A book by Eugene Peterson is not to be missed; this one is no exception. Peterson’s intention is to “engage in an extended and serious conversation with my brother and sister Christians around the phrase ‘growing up in Christ’.” It is Jesus’ resurrection, he says, that establishes the conditions in which we “live and mature in the Christian life and carry on this conversation: Jesus is alive and present.” It is that sense of the presence of the living Christ that “keeps us from attempting to take charge of our own development and growth.” Meditating on its “huge mystery” releases unprecedented energies that prevent us “from reducing the language of our conversation to what we can define or control.” It becomes something we can only live into, practice. “We live our lives in the practice of what we do not originate and cannot anticipate,” Peterson writes, and keeping company with Jesus, we grow up in him. Compelling book. Accompanied by a 13-session Study Guide. (William B. Eerdmans Publ.)
