joel turning to think this is a better way? Who’s guiding him in his re-weaving? Mostly, he seems to be looking within. He says, talking about his time in a house church in Melbourne - “We knew what we didn’t want our Christianity to look like and this was our fledgling attempt at trying to work out what it might.” Ironically, in a book that takes aim (often quite helpfully) at the influence of the Western fishbowl on our Christianity, it’s *the self* that seems to be the arbiter of truth for Joel, what the self likes, experiences, desires, and feels discontent with. Rather than letting Scripture shape and challenge his theology, it’s his own likes and dislikes that seem to do most of the shaping. He says “I like a Jesus who is connected to the earth, not one who floats above it. I like a spirituality that does not run from the earth but is woven in with it. I like a Christianity that finds God and thus also finds the self in the ordinary reality of life and circumstance.”
But the Christian faith isn’t defined by us, and our likes and dislikes, its defined by God. He’s revealed himself clearly in his word, who he is, and who we are, what Jesus has done. Unfortunately, because of his lack of an anchor in Scripture, Joel’s “faith for the dissatisfied” turns out to be a kind of panentheistic mystical spirituality that bears little resemblance to biblical Christianity. And so while there is much that is helpful in this book, and while I did feel personally challenged in a number of ways, I cannot recommend it. It seems to me more likely to lead the reader away from Christ than toward him, which is a real shame.
However, the second and third sections were not nearly as strong. Still beautifully written, but there was so much that was concerning here.
Firstly, Joel revels in doubt, uncertainty and the unravelling experience in a way that the Bible does not. In fact, at one point, he suggests that doubt is the “very building block” of faith and that “faith can only exist in the midst of doubt.” But what about Hebrews 11:1? “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” What about John’s stated purpose in writing his Gospel, that we would “know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name”? What about Paul’s prayers that his readers/hearers would “know the hope to which God has called them”? I agree that doubt and questioning can be helpful (and even essential) in faith formation, especially in the teenage and young adult years, but the goal of such questioning is surely to move towards confidence in the truth about God revealed in his word.
But sadly, there is little evidence of such confidence in Woven. Particularly revealing is how little Joel interacts with the Bible throughout his work. One extended discussion on the parable of the Good Samaritan, a couple of quotations of the Bible here and there, and a couple of references to passages without much comment is basically all there is. Strange, especially in a book being touted as the next “Christian classic.”
Most concerningly, the Bible doesn’t seem to be much of an authority in Joel’s ‘re-weaving’ of his faith. He says “I try to refer to God as a she just as much as a he these days.” But does the Bible do this? No. So where’s Joel turning to think this is a better way? Who’s guiding him in his re-weaving? Mostly, he seems to be looking within. He says, talking about his time in a house church in Melbourne - “We knew what we didn’t want our Christianity to look like and this was our fledgling attempt at trying to work out what it might.” Ironically, in a book that takes aim (often quite helpfully) at the influence of the Western fishbowl on our Christianity, it’s *the self* that seems to be the arbiter of truth for Joel, what the self likes, experiences, desires, and feels discontent with. Rather than letting Scripture shape and challenge his theology, it’s his own likes and dislikes that seem to do most of the shaping. He says “I like a Jesus who is connected to the earth, not one who floats above it. I like a spirituality that does not run from the earth but is woven in with it. I like a Christianity that finds God and thus also finds the self in the ordinary reality of life and circumstance.”
But the Christian faith isn’t defined by us, and our likes and dislikes, its defined by God. He’s revealed himself clearly in his word, who he is, and who we are, what Jesus has done. Unfortunately, because of his lack of an anchor in Scripture, Joel’s “faith for the dissatisfied” turns out to be a kind of panentheistic mystical spirituality that bears little resemblance to biblical Christianity. And so while there is much that is helpful in this book, and while I did feel personally challenged in a number of ways, I cannot recommend it. It seems to me more likely to lead the reader away from Christ than toward him, which is a real shame.
June 4, 2023
Love that Joel is narrating (listen via audio) as he gives himself in all of his poetic beauty. If your dissatisfied with faith, thinking 'there must be more than this', then Woven is a book that can help you move forward. It is relatable, challenging, gracious, loving and so much more.
I'm off to read it again.
I'm off to read it again.
December 26, 2023
A story, an invitation ,a hand to hand fellowship of those searching, feeling lost in the paradox of simple and loving faith in the world of crisis. Its about striping down the old, embracing the fight and woving the image of oneself in their community, in their faith and perception of God.
Maybe the God you follow seems small and out of touch, but what if is just how you learned to see him?
I enjoyed Joel's honest,observing, life-sharing writing style.
It really is-or should be- a fresh classic in christian literature.
Maybe the God you follow seems small and out of touch, but what if is just how you learned to see him?
I enjoyed Joel's honest,observing, life-sharing writing style.
