Robert ELLSBERG. A Living Gospel: Reading God’s Story in Holy Lives. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2019. pp.176. $22.00 pb ISBN: 978-1-60833-786-6. Reviewed by Dolores L. CHRISTIE, Shaker Heights, OH 44122.

At first glance, the subject of this book does not appear new. The author has written books on saints and edited even more. Nevertheless, a deeper dive reveals something different here. The clue is found in Ellsberg’s throw away comment in the first section, “Behind every saint there are undoubtedly many other anonymous figures . . . who could never conceive the influence of their simple witness” (26).

Ellsberg profiles some well-known figures: Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Flannery O’Connor, and Charles de Foucault. The chapter, “Holy Women finding Their Own Path,” is a valiant attempt to elevate the stories both of women officially canonized and some whose lives also are examples of goodness. It is notable that among his selected women of faith and faithfulness, compassion and competence, all are celibates. From those remembered because of their resistance to rape to those who founded religious orders, not one is a woman of devoted spousal love. This is true of almost all the men as well! Perhaps that reflects the rather consistent lens through which the church over the centuries has identified holy persons, rather than Ellsberg’s own experience. He does, however, fall into the same trap.

This work is much more personal than standard lives of saints; it is about the discipleship of the author. Sainthood, he notes, is “A journey of faith is best described in terms of narrative. . . . [T]here is much that is unknown: the truth emerges through experience, through context, through relationships” (145). It is a journey of ups and downs, not one of peak and permanent conversion moments. It is a story of choosing the higher path step by step, including risking poverty or even jail, as did Elberg’s own father.

Exactly! What the book is about is Robert Ellsberg’s journey into the Catholic faith, the influences on his life of personal relationships and extensive reading. From Huck Finn to Daniel Elsberg to Dorothy Day, those who have shaped his spirituality through their hard choices are displayed like beautiful treasures, collected over time and sacred to the owner. He lays them before the reader, presenting with love what is indeed a living gospel. Some of the chapters have been published elsewhere, but here they are given a new twist. These are people who have passed through his life, a rich travelogue of people encountered along his way.

Still, the book is a good introduction to many saintly people, particularly those not separated by time and culture from the real world of today. Some readers will meet these people, their striving for perfection, their pauses, their pain and possibility, for the first time. Personally, I was interested most in Robert Ellsberg’s story, his interconnection with those whose lives he describes.

I have already thought of several people on my Christmas list who would be moved by the narrative as much as I was. It is true, as the author argues, that enfleshed goodness is not some unreal holy card that airbrushes away the wrinkles that blemish everyone’s life. Yes, God speaks to us in story. God certainly speaks loudly here.