An Interview with Peter Enns

Last updated on: March 7, 2014 at 9:13 am by michaboyett

An Interview with Peter Enns 2014-03-07T09:13:43-07:00 michaboyett

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Friends, I’m thrilled to be over at Peter Enns’ blog today talking about my book. Soon I’ll be making the rounds all over Blog Town guest posting and discussing my book. But this is my first interview. If you don’t know Peter Enns, he’s a fellow Patheos blogger, a biblical scholar, and an incredible thinker of theological things. I feel really honored that he wanted to host me over there, since most of the authors he interviews are theologians. (Fact: I am no theologian.)

Here’s an excerpt, but I’d love for you to click on over to Peter’s blog…

Most of the books we talk about around here deal with theological topics surrounding the Bible. But Found is creative nonfiction, a memoir of prayer. I know why I want people to read it (to help keep theology from residing solely in our heads), but tell us why you think people should read it?

The books that have most profoundly shaped my life have been stories. Humans are drawn to art and music and story because we don’t necessarily want to be told what to believe, we want to discover what we believe.

It’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance, not necessarily facts about God or rules about God. I really believe we’re more shaped by our stories of how we’ve experienced God, than we are by heady discussions about God.

It’s not that we don’t need theology. We absolutely do. And theology informs this book. It’s just there under the surface. Just like in a daily life of faith.

Do you see a theological framework in your book? You consider a lot of abstract ideas: the prayerful work of “paying attention,” gratefulness, wholeheartedness, etc. How does your theology hold those concepts up?

Over the past five years, during the time I was working on this book, I was greatly influenced by the notion of Narrative Theology: the Bible as a Story, God as the Great Narrator, and myself and the world around me as players in this beautiful, broken, always-being-redeemed story God is telling. That has deeply changed how I interact with scripture and how I see my life of faith.

These days I hold a lot less pressure for certainty and performance in faith. And letting go of those heavy burdens has allowed me to enter the life-long process of learning to live gratefully, to love God with my whole heart, and to love people. Love is the deep work of faith. And we’re all learning how to manifest it in our daily, ordinary lives.

Read the rest here and head over to Amazon to pre-order my book. I heard a little secret that Amazon is sending out the preorders three weeks early. (That’s this weekend, y’all!)

Can’t wait for this book release stuff to start getting wild.

Till then,
Micha

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