Frances Young is a patristic scholar, a mother of an adult child who is profoundly disabled and a Methodist preacher. In this book she draws together these three different horizons as she locates her own experience of brokenness, locating it within the framework of the Biblical story in conversation with the Fathers of the early Church. I appreciate her honesty as she shares her own journey and her struggles with her own brokenness and the ways she draws on the wisdom of the Christian tradition (though not-uncritically). Well worth reading. ( )

The first book by Frances Young that I ever read was 'Face to Face' - the story of dealing with a severly handicapped son. Several years later I read 'the Making of the Creeds' as part of a theology course. Both are very good books, but it took me a while to connect the two. Since then I read anything of hers I get my hands on.

This book is in many ways more challenging to read than either of the first two. It is a very personal theology of the connection in her life of themes of those two books - living with the severly handicapped, and studying the early Christian Fathers - combined with the love of Christian Hymnody that could be expected of a Methodist minister.

The introduction has a long reference list of names and theological terms. I found that I did fairly well on recognizing the people. Less well on the words - and that list was not complete enough for me. This is serious theology, and although it might well be useful for someone not used to theological writing, it might be difficult to get through.

I love hymns, and found myself singing several that she mentions, but as neither Methodist nor British, there were many more that I did not recognize. She also includes a lot of references to her personal life and cultural background that were sometimes hard to follow.

I called this book 'challenging' . I mean that in two ways. It was not easy to read. And it will make changes in the way I think. The later is more important. ( )