A Deep Well Indeed

(Note: each post that refers to a specific book will include three pieces of information - the title, the author, and the ISBN number.  In other words, all the information that you would need to find the book online or at your local bookstore)

Water From a Deep Well

Gerald L. Sittser

ISBN: 0830834938

I just picked this book up yesterday, after a wonderful member of our church gave me a gift card to the local Christian bookstore as  Christmas present.  I made it through the first three chapters before bed last night, and came away very impressed, dazzled even.

What Sittser sets out to do is provide a brief, engaging history of Christian spirituality from the time of the earliest followers of Christ to the current era.  Distinct from the usual "Church History," Water From a Deep Well doesn't focus on great documents or the foundations of denominations or anything along that line.  Rather, the book focuses on how each group of Christians Sittser addresses (including, among others, Early Christian Martyrs, the Desert Saints, and the Medieval Laity) related to God and lived out their call to follow Jesus.

If you're reading this and thinking that it sounds boring or academic, let me tell you that it is anything but.  Granting that I am a nerd and can enjoy even the most obtuse books, Sittser's writing is both pleasant and captivating.  Each chapter describes the general approach to Spirituality among the group, but also includes a variety of stories of individual Christians, such at Perpetua, the early Christian martyr whose faith was so great that when her executioner faltered, she helped him by guiding his sword to her throat.

More than anything else, though, the book recommends itself for Sittser's attitude about history.  Many church historians take one of two approaches: they either villify the church for its misdeeds or they attempt to sweep all of the church's missteps under the rug.  Sittser takes seriously the two-sidedness of history, writing at one point

"Any movement can go bad, like good food that spoils.  But corruption does not imply worthlessness.  Abusus non tollit usus, reads a famous Latin phrase.  'Abuses do not destroy uses.'"

In short, I heartily recommend this book to all Christians - all the more so to those Christians who want to avoid the all too common modern disconnect between today's faith and yesterday's believers.  We should never forget that we who follow Christ in 2008 do so on the shoulders of those who followed Christ in 1900, and in 1100, and in 500, and in 33 AD.  Sittser's book is definitely a compelling way to remember our past.