Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls

Very well written with non-judgemental tone. The author helps the reader understand the "longing for home" and "fulfillment" that all humans crave.

Craig Barnes served as the pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. from 1993-2002, after which he taught as a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Today he continues in that role but also serves as pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. After studies at Kings College in New York and Princeton Seminary, he completed a PhD in church history at the University of Chicago under Martin Marty. All of that to say that he is a rare pastor-scholar who is deeply immersed in the trenches of every day life with his parishioners whom he clearly loves and respects, but equally at home reading sociological texts about American culture or parsing a fine point in history or theology that just might help you to think about something in a different way. If I count correctly, this is Barnes's sixth book, all of which explore just what it means to follow Jesus in our wild and broken world. In this book he uses Dante's Divine Comedy and the journey toward home metaphor to unpack the pilgrim motif of discipleship. Each chapter begins with a short quote from the Inferno, Purgatory, or Paradise, and then proceeds with Barnes's theological and pastoral reflections, including his own Christian journey. Barnes does a fine job at avoiding cliches, taking the measure of contemporary culture, including a broad diversity of popular and scholarly sources, and drawing upon a fund of insights from pastoral counseling. The book moves us through the stages of Christian journey, from our profound lostness, to awakening, repentance, confession, faith, community, guidance, and sacrament. The truly good news of Jesus, writes Barnes, is that "all of the roads belong to God," and that "the Savior can use any road to bring us home." Quoting CS Lewis, he reminds us that God can even use the wrong roads to take us to the right places (pp. 121, 128).

This is the most spiritually profound and socially relevant book I have read in years. Plus, the writing is just exquisite. Barnes has an incredible ability to pull together deep insights from scripture, literature, sociological trends, and his pastoral experiences to describe why the contemporary soul is so restless. Best of all, he provides a helpful and honest response to our deepest longings. I have read all of his books, and enjoyed them all, but Barnes is never better than in Searching For Home. The book works on so many levels: social critique, personal spirituality, literary insight, biblical teaching. But they all come together in his deep passion as a pastor for people to find their home with the Triune God. If you want to be both intellectually challenged and emotionally engaged, you have to give this book a try!

In a society in which almost everyone is from somewhere else, and where they are likely to move on again before very long, how does one combat or respond to a profound longing for home? This is the problem M. Craig Barnes addresses in this timely book. Barnes writes stirringly about the need for home. He cities many studies that show the rootlessness of our contemporary society and he offers anecdotal examples of our wanderlust. Barnes explains that he experienced this collective craving among the members of his congregation while serving as a pastor in our nation's capital, often a way station for those who serve for a time in government. Everyone was from somewhere else and spoke of that somewhere else as "home." He argues that most congregations will have this same challenge: many church members who long for a place that is far away and days that are long post, which they think of as their home. Barnes reminds us that our home is not Duluth or Pomona or wherever else we were born, but rather home is "... the place where we were created to live from eternity to eternity ... ." Further, Barnes tells us that "When God created humanity, it wasn't until he breathed the holy ruauch into the nostrils of Adam that he became a living being" (both p. 33). Not only is our rightful place with God, but God is the source of all that we are. We have come from God, we are going toward God: this is what it is to be human. Christians are the people who recognize this truth and who have as their companion on the journey God in the person of Jesus Christ. The author, formerly the pastor of National Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, is currently the pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh. If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.