Encounters with Christ: 39 People Share Their Stories

This month the Patheos Book Club is featuring James Stuart Bell’s Encountering Jesus: Modern-Day Stories of His Supernatural Presence and Power.

I’m a fan of books crammed full of stories–that is, books that you can read, one chapter at a time, in the light of a single lamp before you drift off to sleep for the night. That’s how I read Encountering Jesus: a little at a time, and I did enjoy the 39 stories of faith restored, visions confirmed, prayers answered.

But something bothered me. As my fellow blogger on Patheos’ Catholic Portal, Monique Ocampo, said of the book,

I’ll admit that I like this book, but I don’t love it. I completely understand the idea of encountering Jesus through prayer or through a miracle that they can’t explain, but the problem is that it lacks depth. I mean, there’s a story about the compiler of the book encountering Jesus through drugs, for crying out loud! I’m sorry that I sound skeptical, but while I believe that God can work with us through whatever bad things we experience, I highly doubt that Jesus would appear during a drug-induced haze.

Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. I almost wanted to publish my review in the style of a Facebook comment and write simply,

^^What she said.

Bell’s stories are heartening, to be sure, and deeply personal. But there is an element of–what?–magical thinking that permeates some of the chapters.  One of the first stories I read was of a hand-carved image of The Christ which had suffered the scourges of time, and had been scarred while in storage. No reputable restoration artist was able to repair the damage; but finally one day, after its owner prayed, the 1914 carving was inexplicably returned to its former glory. The writer believed that the touch of a loving God had brought the plaque back to its original perfection.

There’s Jesus, appearing and opening His arms for a hug on a dock at the lake. And there he is, showing life scenes on a large movie screen. And a crucified Christ, appearing before a woman in prayer in the dark of a sparsely decorated room. God, making a cell phone battery last when logic said it should have died.

Could God do those things? Well, if He can touch a sinner’s heart and restore him to grace, if He can create a new being from the union of a man and a woman, of course He can! That a generous God would employ wood and stain and restore an artwork in a private home is possible, but not likely–not when there are wars to stop, cancers to cure, hearts to turn toward heaven. And yet God does act in our individual lives, gracing us with His good gifts. So it is for you, the reader, to decide.

There are elements in the book which reflect Protestant theology, but which will not resonate with a Catholic audience. A young man exclaiming, “Mom! Dad! I’VE BEEN SAVED!” A woman advancing up the aisle at church to “take the bread and wine” and not–as a Catholic writer would explain–to “receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.”

Encountering Jesus is an easy, feel-good read.