Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale

Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale.

By Ian Morgan Cron. Navpress, 253 pp., $12.99 paperback.

In this novel Pastor Chase Falson finds himself unable to deliver another sermon on "the evidence for the deity of Jesus, as well as the forensic case for the physical resurrection." He's had it with the packaged answers and sterile triumphalism of evangelicalism. When his congregation presses him to take a leave of absence, Falson heads for Italy. There he encounters wise and earthy monks, great food and fabulous landscapes, and learns, via St. Francis, about simplicity, vulnerability, liturgy and creativity. It's the sabbatical every Protestant pastor dreams of. As a novel there is not much that's unmechanical about it (it comes with a study guide), but the book captures the impulses behind the post evangelical or "emergent church" movement.

COPYRIGHT 2007 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning