Acts [Hardcover]

Larry Woiwode (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this affecting if occasionally inaccessible book, noted novelist Woiwode ( Indian Affairs ) uses Acts, "the most overtly narrative book of the New Testament," to frame his meditations on his work and faith. Once an "agnostic humanist, a hedonist roarer," later a writer with critical success and money but no peace, Woiwode began a spiritual odyssey that led him to settle with his family on a farm in North Dakota. His growing religious passion lost him some friends but helped him see his writing as Christian service. A critic of the organized church with some conservative impulses, Woiwode argues that it is "inadvisable" for churches to send money overseas if local members are in need. As "a fairly representative modern," he suggests people should "wrestle" with Scripture, not "exclude passages that disagree with personal views." Woiwode is an adroit writer, but, though he claims to be addressing "the needs of the student I once was," his account may be too intricate for the uninitiated.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Teacher and fiction writer Woiwode ( Born Brothers , LJ 8/88) journeys between his own intense faith experiences and that of the earliest Christian communities in ten essays on the New Testament book attributed to Luke. He asserts the faith of historical Christianity over humanist values in a secular culture. At times, this work reads like a seminary lecture on scripture, at others like a modern sermon, and still others like the poetry of a spiritual conversation. The tone is personal, with images from the Bible expressed in modern terms. The author says, "I have tried to address the needs of the student I once was." He describes his journey from youthful Catholicism to hedonism, earnest searching of the scriptures for truth, and, finally, his current espousal of Calvinist-inspired faith. Readers will find this book most valuable for its contemporary reflections; for detailed interpretations of the Book of Acts, they should turn to the many scholarly commentaries available. Recommended for its literary value and for collections on Christianity in literature.
- Anna Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 244 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (March 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060694041
• ISBN-13: 978-0060694043
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry Alfred Woiwode (born October 30, 1941) is an American writer who lives in North Dakota, where he has been the state's Poet Laureate since 1995. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Gentleman's Quarterly, The Partisan Review and The Paris Review. He is the author of five novels; two collections of short stories, a commentary titled "Acts," a biography of the Gold Seal founder and entrepreneur, Harold Schafer, Aristocrat of the West, a book of poetry, Even Tide ; and reviews and essays and essay-reviews that have appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post Book World.

He has served as Writer in Residence at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and conducted summer sessions as a professor at Wheaton College, Chicago, and the C.S. Lewis Seminars at Cambridge; he has also conducted seminars and workshops in fourteen states of the U.S., all of the Canadian provinces but British Columbia, and in England, Lithuania, and the Scandinavias. He has published a dozen book sin a variety of genres, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages.