God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World [Paperback]

Dean Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Have you ever had a conversation that went far deeper than the words spoken or an experience where you felt you had participated in something sacred? Although these situations may seem unexplainable, they are reminders that God's grace surrounds us constantly and shows up in manifold ways. In this colorful, story-driven introduction to sacramental living, veteran journalist Dean Nelson offers all Christians a way to see the presence of God amid the chaos and monotony of everyday life. Each chapter emphasizes a different kind of sacramental moment, showing how it can be a lens through which we can see more of God.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Seeing the Presence of God in Everyday Life

"Dean Nelson has a lively, conversational writing style, and this book has wonderful and valuable things to say. I won't soon forget them."--Frederick Buechner, author of Listening to Your Life

"In a world where so much miraculous is perceived as ordinary, Dean Nelson points out the places where we see God in our everyday lives, helping us understand that the mundane might actually be holy. In a wonderful narrative, Nelson weaves the sacred presence of God through his text and reveals that thread also running through our own lives. A lovely read."--Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz

"The church has long used the concept of sacraments--outward signs of inward grace--to name the spaces where God meets us in an especially present way. For many Christians, however, that language seems abstract, even (sadly) foreign. Dean Nelson lovingly explores those spaces of encountering God; his luminous book has helped me see anew the sacred in the ordinary."--Lauren Winner, Duke Divinity School, author of Girl Meets God

"Dean Nelson is God's spy, looking for God in all the times and places most of us would never think to explore. He doesn't miss much. Combining the readability of excellent writing and the reliability of sound scholarship, God Hides in Plain Sight is better than a spy novel."--Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message, Regent College, Vancouver

"Dean Nelson writes beautifully. And no less wonderful, he sees beautifully and knows how to help us see what he sees. God Hides in Plain Sight will help you spot what is most worth seeing (and very easily missed): the beauty of God camouflaged in the sacrament of your daily experience."--Brian McLaren, author and activist, brianmclaren.net

"If God is indeed hidden in the world around us, then we're blessed to have a warm, entertaining tour guide in Dean Nelson. He leads us through the sacraments with humor and creative insight, expertly pointing out the places--and the Presence--most of us miss along the way."--Jason Boyett, author of Pocket Guide to the Bible and Pocket Guide to the Afterlife

About the Author

Dean Nelson (PhD, Ohio University) is founder and director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California, where he serves as professor of journalism. He has written extensively for dozens of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Christianity Today, and is the author or coauthor of several books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Brazos Press (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587432331
• ISBN-13: 978-1587432330
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reaching for the Invisible God, September 21, 2009

By 

Dr. David Frisbie (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World (Paperback)

In his 1933 essay, "The End of Our Time," Nicholas Berdyaev writes: "Two attitudes, two completely divergent positions, are possible for man, and he finds the face of everything different accordingly as he chooses the one or the other. He can --- if he will --- put himself in the presence of God and the mystery of being. Then he has a clear conscience and a clean heart, revelation and intuition are vouchsafed to him, the true primordial spirit appears, he reaches to the very source of all."

It is precisely this posture toward reality and experience that Dean Nelson endorses in his new book: "God Hides in Plain Sight." Nelson, who reminds me of Leonard Sweet in person --- brilliant, quick on his feet, enormously well read --- writes here with the poetic grace of Anne Lamott or Thomas Merton, exploring the mystery and the meaning of Divine presence in everyday moments.

By day, Nelson writes op-ed pieces in The New York Times and other venues while leading the journalism department at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Yet in these pages he writes from a philosophical perspective. Using a skeletal outline from the Christian sacraments, Nelson traces the tiny, often unobserved specks of DNA evidence that establish God's paternity amid His creation, teaching us to be more attentive as we experience family, community and society.

Woven through these well-crafted pages are quotes from Henri Nouwen, Walter Wangerin, Frederick Buechner and others, including novelist Walker Percy. The result is a collection of tightly-written essays that command the reader's notice while rewarding it with perceptive and intriguing depth.

With this book, Nelson places himself among the first tier of contemporary thinkers, challenging us to address the critical questions of life by becoming more attentive to daily graces.

