In our series on young Christian authors, it’s a bit unfair to include Margaret Feinberg — not because she’s not young, which she is, but because she’s written already a bundle of good books. Her newest book is a treat. It’s called Scouting the Divine: My Search for God in Wine, Wool, and Wild Honey
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Here’s what Margaret likes to do: Read the Bible, explore the Bible and its world, and discuss its value for living today. Here’s how I’d summarize this fine book:
She fuses the Bible with the real world in a way that sheds light on how to live with God today.
Which is just what she does in Scouting the Divine. In this book Margaret goes below the surface of the Bible to explore the world of what the Bible says about wool … about farming … about honey … about wine. And spending time with shepherds, with those who farm and harvest and can tomatoes, with those who have bee hives, and with those who grow grapes, Margaret brings light to what the Bible says and how that can inform and aid us in spiritual formation. Four chapters — moving back and forth from the real world of today to the Bible of yesterday and shedding light on both.
Her approach is gentle: she makes no huge claims but instead observes the shepherd and ponders what the Bible says about shepherds and fuses the world of the two and ponders what the Bible means. In so doing, we come into contact with the realism of the Bible’s words and world. I favored her chapter on the shepherd, Lynne, in Oregon and the attachment shepherds have with their sheep… and you can chase the ideas down in her book.
And, if you need to scout out this book, you can read a bit of it here.
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