It really is-or should be- a fresh classic in christian literature.
August 31, 2020
I opened this book, early one Sunday morning and turned the last page later that same day. I could not put it down. Woven is Joel’s personal story of the pilgrimage of faith that his life has travelled. It was also a story that I related too hugely and know, from conversations that I have regularly, many others will too.
Joel says of Woven: “This book is about Jesus. It is about my journey toward Jesus. Which may sound strange to some of you, but it is true. It’s a journey of losing a Jesus that was too small and looked way too much like me, to a Jesus that began to mesmerise me. A Jesus calling me to something much grander and more holistic and more inclusive than I had thought possible. A Jesus who was drawing me into the true and into the beautiful.”
Looking at the idea that each of us holds a ‘Sculpted Self’, the person that we are formed into by our families, the places where we have grown up and for the Christian, the faith we have had passed down to us and the church traditions to which we have belonged, Joel writes movingly of how that table, which we are shaped around, will only carry us so far. One day, it will need to break.
“The sculpted self insists it knows the answer”. I remember in my early twenties when the conservative, evangelical faith of my childhood sat uncomfortably with me, I suddenly had far more questions than answers. Many of the questions that Joel talks of as being part of his story where also part of mine and like him, I too, came to the point of feeling with the entirety of my being, ‘there must be more than this.’
With the heart - searching words of a poet, Joel goes on to write of the ‘Unravelled Self’. The self that we are left with when the table breaks. The self that can find itself painfully alone and grieving as it searches for something solid on which to stand when all that had once held feet firm, has been swept away. The self who doesn’t know who they are becoming but yet is certain of who they don’t want to be. The self who feels lost, angry, confused and hurt. ‘Unravelling’, Joel writes, ‘is painful but necessary’. It invites you to leave things behind and trust that there is something more and something truly beautiful to be found. It is a costly bid for freedom:
“Our redemption always emerges from where we least expect it to come.
When we are willing to see the Divine in places we didn’t think he should be, where we have been told he does not play, with people we are sure that he doesn’t interact with, it is then that our eyes are opened. It is then that our fishbowl is smashed. It can hurt. It can cost us. Yet the freedom of the new frontier always outweighs the pain of the tearing.” (Woven: A Faith for the Dissatisfied)
And finally, Woven, concludes with the “Woven Self” and my word, did I weep often as I read these pages.
With the most incredible grace, Joel writes of how the unravelling place, is not a place ultimately to stay, It is a place that the pilgrimage of faith and life can lead us to. A necessary, painful, place of deconstruction. A place of naming what has been wrong, unjust and hypocritical. It can feel like a desert to walk through. A place where we may feel anger, bitterness, sorrow and confusion, where we think we can do better our own way. To live in such place forever though, would not be life-giving. Not one of us can do life alone, we need a place to come back to. And although there will be many times through our lives that we find ourselves unravelling, (and sculpted), the person who has grasped something of what it is to weave the threads of life and death, sorrow and joy, pain and healing, injustice and salvation, and hold the tensions, not needing to have all the answers but commits to a perspective of grace, honouring the mystery of paradox' this person weaves a place to call home and finds themselves changed.
“The Woven Self knows that life can be full of pain and this pain can be full of joy. It knows that God can be as close as the skin and at the same time far away. It understands that to find life, you must lose life. It realises that the poor are blessed and the rich are actually poor. The Woven Self does not run from paradoxical tensions, but rather embraces the learning to be found within them.” (Woven: A Faith for the Dissatisfied)
As I have written this review, I have been aware that I cannot even begin to scratch the depth of Joel’s words. This really is an incredible book. Interwoven with personal stories, reflections, insight and poetry, Joel is unflinchingly honest and consistently compassionate, hopeful and grace filled. Michael Frost writes in his review of Woven, of how “…over 100 years ago William James described what he termed the twice-born soul – the person who had found a richer, more sustaining faith by going through the painful loss of childhood belief. He said the faith of the twice-born is more robust, like a bone that breaks and heals stronger at the broken place. This beautifully written book is for those who have chafed at the loss of faith and hunger to be twice born. Joel McKerrow leads us gently but insistently through the grief of losing our religion to the less cheerful, less confident, deeper, more realistic outlook of what he calls the woven self. This is a brave, honest and heart- warming book.”
For me, this has been the book of my year so far. I am just about to begin to read it again...
Joel says of Woven: “This book is about Jesus. It is about my journey toward Jesus. Which may sound strange to some of you, but it is true. It’s a journey of losing a Jesus that was too small and looked way too much like me, to a Jesus that began to mesmerise me. A Jesus calling me to something much grander and more holistic and more inclusive than I had thought possible. A Jesus who was drawing me into the true and into the beautiful.”
