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The Ransomed Heart: A Collection of Devotional Readings

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ohn is currently one of the controversial voices in Christianity. Yet not in the way most are; those on the left and those on the right dislike him equally. If you do a Google search on John Eldredge and Wild at Heart, you will get sites praising him as a new voice for Christianity and for men, and just as many condemning him and his writings as heretical. John is best known for his book Wild at Heart, which has been sweeping through churches across North America and the world. On the community forum on his ministry's website, ransomedheart.com/forum/ there are members from around the world.

What is this book about? It is a devotional reader, it has 365 meditations or excerpts from his other writings, The Sacred Romance, Wild At Heart, Waking the Dead, Journey of Desire, Epic and Captivating. This book would be a great primer on John's thought or as a reminder for a fan who has read his works. It's like borrowing a book from a friend who has underlined the best passages and you skim those to get the guts of the book. This is "the guts" of his full progression of thought.

You might ask what is the basic idea of his works? I would say that it is three-fold; first that our hearts are good, second that we need to learn to listen to our hearts, and finally we need to be living from our true hearts or our truest self. Waking The Dead begins with a quote "The Glory of God is man fully alive," Saint Irenaeus. One of the things I like about this book, and all of John's writings, is that he draws from such varied sources; he loves to quote from movies and use movie illustrations, and he draws from a wide range of Christian sources- the desert fathers, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, Chesterton and many, many more.

This book would be great to get a feel for what the controversy is all about, or to keep beside your bed and randomly open each night for a little reminder that your heart is good and that it matters to God.

(First Published in Imprint 2005-10-14 as 'Small Reminders of Faith')

"You will not think clearly about your life until you think mythically. Until you see with the eyes of your heart," wrote John Eldredge in his book, WAKING THE DEAD. The words can be read again in his latest book, THE RANSOMED HEART, a collection of devotional readings culled from his many popular titles including WILD AT HEART, THE SACRED ROMANCE, and EPIC.

Helping people to see "with the eyes of their hearts" is a good way to describe Eldredge's mission. As a survey of his work to this point, THE RANSOMED HEART is both a good introduction to Eldredge's take on life and spirituality, and a helpful compendium for those who have already grown to appreciate his thoughts. As this reading from Day 230 articulates, Eldredge advocates a kind of Spirit-enabled empowerment that he hopes will help people more fully engage the world, relationships, and God:

"The deeper reason we fear our own glory is that once we let others see it, they will have seen the truest us, and that is nakedness indeed. We can repent of our sin. We can work on our 'issues.' But there is nothing to be 'done' about our glory. It's so naked. It's just there --- the truest us. It is an awkward thing to shimmer when everyone else around you is not, to walk in your glory with an unveiled face when everyone else is veiling his. For a woman to be truly feminine and beautiful is to invite suspicion, jealousy, misunderstanding. A friend confided in me, 'When you walk into a room, every woman looks at you to see --- are you prettier than they are? Are you a threat?'

And that is why living from your glory is the only loving thing to do. You cannot love another person from a false self. You cannot love another while you are still hiding. You cannot love another unless you offer her your heart. It takes courage to live from your heart. My friend Jenny said just the other day, 'I desperately want to be who I am. I don't want the glory that I marvel at in others anymore. I want to be that glory which God set in me.'

Finally, our deepest fear of all...we will need to live from it. To admit we do have a new heart and a glory from God, to begin to let it be unveiled and embrace it as true --- that means the next thing God will do is ask us to live from it. Come out of the boat. Take the throne. Be what he meant us to be. And that feels risky...really risky. But it is also exciting. It is coming fully alive. My friend Morgan declared, 'It's a risk worth taking.'"

Eldredge has been accused of repeating himself in his books, but this liability becomes an asset in this collection as the themes of the daily devotions compliment each other nicely despite being drawn from several different books. In addition to his collected work, THE RANSOMED HEART also includes three prayers that Eldredge has found helpful in his own personal spiritual life.

But other less-than-positive critiques of his work are still valid, even in this format. Chief among them is that Eldredge's ideas appear to stem from a heavy diet of movies and canoeing more than from Scripture itself. His ideas seem to be shaped more by Braveheart than the Bible. And indeed, his references to "supporting" Scripture are often taken wildly out of context.

Additionally, his vision of what it means to be masculine is largely informed by his own love of the outdoors and adventure sports like rappelling. Those with more sedentary passions are virtually ignored. Similarly, his discussion about beauty and femininity (drawn from CAPTIVATING, the book he co-authored with his wife, Stasi) seems to be rooted in a very specific experience of loving (and being) a beautiful woman. Those with other experiences might find little that speaks to their own lives.

Having said that, Braveheart is a great movie. And what Eldredge has to say isn't heretical, even if it is just one person's vision of what constitutes a well-lived life. Indeed, as millions of readers can attest, Eldredge's vision --- the value he places on relationships and living with a fearless generosity --- can be inspiring and regenerative.


--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel

This has made a profound change in my life. I ask God to give me his daily blessing of a reading and open the book at random pages and read.
It hits home on what happens that day to me and the message becomes clearer. If we listen, he will talk to us and bless us.

I really like Eldridge and what he has to say about the things of the heart and the spiritual side. This one seems like the marketers at his publication company must be trying to mild the gravy train and they got me but I'll be careful the next time. If you are a reader of Eldridge then all in this book are just excerpts from previous works so not good. If you are a first time reader then it is worth the price.

Accused of basically writing the same book again and again, Eldridge has outdone himself. Only this time he has simply cut and paste from his previous books, and called it a devotional. This just means that it is the book equivalent of a greatest hits album. I have had to read his books before in my church. They are like the old light beer commercials, everything that you wanted in a God, and less!
Once again:
+Same Material
+New Packaging
+Easily digestable pablum for spiritual infants.
+Only available in hardback. With a list price of $22. Why is it that Christian publishers only put out hardcovers for which they can charge more money? I think that I answered my own question. Eldridge would claim that it is a ministry, but it is the modern day equivalent of being a moneychanger. This devotional is just another cynical attempt to take believers, by getting them to buy the same old thing. If you are looking for some depth, try Understanding God's Will by Kyle Lake.