Book Review: The Pastor

The Pastor: A Memoir (2012) by Eugene Peterson is a remarkable book, full of wisdom and beauty. Undoubtedly, Peterson is a storyteller, one who draws the reader into his reflections on a lifetime as a pastor, not as a job, but as a true vocation. From his early life in mountains of Montana to his later aspirations to become a professor, to the transition to becoming a pastor, he paints a thousand pictures with his words.

I said recently that I would like to put this book into the hand of every pastor I know. Peterson has an intimate understanding of the DNA of the pastoral life through his decades of self-reflection and wisdom. He reminds the reader that being a pastor is not simply about the job of preaching, but that it forms his whole person.

For me personally, as my own reading life has matured, I have realized that although I still maintain an appreciation for much theology, I am increasingly interested in what Peterson calls "spiritual theology". On page 238, he wrote "I had understood the Revelation as a work I would later learn to name spiritual theology--entering into the lived quality of theology, writing my way into the primary substratum of life that involves taking the immediate conditions of everyday life--family, work, place, feelings--into the scriptures and gospel story and making a home there. Entering into reimagining and repraying scripture in the details of daily living personally and relationally and in place, right here, right now."

The Pastor is a book I will likely read again. It presents a theology lived, beautifully.