While agreeing with
the overall point being made, that we should engage more deeply with
Jesus' instruction to “become like a little child”, the book
itself is rather odd.
I think the first
issue is that it is one of those books where once you have got the
point it is trying to make there is little further to engage with,
and therefore if you are predisposed to agree with it you quickly get
the feeling that the point is being laboured.
Also this was
written, we are told, as personal reflection from a father to his
daughter on the point of her going off to University, and yet there
is very little personal or particular about it, other that the
occasional awkward insertion of “my darling daughter” as a term
of address to the reader at the opening of a point of discussion.
The book is strong
in describing the characteristics of children as various stages of
their development, and how we can see these characteristics as
positive models for our relationship with God. However what is less
clear is what these characteristics would actually look like in the
context of adult life, or the transposition between for example a
baby's need of its mother's milk to our need of the spiritual
nourishment from God through the Scriptures feels a little
predictable and flat.
I kind of want to me
more positive about this book that I feel able, the ideas attests to
are ones I would want to celebrate, but their expression here is a
little limited.
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