Looking at the idea that each of us holds a ‘Sculpted Self’, the person that we are formed into by our families, the places where we have grown up and for the Christian, the faith we have had passed down to us and the church traditions to which we have belonged, Joel writes movingly of how that table, which we are shaped around, will only carry us so far. One day, it will need to break.
“The sculpted self insists it knows the answer”. I remember in my early twenties when the conservative, evangelical faith of my childhood sat uncomfortably with me, I suddenly had far more questions than answers. Many of the questions that Joel talks of as being part of his story where also part of mine and like him, I too, came to the point of feeling with the entirety of my being, ‘there must be more than this.’
With the heart - searching words of a poet, Joel goes on to write of the ‘Unravelled Self’. The self that we are left with when the table breaks. The self that can find itself painfully alone and grieving as it searches for something solid on which to stand when all that had once held feet firm, has been swept away. The self who doesn’t know who they are becoming but yet is certain of who they don’t want to be. The self who feels lost, angry, confused and hurt. ‘Unravelling’, Joel writes, ‘is painful but necessary’. It invites you to leave things behind and trust that there is something more and something truly beautiful to be found. It is a costly bid for freedom:
“Our redemption always emerges from where we least expect it to come.
When we are willing to see the Divine in places we didn’t think he should be, where we have been told he does not play, with people we are sure that he doesn’t interact with, it is then that our eyes are opened. It is then that our fishbowl is smashed. It can hurt. It can cost us. Yet the freedom of the new frontier always outweighs the pain of the tearing.” (Woven: A Faith for the Dissatisfied)
And finally, Woven, concludes with the “Woven Self” and my word, did I weep often as I read these pages.
With the most incredible grace, Joel writes of how the unravelling place, is not a place ultimately to stay, It is a place that the pilgrimage of faith and life can lead us to. A necessary, painful, place of deconstruction. A place of naming what has been wrong, unjust and hypocritical. It can feel like a desert to walk through. A place where we may feel anger, bitterness, sorrow and confusion, where we think we can do better our own way. To live in such place forever though, would not be life-giving. Not one of us can do life alone, we need a place to come back to. And although there will be many times through our lives that we find ourselves unravelling, (and sculpted), the person who has grasped something of what it is to weave the threads of life and death, sorrow and joy, pain and healing, injustice and salvation, and hold the tensions, not needing to have all the answers but commits to a perspective of grace, honouring the mystery of paradox' this person weaves a place to call home and finds themselves changed.
“The Woven Self knows that life can be full of pain and this pain can be full of joy. It knows that God can be as close as the skin and at the same time far away. It understands that to find life, you must lose life. It realises that the poor are blessed and the rich are actually poor. The Woven Self does not run from paradoxical tensions, but rather embraces the learning to be found within them.” (Woven: A Faith for the Dissatisfied)
As I have written this review, I have been aware that I cannot even begin to scratch the depth of Joel’s words. This really is an incredible book. Interwoven with personal stories, reflections, insight and poetry, Joel is unflinchingly honest and consistently compassionate, hopeful and grace filled. Michael Frost writes in his review of Woven, of how “…over 100 years ago William James described what he termed the twice-born soul – the person who had found a richer, more sustaining faith by going through the painful loss of childhood belief. He said the faith of the twice-born is more robust, like a bone that breaks and heals stronger at the broken place. This beautifully written book is for those who have chafed at the loss of faith and hunger to be twice born. Joel McKerrow leads us gently but insistently through the grief of losing our religion to the less cheerful, less confident, deeper, more realistic outlook of what he calls the woven self. This is a brave, honest and heart- warming book.”
For me, this has been the book of my year so far. I am just about to begin to read it again...
April 30, 2020
This book is an honest, raw, unrestrained exploration into the realities of what it looks like to wrestle with ideas and to run after authentic faith in the midst of complexity. I relished Joel’s honesty and transparency to lay bare the tumultuous formation journey that so many of us keep hidden unless is perfectly reflects the status quo and ties everything up with pretty bows. Our world is so complex, as are our experiences within it, and I loved this book because it
is a courageous journey into ideas that might rock the boat- but might also set you free to suspend judgement on your inner wrestle and not be afraid to let things unravel. This is a testimony of how God holds all things together in Jesus- and His love is big enough for all the parts of ourselves to speak their truth and hear His.
is a courageous journey into ideas that might rock the boat- but might also set you free to suspend judgement on your inner wrestle and not be afraid to let things unravel. This is a testimony of how God holds all things together in Jesus- and His love is big enough for all the parts of ourselves to speak their truth and hear His.
May 3, 2020
Joel writes with an honesty that is to be admired and, if possible, emulated in our own lives to ourselves. He asks that we question ourselves, and everything we have assumed is known. Not because it must be wrong but in order to more fully know our selves and live. He challenges us to consider why it is that we do what we do and think what we think; to be awake and not asleep in our living.
