Book (P)Review: Real God in the Real World

This year, for Advent, the traditional Church calendar-run-up-to-Christmas-bit-of-the-year, I've decided to use, probably with a fairly irregular pattern, a couple of Advent books. One of these is the one produced 'in-house' by my college, St Johns, and the other is today's spotlight - 'Real God in the Real World' by Trystan Hughes. I was lucky enough to be sent a copy! Hughes is an Anglican Chaplain, theologian and writer, and I've previously read and enjoyed his helpful 'The Compassion Quest'. Today's post is not so much a review as a preview, with some brief observations and hopes for journeying Advent with this little book.

I really enjoyed, and resonated with, Hughes' brief introduction, particularly his powerful and important observation that flies against both an over-realised secularism and a partisan fundamentalist version of Christianity, by focusing on the application of the meaning;

"I hope you will find that we need to be wary of such a rigid separation of our religious and secular lives. Yes, Jesus is definitely the 'real meaning' of Christmas, and we should certainly affirm that fact. But that very recognition should then inspire us to discover him not only in any church service that we may attend on Christmas morning, but also in every other part of our Christmas experience - in the sumptuous food and drink that we enjoy... and in the wonderful company of our family and friends who join us to celebrate the birth of the Saviour"

Amen!

From this helpful and grounded introduction, already teasing the anticipation of the day to which Advent points, we flow into the first section of readings, for 1-7th of December, "The Word made flesh". In common with the rest of the readings, and indeed the book itself, Hughes helpfully weaves useful pop culture references and reflections of various kinds into his engagement with the Advent bible readings. 

There is more that could be said, but a brief flick through of the book convinced me that it would better be seen as a devotional/journey to be used, rather than a book to read cover to cover in one or two sittings. Hence, this is not a review but a preview, and I hope to blog some reflections on 'Real God in the Real World' as we go through Advent, and maybe even a normal review at the end.