It is not uncommon to have a crisis of faith. It is, however, uncommon for the person having the crisis to be the founding pastor of a mega-church. It is even more uncommon for that crisis of faith to occur as you are delivering a Sunday morning sermon. Chase Falson is just that man having just that crisis. His uncle, a Franciscan priest invites him to Italy to learn more about Saint Francis of Assisi and his teachings. Chase balks a first. What can a Catholic saint really teach him about his faith as an evangelical pastor? After some persuasion, he agrees to take the journey with his uncle. What follows is the story of two men: one, a progressive minister whose works happened more than 800 years ago and the other, a modern-day minister attempting to find a new way to love Christ. Ian Morgan Cron takes us on Chase's journey to learn more about Francis and what kind of impact his life and teachings can have on ours.
If you have ever suffered or are suffering with a "crisis of faith," this novel is great. It's not about finding your faith, only you can do that. It's about learning a different way to love Christ and to interact with Him. I read this novel from the point of view of taking it at face value. I am in no way a theologian, and I cannot tell you the first thing about the Biblical relevance of Cron's novel.
What I can tell you is that Cron presents the life of Francis to the world in a manner that inspires readers to try to be better people. Cron details how Francis left behind his charmed life to submit himself to poverty for Christ's sake. From a realistic point, it is unlikely that many would be inspired to eliminate all of their worldly goods in favor of poverty for Christ. But maybe, just maybe we will all be inspired to cut back all of our wants to help serve the needs of those around us. We will realize that we don't need to purchase everything on our never ending lists of wants and will put some of those purchases on the back burner in favor of helping someone else.
In regards to the arts, as a singer, I don't see anything wrong with using the gifts that God has bestowed upon you for his glory. It's important to use the gifts given to honor Him. Why shouldn't that include singing, painting, sculpting, music, etc?
Overally, I really enjoyed Cron's novel. I walked away wanting to know more about the path that Chase would take at the end, which is probably the only down side I can find. But, if a book can leave me thinking about what happens after the ending, I am guaranteed to read it again. (Which, as previously noted, is the mark of how much I have truly enjoyed a book).
This book was provided free of charge as a review copy. The publisher had no editorial rights or claims over the content or the conclusions made in this review. No payment was provided in return for this review.