Dr. David Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
You might also appreciate reading: The Power of Serving Others: You Can Start Where You Are

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know the author, April 7, 2010

By 

jthw (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World (Paperback)

So in the interest of fair disclosure, I know the author and think he is a great guy. Nonetheless, I am writing this because I truly loved his book and not to be polite. I found this book both both highly readable and profound. I enjoyed the stories, anecdotes, and quotes from other deep thinkers. More than that I loved the deeper sense of intimacy I felt with God after experiencing this book. This book was so good, I loaned it to a friend who was in agony she couldn't highlight and write in it. Needless to say, I went out and bought a copy for her. I hope you like it also.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars God doesn't play hide and seek., February 5, 2011

By 

Lover of Philosophy - See all my reviews

This review is from: God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World (Paperback)

In his 1992 film Husbands and Wives, Woody Allen's character watches television, as a scientist quotes Einstein, "God doesn't play with dice." Allen turns the TV off and walks away, "No he doesn't play with dice. He plays hide and seek."
Nelson takes strong exception to the notion that God plays hide and seek with the universe. Rather, God constantly breaks in. We simply fail to recognize it, just as the natives on the southern tip of Argentina assumed that Magellan's ships were apparitions because they lacked the experience to decode the event. The book attempts to show us how to see God in the world and in our lives. He draws from mostly Catholic authors--Thomas Merton figures prominently--in an attempt to persuade us that spiritual discernment is not a "Where's Waldo" exercise but a discipline of prayer.
The central difficulty with the book is the use of the seven sacraments as touchstones in his analysis of how God breaks in and constantly reveals himself. Our Catholic parish book group recently read this book. I expressed my curiosity that an evangelical Protestant would take such an approach. The primary reference point of the Reformation is an "individualist" concept of grace that can cause some to lose contact with the senses and the social sphere. Protestantism is suspicious of any "pagan" tendencies, so it avoids festivals, ceremonies, rites and all "sense oriented" religious tendencies. Grace is mediated solely through the preaching of the word, interior conversion and pure doctrine.
The distinguishing feature of modern evangelical Protestantism is "decisionism" which, roughly speaking, means that a Christian is one who has made "a decision for Christ" or has accepted Christ as his/her personal Savior. The believer makes only one decision, a once-and-for-all event, before which the sinner is damned and after which the sinner is saved. Decisionism is a relatively new concept that many scholars attribute to Charles Finney (1792-1875), a professor of theology at Yale, who formulated an earlier version of it in the 1820s. Although the concept was highly controversial in its day and was attacked as superficial, it has held sway and is the cornerstone of modern evangelical Protestantism. Decisionists are peculiarly individualistic. They are typically suspicious of sacraments as detracting from the centrality of the "decision for Christ." Indeed, Nelson tells us that he grew up in a church in which communion was celebrated twice a year. Therefore, it is odd that this book would emerge from the evangelical community.
Others in our group found that the book was not only "odd" or "curious" but downright annoying. Several suggested that it is clear that Nelson understands little about many of the sacraments. This chapter on "Last Rites" essentially missed the point. Other than a cute story about his evangelical protestant father-in-law being asked in a Catholic hospital whether he wanted to see a priest, the chapter says nothing about the sacrament. Rather, the chapter is a discussion about the sad treatment of death and dying in our culture. That's fine, but why did he have to link it with "last rites," which isn't even the real name of the sacrament? Similar criticisms could be lodged against his treatment of the other sacraments. Several members of the group visibly winced when passages from the chapter entitled "The Sacrament of Communion" were read aloud.
In a rejoinder to these criticisms, Msgr. Dennis L. Mikulanis, a Catholic priest says that "Nelson is not writing about the theology of the sacraments. He is writing about the description of sacramentality, which can loosely be defined as `seeing the grace of God in the everyday moments of life.'" (North County Times, March 19, 2010) Why, then, mention the sacraments at all? Many in our group argued that the book will only confuse both Catholics and Orthodox who are poorly educated about their faith as well as Protestants who see the sacramental system as a strange syncretistic pagan gloss on the gospel.
One member of the group suggested that Nelson's notions of spiritual discernment could be improved by a study of St. Ignatius of Loyola's works on the subject. Perhaps Nelson could benefit from a Jesuit spiritual director.
Our group gave the book a mixed review. The book invites us to reject Woody Allen, turn off the television, and see God in the workings of our ordinary lives. It uses various stories to illustrate how that can happen. But the treatment of the sacraments misses many essential points and may promote confusion on both sides of the sad historical divide of Christianity.