Overview

"""A lively memoir mixed with short biographies of appealing religious outcasts."" --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY With untested ideals and a thirst for adventure, Christiana Peterson and her family moved to an intentional Christian farming community in the rural Midwest. It sounded like a simple and faithful way to follow Jesus, not to mention a great place to raise kids. In Mystics and Misfits, Peterson discovers that community life is never really simple and that she needs resources beyond her own to weather the anxiety and exhaustion of trying to save a dying farm and a floundering congregation. She turns to Christian mystics like Francis of Assisi, Simone Weil, and Dorothy Day to find sustenance for the everyday struggles and unique hardships of community life. With a contemplative's spirit and poet's eye, Peterson leads readers into an encounter with the God of the wild mystics and the weird misfits."

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9781513801650

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Reviews

Because I get several request a day to blurb or review a book, I have to refuse most of them to survive. But I opened this fine book out of curiosity, and found it so well written, and so filled with gems, that I knew I had to pass on the good news! Read Mystics and Misfits by Christiana N. Peterson--even if you think you don't have time. --Richard Rohr, O.F.M., founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation I cried healing tears as I read this book. Christiana N. Peterson's breathtaking way with words, coupled with her rare perception--her ability to name unseen movement in the air around grief, family, and community, and the mysterious shifts in the soul--left me pared back and longing for the deeper, more honest things of faith. Anyone grappling for words to express the strange intermingling of joy and suffering needs to look no further. Peterson brings in the misfits (the saints and the readers both), looks us in the eyes, and makes room for us to embrace the only thing we can in the midst of this nuanced, beautiful, and painful life in the flesh. She makes room for us to embrace the mystical misfit within us all. --Amber Haines, author of Wild in the Hollow In Christiana N. Peterson's beautifully told memoir, the reader comes to understand that our relationships with saints living and dead can take many forms but that at their heart, they are about the compassion that draws us into community. Peterson deftly sketches the optimism that drew her to an intentional Mennonite community as well as the difficulties of community and family life while carrying on conversations with her chosen groupings of Catholic saints. It's an unexpected juxtaposition that works beautifully. --Kaya Oakes, author of Radical Reinvention Rich and resonant, this book speaks to all who dare to hope that the God of Saint Francis still speaks to us today. --Amy Peterson, author of Dangerous Territory In Mystics and Misfits, Christiana N. Peterson guides the reader through both the lives of saints and her own journey in pursuit of God in an intentional community. It is the perfect blend of idealism tinged with mortality, of contemplation marred by depression and the mundane realities of moldy rugs. This is a gorgeous, quirky, and heartfelt book inviting the reader to love the mystics and misfits of our world--both those around us currently and those who came as guides long before. --D. L. Mayfield, author of Assimilate or Go Home This unflinching narrative of spiritual transformation will first captivate and then challenge readers at the depths of their souls. In the midst of intense personal, family, and community struggles, writer Christiana Peterson heeds the yearning of her heart to seek a more robust faith. To her surprise, she discovers deep wellsprings of wisdom among the Christian mystics, a tradition often ignored among Protestants. Despite their eccentricities, the mystics model a deeply human, resilient faith that offers sustenance and hope as Peterson navigates a perilous journey from youthful idealism through disillusionment to a more authentic life. --Marlene Kropf, professor emerita of spiritual formation and worship at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Author Information

Christiana N. Peterson is regular contributor to Good Letters, an Image Journal blog, and she has published pieces on death, fairytales, and farm life at Christianity Today Women, Off the Page, and Art House America. Peterson lives with her husband and their four children in Ohio.

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