Searching for Home: Spirituality for Restless Souls by M. Craig Barnes

From the Publisher

One translation of Dante's Divine Comedy opens with the words, "Midway along the journey of our life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off from the straight path." Many of us can identify with this confession. We might be pressing on bravely in the search for paradise, moving from better job to new town to bigger house, but the truth is that we are lost.

In Searching for Home, M. Craig Barnes draws on Dante's pilgrimage as a parallel to our own search for paradise. Never sidestepping the difficult truth of our situation, Barnes begins with the disconcerting news that paradise is lost and we can't go home again. Our great comfort and hope, however, is that we are never lost to God; in fact, he travels with us in our sojourning, and all roads belong to him. Barnes, seasoned by more than twenty years as a pastor, discusses the importance of confession, worship, and grace in our search for home. He offers advice about how we can move from being transient nomads "too frightened to be grateful" to pilgrims who are at home with God, guided by our pleasure in him.

The hope is that readers, after experiencing Searching for Home, will be able to echo Dante's declaration at the close of the Divine Comedy: "I felt my will and my desire impelled by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

This book was written for both Christians and seekers who are still looking for a sense of belonging or "home." It's a very useful tool for pastors, therapists, and counselors of all kinds who are advising pilgrims along the way.

Publishers Weekly

Barnes, the former pastor of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., weaves together personal stories, illustrations from Dante's The Divine Comedy and examples from the Bible to contend that our true home is in heaven. Home, he says, is where we were created to live eternally with our triune family of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sin alienates us from our home and makes us spiritual nomads. We are always searching for the path home again, in much the same way that Dante awoke in the middle of a dark wood searching for his true path home. Christ's sacrifice, argues Barnes, becomes our path home, the church is the threshold to our home and communion with the saints of the church here on earth provides us a picture of that home waiting at the end of our journey. Barnes nicely blends Dante's insights with biblical teachings, and his use of Dante is the most original thing about the book. Barnes's spirituality for the restless will appeal mostly to evangelicals who share his belief that heaven is a real place and a Christian's true home. (Oct.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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