Tag Archives: Book Review

InScribe anthology a valuable resource for newer writers

18 Tuesday Aug 2015

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We’re back. Thank you for your patience while Arts Connection went through some technical changes. My tech wiz took care of changing the domains and syncing all the Arts Connection pieces (website, blog, e-mail) together. It’s my hope, as Arts Connection re-launches, that there won’t be any glitches or snafus.

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As with any good book, 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers started with a “what if…?” question. Published by the InScribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship (ICWF), the book is another step in the organization’s development from simply supporting fellow wordsmiths to providing them with tools they need to start, improve and develop their writing skills.

ICWF started out as the Alberta Christian Writers’ Fellowship in the early 1980s and provided fellowship through its regular newsletters and annual conferences (the book’s introduction includes a brief history of the ICWF).

An ACWF workshop I attended proved integral to my own career, where a connection with Peter Fleck from the Alberta SonShine News led to freelance work and, eventually, a writing/editing career in mainstream and faith-based publications. In recent years, the organization expanded its reach outside of Alberta and changed its name to reflect the change.

7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers was published specifically for writers working within Christian genres and provides advice on:

  • Time with God
  • Healthy Living
  • Time Management
  • Honing writing skills
  • Crafting a masterpiece
  • Submitting your work
  • Marketing

About 30 ICWF member contributed articles, short stories, poems or photos to add meat to the bones. While much of what was written was review for me, I was able to see how 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers would benefit a beginning or novice writer.

7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers is a valuable resource that every beginning and novice writer needs.

The advice is solid and comes from the experience of the writers. Unlike many “how-to” books, it doesn’t provide a recipe for success. Instead it provides a smorgasboard of perspectives, allowing the reader (and writer) to choose which fits their own experience. One example is Ruth L. Snyder’s chapter “Fit Writing into A Busy Schedule” and Loretta Bouillon’s chapter “To Schedule or Not to Schedule.” Both talk about fitting writing into busy lives (a common conundrum for beginning writers), but Snyder and Bouillon provide different means and methods to do so. By including both perspectives, the underlying message is: the only “right” way is the one you find works in your circumstances.

If there was one drawback to the book, it would be the chapters written as a short story. I found the change in narrative styles, from non-fiction to fiction, jarring; with many of the short stories coming across as contrived. The practical tips within the short stories could have worked just as well if they’d been presented as a non-fiction article.

And, while the book was written specifically for those working within a Christian milieu (for denominational and devotional publications and Christian publishers), it would have been beneficial if one or two articles about writing for a non-Christian venue were included, specifically in the “Submitting Your Work” and “Marketing” chapters.

Despite these drawbacks, 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers is a valuable resource that every beginning and novice writer needs.

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For more information on 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers check http://inscribe.org/anthology/

“Desparate Measures” brings Port Aster Secrets trilogy to a satisfying conclusion

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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If you’re looking for another book to add to your summer reading then Sandra Orchard’s Desperate Measures should be at the top of your shopping list.

Desperate Measures completes Sandra’s “Port Aster Secrets” trilogy. Fresh from surviving an attempt on her life in Blind Trust, heroine Kate Adams tries to get her life back together, continue the research her mentor started and single-handedly stave off a greedy pharmaceutical conglomerate. Kate becomes a pariah her hometown where the mayor, the unemployed and underemployed only see the benefits from the company’s potential investment. In Kate’s experience, GPC has proven anything but trustworthy, while leaving her with many suspicions and little hard proof.

To this mix, Sandra adds a variety of complications. The most significant: Kate’s on-and-off-again relationship with her protector, police detective Tom Parker. Less significant, but as vital to the plot are: Kate’s anger about a decision Tom made at the end of the previous book; Tom’s guilt about that decision; Kate’s secretive research; a global conspiracy includes the mafia, corporate espionage and an alphabet soup of agencies from both sides of the border (FBI, CIA, RCMP, CSIS). Under Sandra’s deft pen, the pieces come together in a page-turner guaranteed to keep you reading until late into the evening.

Under Sandra’s deft pen, the pieces come together in a page-turner guaranteed to keep you reading until late into the evening.

Sandra has the ability to lead you to the brink of solving the mystery, only to throw in another unexpected twist. When you’ve written a character off as a villain, they end up acting heroic…and vice versa. I’ve been a mystery reader since grade school where I started figuring out the endings to the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, but Sandra kept me guessing until the end.

