FOUR DEGREES OF WONDER

An inspirational manual revolves around the concept of wonder in Christianity.

This nonfiction debut concentrates on the wonder of God, first breaking the emotional phenomenon down into four “degrees” or subcategories—curiosity, delight, “his tender presence,” and awe—and then examining each in turn. Wells, who grew up in a religious household and experienced a born-again faith, stresses her desire to communicate these uplifting facets to her readers. “My prayer is that you will remember with joy your own times of wonder,” she writes, “and that you become hungry to find new doorways into delight and spontaneous worship.” This note of the ecstatic, jubilant nature of Christianity is struck repeatedly here and deftly traced through a wide array of sources and allusions, from other contemporary Christian inspirational books to blogs to great literature and art to stories from the author’s own life. The theme is one of unification. Citing St. Paul, Wells urges her fellow Christians to observe that theirs is a shared joy, that the Holy Spirit can unite them in faith if they remain open to the calling. The author herself remains open in the course of her book, often following digressions and whims to see where they’ll take her and how they might reinforce her central messages. At one point she fancies the phrase “love is a many-splendored thing,” looks up its origin on Wikipedia, traces it to a 1950s novel, follows that thread to the movie adaptation starring William Holden and Jennifer Jones, and finally learns that the two stars hated each other. “So much for portraying the splendor of love!” she wryly concludes before smoothly moving on with her main narrative—a relentless series of excited revelations. Each section concludes with useful questions designed to help readers discover those same kinds of visions. The intensely personal tone is ultimately very winning.

A passionate call to recognize and reignite spiritual wonder in the lives of Christians.