This book fooled me. Late in chapter one I simply didn’t like it. It struck me as a book working down a political list attempting to place its checkmark line by line. The Introduction showed the subject, what the desert is biblically, had great potential. But in chapter one I was about to grab my parachute and jump. Had the ideological pronouncements been more in line with my own perhaps I would not have really cared. But they weren’t and I felt they really did not touch the desert motif at all.

With faint amounts of hope I entered chapter two and everything flipped. What the author shared about the desert resonated now and pulled me in. More importantly, the biblical text was expertly parsed to arrive at her conclusions. Her writing was engaging. She even worked in some of her own experiences without crossing the cringe line. Suddenly, I was finding myself underlining many lines.

The chapter on the darkness of disorientation was particularly captivating. Our God who is light is still often described as being in the thick darkness and that is a fascinating study. What really makes the book a success is how she is able to draw out the theology while leaning into what we might call spiritual formation concerns. That’s a hard balance to pull off for many writers, but she did it well.

Since our times are so divided, and since Christians are as well on the issues of the day, it is so much better to just dig into the timeless truth of scripture and allow that to speak to current issues as it will. This book is perfect proof. I am on the other side of some current issues from this author, and her little foray in those issues almost pushed me away. To what purpose? In any event, I think the theology of the wilderness as described in this book could be a blessing to you no matter where you fall on the theological spectrum. It is that rare theological book that also has potent devotional qualities as well.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.