Flashes of Grace
33 Encounters with God
Author Patrick Henry Foreword by Joan Chittister ISBN 9780802878649 Binding Trade Paper Publisher WM B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Publication Date February 02, 2021 Size 140 x 216 mm“I don’t know how to say what the grace of God is. What I can say is what it’s like for me.”
We all know about grace being amazing—after all, there’s a whole song about it—but Patrick Henry reminds us that that’s not all it is. It’s also intimidating, disorienting, demanding, reassuring, and sometimes even just downright mind-boggling. Describing thirty-three different aspects of grace based on his everyday experiences, Henry tells the story of a grace that is wide-ranging and comprehensive—if not always comprehensible. Rather than trying to capture and tame his encounters with God, he lets the mystery of memory speak for itself, exemplifying his mantra that being a Christian is about being “an explorer, not a colonizer.”
Flashes of Grace is wise and grounded, earnest and light, faithful and quirky. Henry describes encountering grace in airports, baseball, hazelnuts, and just about anywhere else you can imagine, while engaging with dialogue partners ranging from King Saul and Saint Augustine to Yogi Berra and Captain Picard. For anyone longing to connect (or reconnect) with God, this book provides a surprising journey that broadens perspectives and explores strange new worlds, while loosening stiff spiritual joints so movement can be free and spontaneous.
— Joan Chittister
from the foreword
“Sadly, it’s unusual to encounter a book on Christian faith that simply conveys the ‘unbearable lightness’ of that faith—not with the dire fixed jollity of the sales rep, but with the wit, realism, and loving wonder that speaks of a lifetime’s delighted discovery, as a woman married for forty years might speak of a partner or a child. Patrick Henry draws on an immense range of learning—as well as offering theological reflections on Star Trek: The Next Generation—to chart for us a territory where we can explore in confidence, expecting at every turn the completely unexpected and completely committed grace of God in Christ.”
— Rowan Williams
104th Archbishop of Canterbury and author of Being Christian
“This thoughtful and thought-provoking book, rich in reference to theologians, historians, biblical scholars, philosophers, and social critics—including those critical of religion—is for anyone who wants to understand what a Christian faith can mean in the present day. If you’re a seeker and a doubter with a liberal and ecumenical bent, this book helps you understand that you’re not alone. The author demonstrates that people like you have long been a valuable part of the Christian tradition.”
— Kathleen Norris
author of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography and The Cloister Walk
“Patrick Henry is a giant of ecumenical imagination, and just the sort of giant you’d hope to encounter on a walk through the theological woods—well-read, thoughtful, humble, and wise. St. Ignatius taught us to find God in all things, and Henry certainly does—from philosophy to music, literature to TV shows, loss to profound joy. It is a delight to follow along through his eight decades of encounters with the grace of a God who is not stingily either/or but generously both/and.”
— Cameron Bellm
author of A Consoling Embrace: Prayers for a Time of Pandemic
“‘Be someone on whom nothing is lost’—Henry James’s admonition to the writer—is something Patrick Henry must have read in the cradle. In a long and distinguished career he has not ceased from spiritual exploration, always ‘pressing forward,’ and this inventive book, notable for its wide range of reference, radiantly shows an openness to the necessity and vitality of change and new patterns in these giddy times, while honoring the cantus firmus of invaluable traditions. His clear, aphoristic prose is a joy to read. ‘Fully alive’ indeed.”
— Michael Dennis Browne
poet, librettist, and professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota
“Patrick Henry offers a story of grace that is embedded in a life. Through memories of his interpersonal relationships, education, travels, and engagement with and enjoyment of pop culture, Henry shows how grace flashes into our lives and reveals new truths as it does. This is a playful Christian spiritual autobiography that teaches the reader while also encouraging her to reflect more deeply on her own story.”
— Kristel Clayville
senior fellow, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, University of Chicago
“‘This is my first (and last?) foray into the field of American religion.’ That’s how Patrick Henry self-identified decades back for a journal bio. We should all rejoice his prediction was mistaken. His newest book is the perfect antidote to our American age of spiritual discontent, his faith the right prescription for today: one shorn of doctrinal triumphalism, stamped with intellectual honesty and rigor, ever open to discovering religious wisdom in many crevices and byways. Reading this beautifully written spiritual autobiography instantly brought to mind W. H. Auden’s observation that ‘a Christian is never something on
Patrick Henry was professor of religion at Swarthmore College from 1967 to 1984 and executive director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research from 1984 to 2004. In retirement he is a monthly columnist for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota, where he writes about the renewal of human community. His other books include The Ironic Christian's Companion: Finding the Marks of God's Grace in the World.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Joan Chittister
Prologue: Off the Plane, into the Airport
Part One: How I Became the Source of This Story
1. Grace in Formation
2. Grace in Perspective
3. Grace in Balance
Part Two: Reorienting
4. Grace in Dimensions
5. Grace in Surprise
6. Grace in Politics
Part Three: The Bible
7. Grace in “Whatever”
8. Grace in Opening Up and Broadening Out
9. Grace in Verb Tenses
10. Grace in Being Left Behind with The Da Vinci Code
Part Four: History
11. Grace in Uncertainty
12. Grace in the Digging
13. Grace in a Future That Ain’t What It Used to Be
Part Five: Coming Together after Coming Apart
14. Grace in Ecumenism
15. Grace in the “Cannot"
16. Grace in Reconciling Memories
Part Six: Diversity
17. Grace in Variety
18. Grace in a Fugue
19. Grace in Finding an Old Sermon
20. Grace in Christian Autobiography
Part Seven: Imaginations: Religious and Scientific
21. Grace in Science
22. Grace in a Hazelnut
23. Grace on Darwin’s Grave
24. Grace in Scientific American
Part Eight: Disturbances of Dogma
25. Grace in Coventry Cathedral and on the Hudson River
26. Grace in Art
27. Grace on a Baseball Diamond
28. Grace Where I Don’t Expect It
29. Grace On Board the Starship Enterprise
Part Nine: A Spirituality for the Long Haul
30. Grace in the Overlap of “Spiritual” and “Religious”
31. Grace in a Culture of Trust, Not Fear
32. Grace in an Ancient Prayer
33. Grace in the Groundswell’s Bell over the Ebbing Sea’s Roar
Epilogue: Letter to Captain Picard
Notes