The Ancient Path

Short Review: I knew that John Michael Talbot was an old school CCM artist that was known for writing theologically sophisticated music, but I had mostly categorized him as another Michael Card and left it at that. I was offered this book to review and picked it up because I wanted to learn more about the early Church Fathers not because of my interest in John Michael Talbot. But this turned out to be more of a memoir-ish look at the early Church fathers than a direct exploration. Talbot tells us about his conversion to Christianity through the Jesus People movement. Then in the mid 70s he start meeting with a spiritual director and exploring the church fathers, which led him to convert to Catholicism and eventually start a lay monastic community that invited single, married and celibate Christians (both Catholic and not) to live and serve together. More recently Talbot has started touring and teaching again because there was a fire at the monastic community and he needed to make some money to help rebuild. That lead to him teaching about the early church fathers and worship and his faith which is where this book comes in.

This is a helpful book for a couple reasons. 1) Talbot's story gives a good context for how to think about the usefulness of church fathers in a modern world. 2) It is a good introduction to actual teaching of the church fathers and how some of our assumptions about the early church are either confirmed or shown to be wrong. 3) this is good for evangelicals that are unfamiliar with Catholic writers. Talbot has always been accepted by Evagnelicals because of his music and he knows and understands how to talk about his faith (as a Catholic) in a way that is very inclusive but not hiding his Catholicism. I am looking forward to reading some of Talbot's other books.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/ancient-path-old-lessons-church-fathers-new-life-today-john-michael-talbot-mike-aquilina/