Saturday, 15 February 2020

Image of the Invisible by Amy Scott Robinson and Freedom is Coming by Nick Baines




I used these two “Advent” books in 2019 and didn’t get on that well with either of them.

The main problem is that neither of them actually fitted with the liturgical season. Freedom is Coming was arranged in weeks, starting on Sundays. Assuming you start your Advent reading on Advent Sunday then, depending on the year, Sunday of week 5 will at the very earliest be Christmas Day, but for me was 29th December, yet Baines writes “As we approach the surprise of Christmas...” while a week later he reflects that “Advent allows us the space and time to resist the pressure to rush to Christmas...” - he seems to have resisted that temptation so successfully that Christmas has been and gone without him noticing. Image of the Invisible had dated reflections – so Scott Robinson does actually manage to notice Christmas Day but then on the Feast of Holy Innocent decides to reflect on God’s Kingship with not sense of irony or using God’s Kingship as counter to the false and brutal Kings and Rulers of this world.

Within them there were snippets of inspiration – but it felt they were hard won from the overall whole of either book.

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