Book review: Fringe Dweller by Jonny Baker and David Cotterill

A refreshing series of forty reflections, practices and liturgies that frame Jesus as ‘Fringe Dweller’ (similar to Edge Walker, perhaps?) – One who reached out and advocated for those ‘outside the gate’ or who experienced a form of exclusion, and who experienced something of this in his own life on earth. The reflections are fruits of Ignatian ways of praying with the Scripture passages and they also draw on biblical scholarship and modern psychology. Each reflection is followed by an imaginative exercise or practice that looks either outwards or inwards and a short liturgy that is simple yet poetic and profound. They could be useful to support your own prayer life or to add to your toolkit of resources you may wish to share with your directees.

I find the reflections invite me to stand in a different place as I contemplate a well-known passage, and so I encounter Christ in a new way. I think they help to exercise my spiritual director’s “muscle” by drawing me to experience different perspectives and journey beyond the familiar. Perhaps they will do the same for you?

Copies can be purchased here: https://www.getsidetracked.co/fringedweller

Melissa Pearce