The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way

This is an excellent book to read in order to understand the deeper meaning of Jesus Way both theologically and spiritually. Reading this book is NOT easy; it will make you ask uncomfortable questions about your knowledge, your relationship with Jesus. I highly recommend this book for anyone who longs for a deeper, richer relationship with Jesus.

Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus Is the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007). There are two kinds of spiritual writers: mechanics and artists. Mechanics focus on how spirituality works, on tightening the nuts and bolts of prayer, meditation, fasting, and the like. By showing us how these means of grace work, they help us draw closer to God and godliness. Richard J. Foster is a mechanic of the spiritual life. His Celebration of Discipline is a masterful user manual of spiritual practices. Artists, by contrast, show us what spirituality looks like. They don't write user manuals; they paint portraits. Not landscapes, mind you - portraits. For spiritual artists, spirituality is personal, biographical, narrative. They show God in human form, and godliness in human form - warts and all. Eugene H. Peterson is a spiritual artist, and The Jesus Way is an exhibit of masterfully drawn portraits. It is also a frustrating book for our mechanically inclined, North American souls. Unlike The Celebration of Discipline, The Jesus Way includes no three- or four-step guidelines for prayer and fasting. If you're looking for that kind of guidance, don't bother reading this book. It will not give you The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Christians or The Secret of Becoming Like Jesus. It is not about How to Win Souls and Disciple People. It is, instead, "a conversation on the spirituality of the ways we go about following Jesus." It is a gallery of portraits in which the artist's perspective paints his subject in a new light. The portraits in Peterson's gallery are biblical and historical figures: Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Herod the Great, the Pharisees, Caiaphas, the Essenes, Josephus, the Zealots. And, the centerpiece of the exhibit, Jesus. But Peterson's perspective on these subjects, his unique angle of vision, forces us to see through them the various ways in which North American Christians should but do not follow the God-Man who is the Way (John 14:6). Indeed, what Peterson's portraits show is that North American Christians have adapted a variety of spiritual ways and means that have nothing to do with Jesus, indeed, that contradict and subvert the way of Jesus. We are a consumer-oriented, mass produced culture; and our spiritual ways reflect our cultural predilections. We are felt-need driven, without considering that a consumer's felt needs might be artificially manipulated or authentically mistaken. We are mass produced, without considering that Jesus' ministry is concrete, not abstract; personal, not impersonal; individual, not cookie cutter. Peterson's portraits of Jesus' Old Testament predecessors show a spirituality that revolves around "faith and word, imperfection and marginality, the holy and the beautiful." His portraits of Jesus' New Testament contemporaries are diptychs, Herod and the Pharisees, Caiaphas and the Essenes, Josephus and the Zealots. Or rather, perhaps we should say that the

"The Jesus Way" is the third book in Peterson's opus concerning conversations in spiritual theology. The first two books are "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places" and "Eat This Book." Spiritual theology is teaching on how to grow spiritually. Peterson's latest work reminds one of Dallas Willard's excellent premise: to be like Jesus we must live the way Jesus lived. Peterson fleshes out how Jesus lived by looking at the life of Christ and by looking at Old Testament and New Testament examples of people who lived like Jesus. For deep insight into spiritual formation into the image of Christ, "The Jesus Way" points the way with biblical precision and relational power. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Soul Physicians, Spiritual Friends, and Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction .

THE JESUS WAY: A CONVERSATION ON THE WAYS THAT JESUS IS THE WAY draws a symbiotic connection between the ways Jesus leads and the ways people follow, studying those who came before Christ and how they led and comparing these with Jesus' methods of leadership. Chapters challenge the methods of the modern American church and argue against consumerism, charisma and other barriers to understanding the Jesus path, using a blend of scholarship and spiritual insights to push the boundaries of belief and wisdom. Perfect for any collection strong in Christian thinking.

Especially in his senior years, Eugene H. Peterson has become a prophetic voice, gently but firmly challenging the American church to be concerned with the way it declares and lives out the Gospel. The title of the book refers to Jesus's statement recorded in John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." Jumping off from that point, Peterson quickly delves into a discussion of ends and means. "We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get to the truth of Jesus." Put another way: "Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life." Or: "The popularized acronym WWJD ('What would Jesus do?') is not quite accurate. The question must be 'How does Jesus do it?'" After an initial chapter about Jesus Himself, which includes Peterson's interpretation of the meaning of Jesus's three wilderness temptations, Peterson presents six chapters based on Old Testament characters who illuminate Jesus's message and meaning for us. (1) Abraham --- a way of faith and sacrifice. (2) Moses --- "the way of language," as receiver of the Torah, in some ways analogous to the Gospels. (3) David, whose "way of imperfection," including prayers that express his need and repentance and gratitude, "provide us with an imagination that is capable of understanding the operations of God to do His perfect work in us." (4) Elijah, who lived on the margins of society: "The essence of the Elijah way is that it counters the...culture's way." (5) Isaiah of Jerusalem, who proclaimed and lived in the reality of the holiness of God. (6) Isaiah of the Exile, who preached "images of the living God of salvation" that were rooted "in a solid sense of creation and history." Here Peterson returns to a discussion of the means of our salvation: the suffering servant. A much shorter Part 2 looks at three contemporaries of Jesus who show us what the "Jesus Way" is not. (1) King Herod, who plays a role in the Nativity story. (2) Caiaphas, the High Priest. (3) Josephus, a prominent Jew who colluded with Rome against his people. This section includes history lessons, such as background on the Maccabees, Zealots and Essenes. Though this book stands on its own, it is the third in a series of five billed as "conversations in spiritual theology" (CHRIST PLAYS IN TEN THOUSAND PLACES and EAT THIS BOOK are the previous installments). THE JESUS WAY is not light inspirational reading; yet on nearly every page you'll find a memorable or pithy line that grabs your attention and draws you along, anticipating the next thoughtful insight into what it means to live as a Christian. There's a pastoral engagement in Peterson's writing, including well-placed personal anecdotes (even one about Winnie the Pooh) that transforms these books from academic theology or biblical exposition to spiritual nourishment. Toward the end of the book there's a revealing comment in this regard: "We can only pray our lives into the way of following Jesus.... The way we follow must be

Over the past 15 years I have read Eugene Peterson's books. They have always challenged me to take a hard look at whether my faith is being based upon a genuine relationship with God or if I have slipped into the arrogance of cultural Christianity. The Jesus Way is by far the most insightful and frank challenge to those who would be content to slumber in their pews instead of living in the Presence of God. If you want to have the clarity of The Message strike at your heart's perceptions of Christianity in America, you must read this work.