I was very kindly given a review copy by Thomas Nelson of Brian McLaren's book Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices, so that I could deliver an unbiased review. It is part of The Ancient Practices Series that Thomas Nelson has developed. I had assumed that the book would be about ancient Christian practices, but much mention was made of Islam and Judaism. Since, to me, Christianity is the culmination of Judaism I didn't mind some discussion of this religion, however, Islam, really has nothing to do with Christianity except to, maybe, be in opposition to it.I know all this stuff about the three big religions all sharing commonalities is all the rage these days, but I am a Christian, a practicing Catholic and I frankly have no interest in Islam. When I knew very little about Islam and its culture, I was in happy ignorance. But quite frankly, the more I learn about Islam the more I find it a disturbing religion and one, that I believe, does not share the "same" God as the Old and New Testaments.
That being said, I found McLaren's writing style somewhat round about and meandering which made it difficult for me to read. Even though I am a Catholic I do read other Christian authors and thought that a discussion of the ancient practices would be interesting. It turned out to be different than I expected. I don't feel like I really learned about the ancient practices of prayer, fasting, etc.
I can't say that I came away with a lot of information and found it rather difficult to absorb due, I believe, mainly to McLaren's writing style.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com
