Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 178:711 (Jul 2021)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss

BSac 178:711 (July-September 2021) p. 365

Book Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom. By Andrew Peterson. Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2021. x + 206 pp. $17.99.

Peterson tells stories. He writes and performs music, writes fantasy-adventure novels (soon to be released as a television series [https://www.wingfeathersaga.com/]), and this second book (the first was Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and Mystery of Making [Nashville: B&H, 2019), which is part memoir, part meditation, part stories behind his songs, part poetry, and part drawings of trees.

Peterson begins his new book with this claim: “This is a story about place. It’s fitting, then, that the whole of this book was written in one place, surrounded by the same walls, the same smells, the same creaks and quirks and comforts. Because of my job, I’ve done a lot of traveling, so most of my songs and stories were written in all manner of places” (1). But due to the pandemic, “early 2000 had me literally and figuratively grounded in a way that allowed me—forced me—to work in place: slowly, rhythmically, without the frantic pace to which I had grown accustomed” (ibid.). In short, the circumstances of life gave him time to remember, time to reflect, time to think, time to imagine, time to rest, time to recognize the place of the writing and the places that set the context for these chapters.

This is an emotionally moving set of stories. The artist draws back the veil and allows his readers to see the struggles, doubts, uncertainties, fears, pleasures, joys, and hope that characterize his walk of faith. Fans of his music have been drawn to him because of his honesty and authenticity. His popularity as a singer-songwriter is rooted not only in the quality of the music but the way his work connects with the lived experience of humans in this fallen world. Yet, even though the creation is cursed because of human sin, it is still a place of beauty, hope, and redemption because the Creator is at work in this world, as Peterson concludes, “I imagine myself crashing through the walls of the universe, where Time and Space are held like a book in the hands of Jesus. He shows me the ending, with a gleam in his eye. ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (196).

In the “Afterword,” Peterson writes, “At the very least, I hope this book helps you to see how wonderful trees are. That’s it. They’re all around us and easy to overlook, but they are made by God to be either

BSac 178:711 (July-September 2021) p. 366

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