Customer Reviews

The Ironic Christian's Companion: Finding the Marks of God's Grace in the World

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As a college professor who teaches courses in Christianity and Islam and as a Presbyterian Minister, I have read a wide variety of books on Christian theology and spirituality. There is no work which I have read that addresses the relationship between the life of the spirit and the mind better than Henry's _Ironic Christian's Companion_. He lucidly combines his personal experiences as a Christian and his life-long intellectual interests in crafting a book which addresses some of the deepest concerns that people have in leading their lives. In a thoughtful and nuanced yet very direct manner Henry shares his thoughts on issues as diverse as death, suicide, divorce, friendships, romance, beauty, time, place, paying attention and the processes involved in finding meaning in the most difficult of life's circumstances. One riveting aspect of the book is that it resists simple answers to life's complex questions. The _Ironic Christian's Companion_ is not a ''how-to'' or ''self-help'' book which attempts to provide a simple solution to life's hardships. Rather, it invites readers to raise new questions about their position in the universe and provides them with a rich set of suggestions regarding how they can begin viewing their humanity and their relationships with the Divine differently. The fact that Henry handles observations about life's meaning from cab-drivers on an equal footing as those from Pope John Paul II is indicative of the freshness in his approach. During the past several years, I have been very embarassed by the narrowness and myopic simple-mindedness of books authored by various Christian writers. The _Ironic Christian's Companion's_ attention to life's multifaceted ambiguities and its propensity to evoke novel perspectives about some of the deepest mysteries we face make it a sophisticated and straightforward volume for religious and non-religious persons alike. It is one of the few works that I would recommend with equal confidence to Christians and non-Christians alike.

The title of this book got me to buy it. I sort of always held myself in the category of Ironic Christian and finally someone acknowledged that we existed. There are hundreds of books that present faith in that most holy unshakeable way. Patrick Henry presents faith as not-so-absolute. It is hard to describe. I read this book and felt more confirmed in my faith because I was allowed to be Ironic. This book is a gift. Some will find this book completely distasteful, but then those people aren't Ironic Christians. More power to them, but for those of us for whom irony is a way of life, this wonderful book gives us a greater love for God and a greater understanding of why we belong to Patrick Henry's group of Ironic Christians.

Patrick Henry is an author whose wisdom combines insights into Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dr. Theodore Seuss Geisel, Fyodor Dostoievski, Milan Kundera, and many other authors from past and present, resulting in a vademecum for Christians of the XXIst century. Henry provides his readers with an excellent summary of his book: "I can't tell you what the grace of God is. The most I can do is report what trusting it is like." (p. 237) Congratulations and thanks to Patrick Henry for his ironic report on God's Grace.

The primary thesis of this book - that a Christian has not logical certainity but must balance opposing views - was a suprise to me. Not because it was new but rather that it was to me self-evident. For example, I had been taught with regards to God's omniscience and man's freewill that the two concepts framed a mystery we could not understand but could perhaps pull the frame together a bit to point at the truth we cannot fully know.

I was similarly caught off-guard by the seeming suprise with which the author confronted the myriad of world calendars - Jewish, Islamic, Thai etc. The effects on one's Christianity of either assuming the 2nd coming is near or that it is far off in cosmological time had interest.

Of more interest to me, is the author's growth in understanding the issues related to gender based language.

If one has a faith based on certainities, if one has not confronted the issues with which the author deals in a universal and transcultural way, then this book has a great deal to offer. It will help place your faith in the real world - with all the real word messiness.

If one has a faith based on uncertainities, thought out in universal, transcultural and across multiple faith, then this book has a great deal to offer in learning how the other side thinks and grows.

It is difficult to write a review --something which tends to be concrete and objective-- about a book which takes as a basic premise the escape of both rigid modes of analysis! Patrick Henry's "Companion" is an interesting book, from all angles: whether Christian or otherwise. His insights into the 'irony' of Christian life and God's grace in the world are interesting, though they tend to speak less of "finding the marks of God's grace in the world" (from the title) than finding the author's own 'looking-back' interpretations of the events in his life. Perhaps they are connected, perhaps one and the same; and that idea is, in a way, one of Henry's main points. This is an entertaining book, if nothing else, and what may be found objectionable in the author's theology is offset with his own humour and anecdote.

This book is a continuous barrage of opinions from Patrick Henry, whose philosophy seems to be that "nothing is certain except the fact that nothing is certain," which is intellectual relativism. The good thing about the book is its style. As a sort of journal of lessons learned in life, it would be interesting even to someone who disagrees. I would like to see more books out there that take that approach, but I hope that future authors view their work as an addition to the existing 2000 years of Christianity, rather than a modification of it.

Patrick Henry never actually defines what an "Ironic Christian" is, but it basically seems to be a Christian who happily lives in ambiguity, somewhere in the nether region that exists between total skepticism and absolute certainty. So far, so good. Not everything can be tied up in a neat little package like a TV show that ties up all loose ends in one hour's time. The Christian life (even a life lived outside Christianity) is full of surprises and wonder, and the fact that Dr. Seuss can speak to a life of faith every bit as much as, say, St. Augustine, is nothing new or shocking to me. Much of what Henry has to say in this book is valuable as far as re-thinking many of our assumptions. But his embrace of philosophies that are detrimental to Christian faith, such as radical feminism (as characterized by his defense of the reprehensible "Re-Imaging Conference") and religious pluralism makes me hesitate to give whole-hearted approval of this book. If I have to be on the left wing of Christianity to be an "Ironic Christian", I guess I'm not one.

It's somewhat entertaining. Perhaps the ideal book for those who are of a liberal bent and who pursue "Christianity Lite" and enjoy pschobabble. I found very little solid foundation based upon Bible scripture. On the other hand, Mr. Henry provides us with much worthwhile food for thought.