I’ve been reading Len Hjalmaron’s blog for several years and appreciate his deep inquiry into the mission of God. Len is continually thinking out loud for the world to see and consistently says something that captures my imagination.
So when he released his book, An Emerging Dictionary for the Gospel and Culture, and offered me a copy to review I jumped at the chance. Len has been followed the long transition from a “certain” culture to a “mysterious” culture, on the recognizes the profound nature of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, and offers up a string of important words that inform that conversation.
As a follower of the emerging conversation on church, Len provides the words everyone should know, like liminal, communitas, conversation, and sacramental, and the words that we may not necessarily think of, like exile, Kuhn, theopoetics, and Zizek. I’m a huge proponent of language and learning to find a deeper meaning in words, and Len provides some fantastic conversations regarding these words. My favorites sections include conversations on empire, exile, kingdom, but especially God.
The book is surprisingly a very fast read. But I found myself making mental notes of words that I would again go back and look over.
If I had one critique of the book it is that Len didn’t share more stories that informed his impressions of the words, and why he chose each word. When he does share those stories, it gives us an understanding of the words value, which I really liked. I could have added twenty more words, but that is another day…or maybe another volume.
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Disclosure: I received a review copy of the book from Len and cross posted this on Amazon. You can see another review of Len’s book at Englewood Review of Books.
