There has been a resurgence in evangelicals reading of patristic sources. The work of Thomas Oden, Ronald Heine, Peter Liethart, Hans Boersma and D.H Williams and others have called for a ressourcement which makes use of the Great Tradition. The value of patristic exegesis is a hot topic in the academy, but few works have given the words of the early church for popular consumption. James Stuart Bell and Patrick J.Kelly has just done that with theirt new devotional.

I have noted before the difficulty in reviewing devotionals. Reviewing a devotional after only having it for a couple of weeks, means that at best my thoughts on it are provisional. To know the true value of it, I would need to use the book daily for a time. Awakening Faith is a year long devotional and I haven’t had time to give a full assessment of its value. However I am fairly impressed by it. This is a daily devotional which culls together readings from patristic sources. Readings from sixty-nine different Church Fathers, from the first to the eighth century, challenge Christians to live out their faith in a compelling manner. There are theologically rich reflections and prophetic calls to holy living from everyone from Ambrose and Augustine to Zeno of Verona.

Awakening Faith is beautifully bound with a ribbon book mark. There are 366 readings from the church fathers, with a scriptural reference at the head of each entry. This book looks good and the contents are pure gold. I absolutely love it. However the book is limited in a couple of respects.

First, I wish that it reflected the church calender more. The daily reading format sets it apart from IVP’s Ancient Christian Devotionals (edited by Thomas Oden). Those volumes follow the liturgical cycle and draw together different patristic commentaries on the readings for each Sunday. By contrast Awakening Faith is a daily devotional without an evident seasonal dimension. It is possible to start this devotional on day one reading each day until you finish the book (there are no dates are given for the readings). There are specific readings for Easter and Christmas (and other holy days) but these are scattered throughout the book. This makes me wonder what the internal organization of the readings is. It is not straight forward. It tends to bounce back and forth from various topics.

Another limitation of this devotional is the lack of references. Each reading reflects on a passage and tells you the author. It does not tell from which of their works the reading was taken from or their context. Sometimes this is obvious. For example, Athanasius’ readings on the life of Anthony, came from the Life of Anthony. Prolific authors like Augustine, Basil the Great, or guys named Gregory are harder to track down. I would have appreciated a reference to the actual work at the end of each reading. That way I could delve deeper into particular topics or authors. This may just be my academic bent. I happen to love footnotes in everything I read and am miffed when I don’t see them. I do like that the indexes of this volume give me a bird’s eye view of each author and the scriptural content.

The selection of readings themselves are quite good. Here is a random selection of topics covered:

Basil the Great on the value of the Psalms (reading 10)
Tertullian on Prayer (reading 88)
Augustine on Martyrdom (reading 90)
John Chrysostom on standing firm on the rock of Christ (reading 121)
Ambrose on freedom in Christ through grace (reading 204)
. . .and much more. Bell and Kelly did a great job of selecting devotions for this collection (I just wish I knew where they were all from!). This is a great compendium of Christian thought. I happily recommend this book as either a daily devotional (as it is intended) or a bathroom reader (as I have been using it). There are beautiful passages here which are worth copying into your journal and I plan to use this book for years to come. I give it four stars: ★★★★☆

Thank you to Zondervan and Cross Focused Reviews for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. ( )

Concise accounts are given by early Christian leaders, who are truly the "Fathers of our faith" - and every page is provided with Scripture references. Even though these devotions were written a few hundred years ago, they are still relevant to our life today. Done in a simplistic, modified language that is easy to understand, the writings offer spiritual nourishment with great depth as well as being powerful and thought provoking.

An absolutely beautiful collection, from the striking cover, to the ribbon marker, to the profound readings - a devotional that has a richness about it - these are truly God inspired writings. What a wonderful way to enhance your scripture readings. Awakening Faith is a great daily devotional and companion to the Bible. 5 stars. I highly recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review. ( )

I have enjoyed many of the excerpts contained in this book, but the lack of citations and bibliography was a bit of a deal-breaker for me. In my fuller review here, I registered some further concerns regarding the devotional reading of the fathers -- at least as their writings are presented here, with minimal background or context given -- in an evangelical or confessional Protestant setting; I am not sure something like this really works as a solid introduction to the fathers. But then, I have not made great use of devotional books in the past, and it's hard for me to turn my historian's brain off, so others' mileage may vary. ( )

Title: Awakening Faith: Daily Devotions from the Early Church
Author: James Stuart Bell with Patrick J. Kelly
Pages:
Year: 2013
Publisher: Zondervan
With this book, readers are provided a collection of daily devotions from some of the earlier founding fathers of the Christian church. There is a short devotion for each day of the week on a various topics, but there is no real continuity of theology in certain matters. Also, the source for these daily brief writings is not given. I thought there needed to be more cohesiveness so as to create less confusion for the general reader. Let’s face it, this could be a daunting and some might say difficult undertaking to read these early writings. I wanted more information on where these writings came from, and I think others might too, especially if they are interested in learning more about the early church. I think the idea of presenting readers with thoughts of early church leaders is interesting and would encourage readers to research more about this interesting subject.
There are some inspiring and wonderful pieces I very much enjoyed reading, and I also liked the wide time period chosen (7-8 centuries) as well as the cultural or ethnic backgrounds of the writers. I found the brief notes in the back of the book about each author interesting and informative. I also liked that the readings were short and fairly concise, so it was easy to take away what I wanted or needed from a particular days’ excerpt. Very important to me was the use of Scripture with the writings and the thoughts about the Scripture and not the other way around of using Scripture out of context to fit an author’s viewpoint. The rating I assigned is based on my opinion that some readers might take all of these writings as biblically and theologically sound when they all are not.
My rating is 3 stars.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for an honest review of this book. The opinions shared in this review are solely my responsibility. Other reviews can be read at http://seekingwithallyurheart.blogspot.com/ . Also follow me on Twitter @lcjohnson1988, FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/lisa.johnson.75457 ( )