Book Review: Max Lucado, Fearless

I haven't read anything by Max Lucado for about a decade, I read one book and then overdosed by reading another three or four. Since then I had never felt the urge to return. But when Thomas Nelson offered me a free copy if I review it I thought, "what the hey, a free book is a free book." However, it was no chore to read, this is vintage Lucado, and provided you haven't read too many recently this one comes recommended. Lucado invites us to imagine life without fear, in todays climate of sensationalised crime and terrorist threats it is a welcome invitation. Lucado combines anecdotes and stories with Biblical exegesis which he weaves together artfully. Lucado moves systematially in chapters through the fears that modern western humanity seems to be plagued with. The chapters are short and read deceptively lightly but you have to be careful because there is a lot packed in. In fact read reading Lucado too fast is a bit of a waste, his prose is more like poetry and needs to be savoured. Lucado's use of scripture is a good example of imaginative exegesis where he exposes the metaphoric and emotional resonances of the biblical text. If you are looking for a sustained theological or biblical examination of fear then you will be dissapointed, but if you are looking for a book that reads like a poetic devotional sermon written by a master story teller then you won't be.


[This book review was done under the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers Program, go to http://brb.thomasnelson.com/ for details.]