Ken Wytsma - The Grand Paradox: The Messiness of Life, the Mystery of God and the Necessity of Faith

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

Many of those who write about faith have an idealized version of faith in mind, which they describe in clich-ridden language that makes those Christians who do not experience such faith feel either guilty or angry. In The Grand Paradox, Ken Wytsma talks about actual faith, not idealized faith. The faith of which he speaks is not only for our messy world but also of our messy worldwhile yet trusting and revealing God. Thoroughly honest, never evasive, free of clichs, deeply Christian, encouraging rather than scolding in its tone, it is the most perceptive and helpful discussion of faith that I know of.

NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF, NOAH PORTER PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY, YALE UNIVERSITY, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES IN CULTURE, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

With refreshing honesty, Ken explores our journey toward real faith, the kind that sustains us through seasons of suffering and strengthens us through lifes mysteries. Deeply personal, yet anchored biblically, The Grand Paradox will both encourage and energize you. I commend it highly.

STEPHAN BAUMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF WORLD RELIEF

The Grand Paradox will change your vision and create a new normal as a guide for pursuing God. Read this book, and then tell everyone about it.

JOHN SOWERS, PRESIDENT OF THE MENTORING PROJECT AND AUTHOR OF FATHERLESS GENERATION AND THE HEROIC PATH

Honest, compelling, and filled with Scripture, The Grand Paradox invites you to a deeper life of love, justice, and mercy in the midst of brokenness and pain. Kens latest book will help you hold onto hope as you live and serve.

PETER GREER, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF HOPE INTERNATIONAL AND COAUTHOR OF MISSION DRIFT AND THE SPIRITUAL DANGER OF DOING GOOD

Far too many of us today despise paradox and avoid the tensions that exist naturally in our lives and world and faith. Ken Wytsmas brilliant and wide-ranging book does a bold and masterful job of inviting us straight into the heart of the grand paradoxes God has woven into the fabric of the universe. Under Wytsmas wise guidance, we begin to see that the life of faith is a leap INTO paradox, not OUT of it. This book is a tour de force of good stories, philosophical wisdom, and theological insight, potent enough to realign many of our most egregious misunderstandings, enlightening enough to help us begin to see more clearly, hope-filled enough to help us to live more faithfully and flourishingly.

MICHAEL YANKOSKI, AUTHOR OF THE SACRED YEAR AND UNDER THE OVERPASS

This book forced me to don my thinking cap. It also made me laugh, loudly. Who else but author Ken Wytsma comes away from lunch at In-N-Out Burger intent on a Southern California prayer fast? The Grand Paradox is not a book for readers looking for a four-step plan to a happy-sappy faith. The Grand Paradox is for readers whose lives are a hot mess. If you have ever wondered if God is a psychotic hiding behind black velvet drapes, orchestrating the chaos that is your life, read this book. The Grand Paradox wont provide easy answers, but it is sure to help readers frame faith around the most important of questions.

KAREN SPEARS ZACHARIAS, AUTHOR OF MOTHER OF RAIN

Some books can be read and digested reasonably well by yourself. Other books, however, are so stimulating and provocative they should also be read in community. I believe The Grand Paradox is in the latter category. Ken Wytsma treats the messiness of life and the mysteriousness of God and His ways in a candid, constructive, and compelling manner. So get a group of friends and read it together. Im confident that you will be blessed, and so will they!

RANDAL ROBERTS, D.MIN., PRESIDENT, WESTERN SEMINARY (PORTLAND, OR)

Question: What do Soren Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis, Abraham Heschel, Dwight Moody, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Evelyn Underhill, and John Paul II all have in common? Answer: They all make an appearance in and contribute to the present book by Ken Wytsma. Wytsma has taken many rich voices of the Christian tradition and has processed them through his well-informed passionate faith with a keen eye on the practical consequences of such faith for life in the world. Wytsma connects the dots between tradition, faith, and practice in a compelling way that readers will find fresh and enlivening.

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN, COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Paradox is central to life with Jesus: die to live; serve to gain; weakness is strength. In an age that idolizes certainty over mystery and skepticism over trust, many assume our doubts oppose faith. Wytsma powerfully reclaims the ancient truth, rather, that doubt is the context in which faith can arise, paradox the soil in which trust grows. With pastoral sensitivity for our heartrending questionslike Where is God? when life is tragic, or What is Gods will? when the road is messyWytsma helps us weary, war-torn travelers pull the cynicism and despair out of our modern backpacks and trade them in for joy in a God who is mysteriously presentnot in spite of our troubles, but through themand who is faithful and reliable to make our world right.

JOSHUA RYAN BUTLER, PASTOR AND AUTHOR OF THE SKELETONS IN GODS CLOSET

Ken engages in the complexities rather than celebrates the simplicities of a life of faith, reminding us that the Christian life is non-linear and that it is when we engage in deeper dialogue that the messiness of faith is revealed and space for raw and honest conversation takes place. Through Scripture, reflection, and questions Ken emphasizes that what may feel messy is often whats required, and necessary, for a life of faith. The Grand Paradox reminds us to engage in the messy, to embrace it as something beautiful, and I hope that every church and follower of Jesus reads this.

RACHEL GOBLE, PRESIDENT OF THE SOLD PROJECT

The most important thing Ken Wytsma has done is listen. He has listened to the voices of our fast-paced, noisy culture, and he has listened to the God who desperately wants to redeem it. He has a fire in his bones that has sparked from the urgency that comes from reading the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Now he is speaking and writing and organizing the things he has heard. Like a growing number of Christians, Ken is convinced that our faith is not just a ticket into heaven and a license to ignore the world around us. His latest book is a paradigm-changer inspiring us to take risks, obey Gods leading in radical ways, pray without ceasing, love those on the margins, and find our ultimate happiness in giving our lives away. Ken is in love with Jesus, he is a man of prayer, and in The Grand Paradox he leads us deeper into the beauty and mystery of the Christian life. One of the most thought-provoking books on faith to come out in a long time.

SHANE CLAIBORNE, AUTHOR, ACTIVIST, AND FRIEND OF KEN WYTSMA

Ken Wytsmas The Grand Paradox is a wonderful book. It captures the adventure, the mystery, and the sheer risk of life with God, and moves beyond the clichs of modern Christianity into something much deeper and more beautiful. Ken perfectly captures the joys and trials of faith. I highly recommend this book!

MIKE ERRE, LEAD PASTOR OF EV FREE FULLERTON AND AUTHOR OF ASTONISHED AND WHY THE BIBLE MATTERS

In The Grand Paradox, Ken Wytsma dives into the many parodoxes of the Kingdom of God, where the first are last, the weak are strong, and a peasant child becomes King. Instead of underplaying tensions, he unpacks them with profound simplicity and aptly demonstrates that Christianitys seeming contradictions are the crux of our faith and the source of its mysterylike the two intersecting beams of Christs cross. This book gave me new eyes to appreciate the grand paradoxes of heaven and earth, deity and humanity, joy and sorrow, faith and doubt, now and forever.