The strength of the Port Aster Secrets’ series are the characters. Sandra has created, in Kate and Tom, not the perfect couple, but the right couple. Both are scarred by their past, both look to the future and both show a realistic faith in God. Too often books of this genre resort to a cliche that Sandra has diligently worked to avoid. Sandra also develops a depth in her secondary and supporting characters which prevents them from being simply cardboard cutouts there to support Kate and Tom.

All three of the books in the Port Aster Secrets trilogy – Deadly Devotion, Blind Trust and Deadly Devotion – can be read on their own, but there’s enough carryover from novel to novel that you’ll eventually want to read all three books. No matter which one you start with, there will be enough in it to whet your appetite for the other two.

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You can listen to an Arts Connection with Sandra, where she talks about Desperate Measures here: http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-june-8-2015-sandra-orchard-desperate-measures-novel

Getting to the root of G.K. Chesterton’s tree symbolism

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

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Most of the analysis on G. K. Chesterton’s work has focused on his non-fiction books, predominantly Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man. With Roots & Branches: The Symbol of the Tree in the Imagination of G.K. Chesterton award-winning novelist Deb Elkink wants to broaden that focus to include a look at Chesterton’s fiction.

Elkink first encountered Chesterton while working on a post-graduate degree in Historical Theology. Roots & Branches, which grew out of her academic research, is a literary analysis of Chesterton’s novels and short stories. For those unfamiliar with Chesterton, the first chapter provides an introduction to a writer of many genres: essays and articles, plays, poems, novels, short stories, art and literary criticism and biography.

The last chapter provides an overview of Chesterton’s six themes: home and journey, the person and God, light, the church, the ladder and the cross. Within these themes, Elkink notes: “The tree becomes an allegory for salvation. It acts as Chesterton’s ‘visual aid’ or wholistic model of the spiritual process by picturing the incarnational, redeeming work of Christ and the continuing sacramental presence of God in the world.”

Roots & Branches provides an insightful and informative look at a prolific and often paradoxical writer.

In between, Elkink demonstrates, through careful, thoughtful and thorough research, how the symbolic use of the tree took root in short stories Chesterton wrote as a youth, grew in use in his early novels and matured in his later works.

“The sacramental themes, introduced in earlier writings have, by Chesterton’s maturity, been refined and advanced,” writes Elkink. “The Garden of Eden, fallen into wilderness, now becomes the glorious jungle of the world, inhabited now by both evil and good, and still offering humanity a choice. The tree is the cause of, and the escape from sin. It becomes the instrument of violent sacrificial death climbed because of love, and figures not only the crucifixion but also the incarnation, the church, and the light of Christian truth.”

Roots & Branches: The Symbol of the Tree in the Imagination of G. K. Chesterton provides an insightful and informative look at prolific and often paradoxical writer. Both fans of Chesterton and those who know little about him will be well-served by Elkink’s analysis.

If there were any shortcomings, it would be the book’s style and layout.

Roots & Branches began as and remains an academic thesis. While I’m aware of the reasons behind the choice, I think the average reader would have been better served with a less academic approach.

And, with academic theses come notes. In Roots & Branches, it was decided to post them as footnotes at the end of each page. While this makes it easier to read than flipping back and forth between end notes and text, the footnotes often break up the text and can let the reader lose the narrative.

Don’t let these shortcomings deter you from reading Roots & Branches.  While they can make the book tough to get through at times, I’d strongly suggest persevering. Roots & Branches is worth finishing. Here’s a little encouragement from the Epilogue titled “A Chestertonian Invesion of Mt. 7:17”

“From Athena’s olive triumph,/To the Trees of Tolkien’s light/From Matt’s and Luke’s list of ‘begats’/To rooted branchings left and right/The myths of Man are arbor-crowned/On Calvary’s deathly height./But in this, Deb Elkink’s book/Inverted, as in G. K.’s sight/You will find, and I agree/That her good fruit has borne an Tree.” (Peter J. Floriani)

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For an Arts Connection interview where Deb Elkink gives a few more insights on Roots & Branches: The Symbol of the Tree in the Imagination of G. K. Chesterton go to: http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-july-6-2015-deb-elkink-roots-branches-symbol-tree-imagination-gk-ches

“Shifting Stats” needs to be in every Christian’s to-read pile this summer

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

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“Canada is home to one of the most multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious populations on the earth and we’re facing some of the most significant upheavals in our nation’s history” reads the blurb on the back cover of Shifting Stats Shaking the Church: 40 Canadian Churches Respond.

