Early praise for Soul Graffiti
Posted: January 15 2007
I’ve been in the process of asking friends and colleagues to review the manuscript of my book, SOUL GRAFFITI, which will be released by Jossey-Bass Wiley on April 13. I was a bit surprised when my marketing editor suggested that writing the book was only 10% of the work involved in seeing a book project become successful. I’ve come to understand that if we really believe change is neccessary and possible, we have to do what we can to let our collective voices be heard. And this is what I hoped to accomplish when I set out to write SOUL GRAFFITI. Here’s what a few of my friends are saying about the book:
FROM AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST BRIAN McLAREN:
When I heard that Mark Scandrette was writing a book, I knew it would
be good, partly because Mark is an artist and poet and I knew he would
be good with words. But even more, I knew that Mark is living a
beautiful, gritty, honest, and hopeful story that deserves to be told.
Now that I’ve read Soul Graffiti, I can say it’s even better than I
had hoped. Through Mark’s rich insights and reflections, and
especially through his stories … about Jack, Richard, Michelle,
Gary, Caroline, Emperor Arcadia (you’ll never forget him!),
Beryl, Michael and many others … you’ll get an honest and inspiring
view of what “the emergent conversation” is really about, and what
it’s for. If you’re a young adult, maybe alienated with conventional
Christianity and trying to figure out what way of life to follow – or
even if you’re a middle-aged or older adult feeling the downward tug
of complacency and cynicism, here is the book you’ve been waiting for.
FROM AUTHOR SALLY MORGENTHALER:
“We’ve made the Good News into some Disney-esque ticket to paradise. Maybe it’s a whole lot more messy and mundane. Maybe it means Christians actually doing the work of God instead of just talking about it. Soul Graffiti chronicles Mark Scandrette’s brave exploration into an intentional, lived Christianity. In a world numb to religion, ‘inhabiting the way of love’ may be the only apologetic left.”
FROM MARK OSTREICHER, AUTHOR AND PRESIDENT OF YOUTH SPECIALTIES:
Scandrette guides us down a winding, beautiful path through an urban park of whole-life Jesus-y spirituality. It’s a story-weaver’s bountiful spread – filled with chocolate and wine and artisan bread – of the present Kingdom of God. See that the Lord is good, indeed.
I’ve been recommending too many books as “must reads”, and, after reading a pre-release manuscript of Mark Scandrette’s upcoming book, soul graffiti: making a life in the way of jesus, i’ve cornered myself. Because, if I just say this is a “must read”, I put it on the same level as twenty other books I’ve written that about in the past year.
So, this one is a “muster read”, or a “more than must read”, or something like that. Really.
I’m on a silent retreat as I write this, sitting in a cabin in a canyon in the desert where the only sound is my breathing, the wind, and the occasional bird. And I just read mark’s book straight through, in one setting (well, I heated a frozen thai chiken pizza at one point, and poured a glass of chimey blue at two points).
More than any book I’ve read, mark lays out what an emerging faith can look like – a life (as the subtitle says) ‘in the way of jesus’. He does so with traditional prose and thoughts about scripture, yes. And those parts are good and well organized and all. But what really makes the book stand apart from all other is mark’s amazing storytelling. He’s not just a storyteller, he’s a storyweaver. Some chapters have a series of stories, with mark’s throughts in-between or following; but the best chapters – and there are many of them – have a couple stories, given in bits – like mark is breaking off pieces of amazing chocolate and giving it to you, just slowly enough to force you into savoring.
This is the faith I aspire to. This is a statement of belief. I want to buy this book by the caseload and give it to everyone I know.
