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Reviews and Endorsements
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[Endorsement]
- “True peace, positive peace or just peace is the thriving of life and community; it is justice, harmony, wellbeing and the flourishing of all life. This thick peace is at the heart of Nathan Brown’s collected essays, and more importantly, it is the heart of our Creator God. Brown calls us to consider what God’s love, compassion and justice look like when Jesus—the One who came preaching peace—directs us to engage rather than avoid this beautiful but hurting world.”—Jeff Boyd, Director, Adventist Peace Fellowship
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[Endorsement]
- “It is a rarity in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to find a writer who blends a love for the gospel with a deep prophetic call to justice. Nathan Brown is one such writer. His prose is as elevating as it is challenging. All who read him will be asked to don a Christianity covered in the ‘street cred’ of love for the least of these. May his tribe increase!”—Dwain Esmond, Associate Director, The Ellen G White Estate
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[Endorsement]
- “It’s far too easy to separate our theology from our practice in daily living. Nathan Brown relentlessly brings us back to the realistic implication of our beliefs about Jesus and our commitment to Scripture. His honest treatment of the issues that come up in our wider world, our church, and our personal lives will both provoke and inspire.”
—Dr Lisa Clark Diller, Professor of History, Southern Adventist University
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[Endorsement]
- “Nathan writes with a superb skill for analysing contemporary issues that can only be matched by his deep love for our faith. Always brave and sharp in his thinking, he continually challenges me to think of justice as a priority for those who follow Jesus.”
—Sam Leonor, chaplain, La Sierra University
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[ Adventist Review ]
- A talented writer and editor, Brown excels in being able to observe social conditions perceptively and connect them to spiritual principles revealed in the Bible. His book Engage is Nathan Brown at his most perceptive.
The book’s 38 chapters began as columns on the Adventist World website. Consequently, they’re short (fewer than 1,000 words), self-contained, and varied, touching on a wide variety of topics. It’s the kind of book one could well leave on a kitchen table or a nightstand, where it could easily serve as a quick shot of inspiration before heading out for the day or as a meditation before going to sleep at night. In any case, readers will find much that stimulates thought and reflection and, one would hope, Christian action.
This is more than a book full of warm, fuzzy thoughts (although there are some). It’s about the intersection of faith and practice: what does it mean to be a follower of Christ in a world in which Christians are too often as culpable as non-Christians in some of the scandals that rock society?
Brown’s strength is in mining the Bible for counsel that informs today’s conversations, and not just those inside the church. A few of the chapter titles reveal something of his unique perspectives: “Reclaiming ‘Radical,’” “Of Waiting and Discontinuity,” “The Missing Chapter on Revival,” “Racism Is Atheism,” “In Praise of Empty Churches,” “A ‘Boring’ Way to Change the World.”
Many Adventist writers turn out good material that other Adventists find uplifting and inspirational. Brown offers his readers a window on the world, in which he challenges Adventists to take their faith to a public in which many within and outside the church are dying slow deaths of loneliness, despair, lack of purpose, and meaninglessness.
The author’s solution is to take another look at the timeless truths of the Bible. The Bible’s prophetic voice, whether interpreting Daniel or Leviticus, speaks pointedly to the issues we face today. Engage helps us hear and handle those issues. It’s not unlike the promise “Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa. 30:21).
- Reviewed by Stephen Chavez, Adventist Review
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[ Bookshelf Review ]
- As a Christian—in my most honest moments of reflection—I wish for transformational faith and persistent courage to change the world. I want to reclaim my privileged life, to use my time and to share my possessions so I can become the heart, the voice, the hands and the feet of Jesus to my God-ordained family: to neighbours, friends, strangers and the least of these.
In the context of this yearning, Nathan Brown’s Engage: Faith that Matters—a collection of essays about the responsibility and the privilege evoked by our divine commission to engage with our world—enriched, challenged and inspired me.
Engage enriched my understanding of Jesus as the servant God, the radical peacemaker, the humble rescuer, the unsung hero and the ultimate lover of all people. Nathan’s view of God—biblical, attractive and fresh—speaks of grace and compassion.
It also challenged my self-imposed limitations about what it means to be engaged “in the world” while not being “of the world.” About our collective ability to do good—with God—as an act of worship and to replicate God’s generosity.
And ultimately, it inspired me to look for opportunities, big or small, to breathe relevance into my life, to let my compassion shine, and to aspire for more. More doing and less talking, more loving and less preaching, more acceptance and less judgment, more justice and less pain, more like Jesus and less like me.
Nathan’s prose is based on solid theology, careful research and eloquent storytelling. The essays are succinct, but impactful.
The stories are personal and real. And the lessons are applicable to life—right now.
Engage is the kind of book that you think you will read slowly—one essay at a time—but find yourself unable to put down, before going back with highlighter and pen in hand for a deeper study.
It is about encouraging us, as Jesus’ disciples, “to be most engaged in our world and in our communities.” And when we do, we will live out love as Jesus did—salt, light. hands, feet, heart, voice, all.
—Bruna Tawake, Fundraising Manager, ADRA Australia
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