This seemingly ominous statement belies what is both a readable and informative book that answers the question (also in the blurb) “What does this mean for Christ’s Church?”

Written by two veteran journalists (who are also colleagues and friends) Shifting Stats tells the story of how 40 different stories have responded to the changes that have taken place in their communities. Commissioned by World Vision Canada, the book crosses denominational, geographic and generational lines to give readers a sampling of the changing Canadian church landscape.

Shifting Stats Shaking the Church: 40 Canadian Churches Respond needs to be read by anyone who has an interest Canadian society and the Canadian Church.

Like Evangel Church in Gander, Newfoundland which delivers furniture to those in need. Or Kensington Commons Church in Calgary, Alberta which opened its doors to those needing to recharge their electronic devices after a major power outage. Or the podcast ministry of Shiloh University Church in Halifax. Or the Community Laundry Enterprise Assisting Neighbours (CLEAN) run by Calvary Baptist Church in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Shifting Stats isn’t meant to be a comprehensive look at the Canadian church scene. Each of the 40 short chapters – each could be read in one sitting – is a tantalizing appetizer. The “More to Explore” section and contact information on each church provide readers with the tools needed to find out more.

The experience of Stiller and Paddey as researchers, interviewers and writers shines through the book. And there’s a cohesiveness in the voice. I’m familiar with the writing styles of both and yet I’m hard pressed to figure out who wrote which chapter. This adds to the readability of the book since there isn’t a jarring change in the voice from chapter to chapter.

Shifting Stats Shaking the Church: 40 Canadian Churches Respond needs to be read by anyone who has an interest Canadian society and the Canadian Church. In other words, this needs to be in every Christian’s summer to-read pile. You’ll come away informed and intrigued by what the church is, and can, do to respond to some of the “most significant upheavals in our nation’s history.”

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To listen to the Arts Connection interview with Patricia Paddey and Karen Stiller go to http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-june-15-2015-patricia-paddey-karen-stiller-shifting-stats-book

For Todd Stahl “Art Ache” was more than art…it was prophetic

27 Wednesday May 2015

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Art gives the artist a voice in society, whether the artist is holding a mirror up to what they see or rebuking what they feel has gone awry.

One of Todd Stahl’s pieces of art turned out to prophetic.

Stahl’s print “Art Ache” forms the basis of one of the devotions in his debut book 40 Days in the Man Cave. The story behind the print begins in 2010 writes Stahl on his website:

One night while I had some free time, I went for a walk. That particular day I was extremely stressed so I asked God to show me an idea in order to draw something significant. Before I even got to the end of my driveway I believe God gave me a distinct visual image of a heart with a band aid across it. I could picture the idea in my head instantly.So back inside I went to start the painting…

I believe God gave me a distinct visual image of a heart with a band aid across it.

At the time I thought I knew the reason why God gave me the visual. In my mind I surmised it was the fact that many people in life have very deep hurts. Pain that requires a band aid.  Aches that need time to heal. I also assumed the dark colours I chose were due to the fact my own my heart had become hardened and crusty. Feelings of bitterness were pushed way down deep in my own life.

Fast forward four years to when Stahl, whose full-time job is as a firefighter, began feeling ill. Eventually he was diagnosed with a heart problem which ended up requiring surgery. Writes Stahl:

We will never forget (Dr. Robert Kiaii’s) explanation as he took a pen, opened a pamphlet with the diagram of a heart and began to explain the main issue with my heart. While describing in detail he circled around and around with a pen the exact area where the mitral valve was on the lower left side of the heart. Dr. Kiaii also discussed how there are fine ‘cords’ which open and close the valve and mine in particular he noted had come apart and were all loose and flimsy like a parachute. He explained that since the valve did not seal properly my blood would not receive enough oxygen, therefore resulting in all the symptoms I had been feeling. Lastly, other doctors had told us that I may need a replacement valve while Kiaii explained he felt confident he could repair my valve robotically. He even went as far as to say, ‘it is almost like attaching a strong band aid on your valve’!

I know a few artists who create prophetic art – art that tells forth the word of God. Stahl’s story is the first, that I can remember, of prophetic art that foretold an event. Stahl took the art with him into the operating room and the ICU, using it as an opportunity to explain the “amazing story.

“God had a plan and the story became so much bigger than just a piece of paper and some paint,” writes Stahl.

