The Way - E Stanley Jones

Published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.: London, 1956 (1947).

Some books are quick reads. Some are not. Some only take me a day or two. Some take a lot longer...

I can estimate almost to the day how long this book took me to read, because I started it a day or two after I put up my post about finishing my previous 'devotional' book, The One Year Worship the King Devotional, posting on September 25th last year. So, about 214 days (including February 29th).

This might imply that I didn't enjoy The Way, but that is definitely not the case. E Stanley Jones is a very interesting writer, but is just not a quick read. He was widely travelled, and spent a large amount of time in India, where he set up Christian 'ashrams.' This is important to note, because at times Jones sees things in a very non-Western way, pulling out gems of truth from scripture I had never considered before, or life-lessons that are very applicable while being quite 'foreign.' Two examples from early on in the book are: "In giving up things for Christ I gave up nothing but what subtracted from me, and when I got Him, I got everything that added to me" (page 37), and in a similar vein: "It is a simple, literal fact that the more I belong to Him, the more I belong to myself. The more I am bound to Him, the freer I am. Your code of morals can then be summed up in a sentence: "Love Christ, and do as you like." For then you will do what is right and what is good for you. And more, you will do what you really like." (page 41)

Even the way the book is structured is a little outside the norm for this style of writing. Devotionals are usually arranged to give you a thought a day, and sometimes that is the case with The Way. However, Jones has a far bigger goal in mind with this book: arguing that the Christian Way of Life is the best form of life imaginable, and doing so theme by theme, with each theme taking a week to unpack. This begins with "The inner confusion. Is there such a thing as the Way? Is the Way written in us?" (page xiii). There are sections on alcoholism, boredom, fatigue, and even a week-long section on why, in Jones' opinion, we should have a "world federal union" in order to prevent war from ever happening again (particularly relevant for someone writing in 1947). So, the Christian reader might find certain parts less 'encouragement' and more 'wow, interesting apologetics.' 

Considering I was really more after the day-by-day devotional style writing when I first picked this up, it took me a little while to get a handle on how I was going to read this book. One page a day didn't seem to fit the theme for me, so I ended up reading multiple days at a time and then having a breather. And read that way, I really enjoyed it.

A really different thinker, but a good one.

Completed, after 214 days, on 26 April 2024.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

The Murder of Mr Wickham - Claudia Gray

Image
Published by Vintage Books/Penguin Random House LLC: New York, 2022. 'A Mr Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery' Book 1. Followed by ' The Late Mrs Willoughby. ' The second book I've read in what could be a developing sub-genre: Jane Austen mysteries! Death Comes to Pemberley was the first, and although that was written using intentionally Austen-style choice of words, The Murder of Mr Wickham is far more successful in creating both the Austen feel and the proper murder-mystery vibe . It is also a little larger in scope than Pemberley was; this time, the characters in the story are not just pulled from Pride and Prejudice , but seemingly from every Austen novel! I say seemingly as I have still not read all of her works, but characters from  Sense and Sensibility   turn up, as do characters from Emma , and the rest seem to be referring to other literature as well. The author has even created her own 'Austen timeline' to make sense of her plot, telling us that the D
Read more

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more