Sensual Orthodoxy by Debbie Blue

Sensual Orthodoxyby Anonymous

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November 07, 2003: Debbie Blue's accomplishment in this book of sermons is restorative, in two senses--like a rescuer of old paintings, she enables us to see things in the Gospels that have been missed for centuries, which themselves can deliver a life-salving grace to readers. The nearest theological reference points I can think of might include Barth and Ellul (after reading her, I finally began to understand what Ellul was talking about in The Subversion of Christianity), restated into plainspoken, funny English. It's wrong of me to describe all this as 'her' accomplishment--she credits her own faith community and professors with enabling her to see the Bible in this way; creativity is always a gift, not a possession. As if to underline this point, the book (physically speaking) is nondescript--the copy I had was littered with typos (many of which got fixed in final publication) and her style isn't always completely developed or realized; you can tell these were originally sermons, and the switchover to literary English isn't complete. Which just makes the book even more memorable--it seems to come from nowhere (Nazareth, maybe?) to overturn our assumptions. Anyone who can no longer see what's so creative or revolutionary about Jesus' parables should start right here.