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You can hear an Arts Connection interview with Todd Stahl on 94.3 Faith FM on Monday, June 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

If you aren’t able to tune in, the broadcast will be eventually be archived at www.selawministries.ca.

And you can read Stahl’s story of “Art Ache” on his website: http://www.toddstahl.com/the-significance-of-art-ache

Exploring the “why” of art with Calvin Seerveld’s “Redemptive Art in Society”

07 Thursday May 2015

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In the paean of those who have provided philosophical and theological underpinnings for the role of art in faith and culture, four names stand out: Hans Rookmaaker, (Art Needs No Justification), Francis Schaeffer (Art & the Bible) and John Franklin (Imago).

The fourth is Calvin Seerveld, professor emiritus in Aesthetics at Toronto’s Institute for Christian Studies, who had a six-volume collection of his “sundry writings and occasional lectures” published buy Dordt College Press last year.

One of those volumes, Redemptive Art in Society, needs to be on the “to-read” list of anyone involved in the intersection of faith, arts and culture. The lectures, papers and articles date from as early as 1993 to as late as 2010 and were presented in venues as varied as: the Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) conference at McGill University in Montreal, the Christians in the Theatre Arts (CITA) conference in Chicago and Barcelona’s “Arts Gathering” conference in Spain.

In Redemptive Art in Society Seerveld provides artists with the “why” of art. I’d suggest that many of us are so busy with the “how” of our art, we often forget the “why.” We become focused on what we should create, what role our faith plays in creating art, where our art should go and who should be exposed to our art – often forgetting the foundational question: why do we create art?

The peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry (can) be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.

One answer is found in the chapter titled “Necessary Art in Africa: A Christian Perspective,” originally published in Art in Africa, where Seerveld suggests:

“If artistry is built-in human nature, and if artistic imaginative activity is so fundamentally at work in personal, family, and public societal life, though often unobserved, then artistry with its cultural potential left in the hands and to the whims of a godless direction will go to hell. An overwhelming portion of the contemporary Western artworld – painting, song, cinema – has indeed lost its way, I think, because disciples of Jesus generations ago ignored the terrain, or merely domesticated the least offensive varieties of the secularist fashion…

Artists who follow Christ are called to forge a community with faith-brother and faith-sister artists, aestheticians, art historians, art critics, art patrons, an artistic communion within which artistry can be reconceived and reformed from what passes as normal, so that art’s presumed privilege or art’s esoteric adventitious capriciousness be ended, and the peculiar, subtle creaturely glory of artistry be reinstated as an ordinary diaconal ministry: artists skillfully, imaginatively collect nuances in God’s world and present them like manna to their neighbors.” (italics in original)

Christian artistry, suggests Seerveld in “From Ghost Town to Tent City: artist community facing Babylon and the City of God” (a keynote address to the CIVA conference), “does not have to add something to art; it is simply competent artwork presented with holy spirited insight, the way God wants it done.”

Seerveld packs much food for thought into each chapter. But once the reader has a chance to digest his thoughts, they come away with a greater understanding of the role artists who are Christian can have in society: creating “artwork that presents nuanced sorrow or joy with the imaginative relish of an understanding bouyed by hope.”

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Calvin Seerveld, Redemptive Art in Society, Dordt College Press, 2014, 328 pages, www.Dordt.edu/DCPcatalog

“The Name of the Hawk” series offer a new take on the Arthurian legend

15 Wednesday Apr 2015

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Pincher Creek, Alberta writer Murray Pura offers a new take on the Arthurian legends through his two The Name of the Hawk series.

The two series are a throwback to the days of Charles Dickens novels and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Authors would release a bit of their stories at a time in the magazines or newspapers before a publisher would release the full story or novel in a book. Pura has taken the e-book route with both The Name of the Hawk series, releasing a volume (in essence a chapter) at a time.

Last year’s series, a six volume novel, introduced the reader to Hawk, a young man ready to leave his island home on the pilgrimage that marked his entry in to adulthood. The not-so-chance arrival of a boatload of Danes changes the direction of Hawk’s journey and adds his love interest Skaytha and her companions to the journey.

After a few physical and spiritual trials, Hawk et al leave the Danes, travel across unknown lands and end up in Jerusalem. There he meets Galahad, one of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. The two reluctantly team up to find the true cross. There’s more than a twist or two in this tale, most of which revolves around the relationship between Hawk and Galahad.

Volume II, released in March, picks up Hawk’s tale, where he and Galahad are tasked to find…

The Holy Grail.

Which shouldn’t really be a surprise, since the grail quest is a key part of the Arthurian story. While this is only the first volume, based on the first series, I’m betting this grail quest ends up taking a markedly different direction than what’s found in other treatments of the legend.

What Pura adds to the mix includes:

1) A nod to the Galad/Galahad controversy: is this the same person but with different spellings or are these two different people? In Pura’s interpretation, these are definitely two sides of the same coin.

2) A compare/contrast approach to Celtic and Roman Christianity: Hawk represents the Celtic approach, which is personal, intuitive and structured around the community. Galahad represents the Roman approach, which  is centred around the church and priests. Pura shows, through the interaction between the two as they, that a melding of both approaches produces a deeper, richer spirituality.

3) A sense of humour: This began in the first series, when Hawk met Galahad and insisted that Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were fables. And Galahad’s knightly speech patterns remain a constant source of amusement for and ridicule from Hawk.

Pura’s clean, conversational writing style makes the books an easy read. That doesn’t mean they’re simplistic – there’s an unexpected depth to the narrative, especially for those who are fans of the Arthurian genre.

I’m looking forward to the rest of Series II of The Name of the Hawk and eagerly curious about how the grail quest will end. If it’s anything like the search for the true Cross in Series I, it will be nothing like I’ve read in the past.

The Name of the Hawk Series II, published by Helping Hands Press, is available as an e-book at amazon.ca (http://tinyurl.com/ktgfbsn)

Book takes “Subway Stations of the Cross” from the stage to the page

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

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A year ago, during the one of the runs of the award-winning play Kim’s Convenience, I had the chance to talk to Ins Choi about one of his other works: Subway Stations of the Cross.

Subway Stations of the Cross has its roots in a conversation Ins had with a homeless man in a park in downtown Toronto. Puzzled by what seemed to be ramblings at the time, Ins eventually found himself intrigued by what was said and began writing poems and songs based on it. By 2009 he began performing a song or poem in church services during Lent, a project that ultimately grew into a 20-minute performance.

“Over the years it started to grow and grow and now it at about an hour long,” said Ins in the interview.

Now, this work of the stage has been transformed into a work of the written page with the House of Anansi Press publication of Ins’ spoken-word poems and songs, beautifully illustrated by artist Guno Park.

The book opens with an illustration of Ins in character as the play’s nameless vagabond who is both beggar and seer. The poem “Repent” sets the tone for the book with lines that seamlessly meld social comment, humour and theology:

“Compare/Laissez-faire/Up in the air/On a whim and a prayer/Neither here nor there/Neither hide nor hair/Multi-million dollar home five car garage private jet plane mega-billionaire/MDiv PhD summa cum laud professor director member fellow published text book nicky picky air tight I’m right doctrinaire ye the way of the Lord.”

My personal favorites are “Bread” and “Wine” (two poems that look, separately, at the elements of the Last Supper), “Birkenstock Jesus” (which asks “If Jesus came to visit us today/How would he react to the church?”) and “A Field” (the parable of the hidden treasure from Matthew 13). But I also find a new “favourite” every time I read through the book again.

The beauty of Ins’ words is matched by Guno Park’s wonderful illustrations. “Guno and I grew up in the same church in Toronto, Toronto Korean Bethel Church,” writes Ins in the Author’s Note. “For an immigrant Korean church, or any church for that matter, it had an unusually disproportionate amount of artists.” In the same note, Ins says Guno’s drawings were “the perfect visual companion to my poems and songs.”

And they are. The publisher has formatted the book so that Guno’s pen and ink subway scenes can fold out in a panorama of human drama. Or as Ins writes: “like lost travellers on a holy pilgrimage who, after many years, forgot where they were going and why.”

While Subway Stations of the Cross can be a quick read, its complexities will draw the readers back to it time and time again for new insights into human and divine natures. It’s going to be in my re-read pile for a long time.

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For the complete interview with Ins Choi, which looks at Kim’s Convenience and Subway Stations of the Cross go to: http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-april-7-2014-ins-choi-kims-convenience-and-subway-stations-cross

Lost & Found Theatre’s “Kimberly Akimbo” is funny, poignant and deeply moving

20 Friday Mar 2015

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Lost and Found Theatre - Kimberly Akimbo

One of my pleasures is live theatre and the Lost & Found Theatre company’s latest production, Kimberly Akimbo, is one of the reasons for my love of theatre.

The Kitchener, Ontario-based company doesn’t describe itself as a “Christian theatre company” even though most of the company’s core cast are Christians. But the works they choose to produce frequently resonate with Christian values and definitely look at the challenging and redemptive aspects of human relationships.

Kimberly Akimbo does just that. Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire’s play introduces us to a mother (Christy Ziss) about to give birth to her second child and worried about about diseases she’s never been diagnosed with; a rarely sober father (Andy Pogson) who constantly makes promises he never keeps and 15- turning 16-year-old, Kimberly who tries to navigate the turbulent waters of a budding teenage romance, a dysfunctional family (that also includes an aunt with a sketchy past) and her own mortality.

Cast as Kimberly, is Kathleen Sheehy portrays a teen who struggles with a rare condition that causes her body to age faster than it should. Faced with an uncertain future, she also has to cope with her parents avoidance (bordering on denial) of her condition despite her desire to live a normal teenage life. When her aunt Debra (Jennifer Cornish) shows up with a get-rich-quick scheme, Kimberly’s world falls apart as simmering family secrets boil to the surface in heated arguments and accusations.

And when the family secrets no longer remain secret, instead of ending the dysfunction, it serves to drive the wedge between Kimberly and her parents in deeper, forcing her to forge her own path and find her own happiness.

Thrown into the mix is a Jeff (in a stunning professional debut by Alten Wilmot), a geeky wannabe boyfriend who uses anagrams portray his true feelings. Using a school project as a ruse to get a chance to talk to Kimberly, the budding romance survives awkward silences, their own dysfunctional families and Kimberly’s overprotective father.

Kimberly Akimbo is funny, poignant and deeply moving, often in the space of a single line. It’s a must see.

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Kimberly Akimbo runs until March 28 at the Registry Theatre (122 Frederick St., Kitchener). For ticket details go to http://www.lostandfoundtheatre.com. (Warning: Coarse Language, 13+)

And check out Lost & Found Theatre’s Radical Hospitality initiative where a limited number of tickets for the Saturday, March 21 and Tuesday, March 24 will be available at no cost.

The enigma and influence of Bruce Cockburn explored in “rumours of glory”

24 Tuesday Feb 2015

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I was one of those young people who almost wore the grooves out of my copy of Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws in the early 1980s – especially once I was told Bruce Cockburn was a born again Christian and “Wondering Where the Lions Are” was based on a metaphor for Jesus Christ.

I also wasn’t one of those evangelical Christians who tossed their Cockburn collection because of the mild profanity in “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” and the harsher profanity in “Call it Democracy.” I considered the lyrics in context and always felt the songwriter chose the words he knew best conveyed his thoughts.

That’s why Cockburn’s autobiography, rumours of glory, was at the top of my Christmas list this year and became one of the first books I plowed through in my post-Christmas reading binge.

For many evangelical Christians, Cockburn has been an enigma. Coming out in the late 1970s with statements that led many to believe he had a salvation experience, Cockburn’s “witness” in years to come left many scratching their heads about his beliefs.

For those, myself included, who picked up rumours of glory to hear Cockburn use the magic words “born again Christian,” they’ll be sadly disappointed. One encounter Cockburn has with legendary Christian rocker Glen Kaiser (of Resurrection Band fame) will leave no doubt about where Cockburn stands among those in the evangelical camp. Yet, ever the enigma, Cockburn shares about a spiritual experience that seems pull from Christianity and a host of other religions/faiths that he’s been exposed to as a world traveller and observer of human behaviour. Is he or isn’t he a “Christian?” Only God knows for sure.

Putting dogma aside, Cockburn still remains, as a singer/songwriter/guitarist, a key influence on many Canadian musicians, including Christians such as Jacob Moon, Steve Bell, Ali Matthews, Jay Calder, Kev Morse. And rumours of glory is a window onto Cockburn’s creative process, which has evolved and matured over his nearly five decades as a musician. For me, the most enjoyable part of this book was taking a look behind the curtain as he explains the influences and experiences behind his songs. I did find, however, some of the political rants became a little tiring after being repeated a few times.

Does rumours of glory provide a definitive answer to the question “is Bruce Cockburn a born-again Christian?” No. Does rumours of glory provide a look at one artist’s creative process? Yes. And for that reason it’s a must-read for any artist.