When you Meet A Saint Resist the Urge to Kill Them

Thoughts on a Review of the Eugene Peterson Biography

This review really touched a part of me, a part that had more of me a decade ago. https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/the-man-behind-the-message

For many thinky, middle-class white preachers Eugene Peterson is the person to be. The right blend of classical piety, smarts, and status worn with appropriate humility. I've read and profited from much of Eugene Peterson. His books were put in my hands by my mentors.

But when I think "saint" I do think miracles. There is something about how a physical-law-violating miracle connects heaven and earth like few other things.

Miracles have huge dangers and downsides that go far beyond contemporary materialist skepticism. If there were more of them they'd be abused as often as sex. Read Jesus' reaction to the Galilean crowds.

I really like what Buechner did in Lion Country with Bebb. Was he a pedo? Did he really raise someone from the dead? What about that church and that diploma mill scam? https://www.amazon.com/Book-Bebb-Frederick-Buechner-ebook/dp/B000VYX8Q8/

In some ways thinking white middle class preachers can't help but be who they are, unless they decide to fall into an underworld. Eugene Peterson was a gift.

Saints are people where heaven touches earth in surprising ways that not only delight us but undo us. We usually celebrate saints after they are safely dead. When they are alive we want them dead.