It has been sitting in my pile of to be read books for a while as I think I’d let it sit there as I assumed it would require something of me in the read. And it did, but I was wrong to think it would be too much. Joel is gentle in his invitation while still being honest and sharing from a place that many of us may have deep reservations about revealing, re-framing a faith that reaches both outwards and inwards.
It has been sitting in my pile of to be read books for a while as I think I’d let it sit there as I assumed it would require something of me in the read. And it did, but I was wrong to think it would be too much. Joel is gentle in his invitation while still being honest and sharing from a place that many of us may have deep reservations about revealing, re-framing a faith that reaches both outwards and inwards.
February 4, 2020
Joel McKerrow grew up in a fishbowl: a safely defined, but ultimately confined, controlled and repetitive space.
For Joel, this fishbowl was the world of evangelical Christianity in Sydney, Australia. He recounts the moments and movements that cracked that bowl for him, and his spiritual journey since.
What does it mean to re-examine the assumptions, practices and communities that have shaped us? Why is deconstruction necessary? And what might lie on the far side?
We all have our fishbowls. This is a book for anyone who has felt their life and all they thought they knew falling apart. And for those who hope there might be a way of weaving together something new after the old assumptions have been overthrown.
For Joel, this fishbowl was the world of evangelical Christianity in Sydney, Australia. He recounts the moments and movements that cracked that bowl for him, and his spiritual journey since.
What does it mean to re-examine the assumptions, practices and communities that have shaped us? Why is deconstruction necessary? And what might lie on the far side?
We all have our fishbowls. This is a book for anyone who has felt their life and all they thought they knew falling apart. And for those who hope there might be a way of weaving together something new after the old assumptions have been overthrown.
April 30, 2020
This booked changed me. Challenged me. Inspired me. It shook my thinking, deliberately so, and I loved that. While there are certainly elements that wouldn’t go along with my beliefs and thinking, Joel writes this book as someone who has experienced the pain of life, and leaves the reader with a freedom to step into the questions of life and ultimately it doesn’t matter if I agree or not. I was on a search for Jesus, I found him. My whole life was burdened by guilt because of what conservative Christians had ‘taught’ us a family. Joel taught me that there was more to unravel, that it was ok to do so and that I wasn’t the only one feeling lost at the same time as being found.
May 3, 2020
This is more than just a memoir. Joel invites us into his story and asks the reader to reflect on their own life...
Of all the books I’ve read that deal with making sense of a spirituality and world view you are born into, this is the most generous, inclusive and graceful. Joel’s prose is stunning and his heart is authentic.
In conversations that usually end up in binary, boxed and unhelpful sides and structures, this book invites us to imagine a much more holistic and meaningful way of being.
So grateful for this book.
Of all the books I’ve read that deal with making sense of a spirituality and world view you are born into, this is the most generous, inclusive and graceful. Joel’s prose is stunning and his heart is authentic.
In conversations that usually end up in binary, boxed and unhelpful sides and structures, this book invites us to imagine a much more holistic and meaningful way of being.
So grateful for this book.
December 7, 2019
A great book, although I did not finish as quick as I could. That is mainly because the number of books that I’ve already read on the deconstruction and reconstruction phase. But this one is highly recommended!
April 30, 2020
Woven is a beautifully written welcome home to those of us who have sat on the fringes, or felt massively misunderstood, or been burned by religion. It's a gentle and loving invitation to sit with the mystery and see with new eyes.
May 6, 2020
Absolutely loved this book. I listened to the audio version and was definitely encouraged when thinking about my own deconstruction and reconstruction phases. Joel's passion ignites a flame in each reader's heart. If you haven't read it yet, you are missing out!
May 1, 2020
A beautifully written journey of vulnerability. Moved me to tears and filled me with hope for humanity.
May 3, 2020
An inspirationally honest story of faith in our time from the perspective of a mystical Aussie poet.
November 7, 2020
Poeticly and beautifully expressed the tensions I'm experiencing in my faith at the moment.
September 28, 2022
Beautiful!
December 1, 2022
Love the grappling of how to live as a faithful follower of Christ now. Respect for the honesty, the struggle and perseverence.
June 27, 2020
I have just finished reading “Woven - A Faith for the Dissatisfied” by Joel McKerrow. This book is a great read. Joel so eloquently articulates what many of us on the faith journey experience. This book is primarily about trying to recapture and rekindle a vibrant faith. A faith that is not afraid to live within the tensions of life, to ask questions without asking for answers, and that is open to listening to others perspectives. A faith that is not based on performance but on rediscovering what it means to live a life from your deepest convictions. I liken this book to a Diamond and the way in which it is formed and fashioned. We are all diamonds in the rough being shaped and shifted. In the end a diamond is something of exquisite beauty
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews