Revised version of a review originally published in The Mark of the Lion, parish newsletter of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Augusta, Maine. It appears here by permission.

 Everyday Faith
Terry Pluto,
 Cleveland: Gray and Company Publishers, 2004. Hardcover, 212 pages.

     Even before I moved to Ohio in 1996, I was already familiar with Akron Beacon Journal writer Terry Pluto. Once I got there, though, I made a point of buying the newspaper for which he still writes, in large part to read his columns. I believe that he is as talented and thoughtful a sportswriter as is working in the country today; he certainly is one of my favorites. His writing is insightful without the mean-spiritedness that is so frequently present in many other leading sportswriters today, and does a good job understanding both when sports are important and why they always aren’t relative to other things.

     It is likely this is a reflection of his values, which in turn are rooted in his Christian faith. Several years ago, he began to combine his writing and values in a regular newspaper column for the weekly “Your Faith” column of his newspaper. Everyday Faith is a collection of those columns, which begin in 2000.

     Books of columns can pose some issues for readers. Columns are written to stand alone, and assume the reader is normally going to read them in short bursts one at a time, separated by a day, if not a week (as these columns originally were). Even though these columns are well-grouped into themes, they are not woven together like narrative in a novel, and sometimes one can feel that certain themes are being repeated. In this case, some of the clergy he interviews pop up in a few columns in a row, which would not seem so repetitive read with their original separation. As such, I recommend reading this book, like any book of columns, in more than one sitting.

     But recommend it I do, and with enthusiasm.  Pluto does a truly outstanding job of discussing many issues that involve the intersection of faith and reality. His goal is not to delve into divinity-school level discussions of theology, nor is it to advocate for a particular position within the social issue divisions of churches today. As he notes in his introduction,

“I don’t have a corner on morality. I sometimes dodge the ‘big issues’. I try to write for people who are searching for God. I don’t spend time on abortion, gay bishops or church scandals. I do write about loneliness and temptation and whether prayer matters. Those issues interest me, and I’ve discovered that many of you agree”.

     One of the things I respect and appreciate in his writing on faith is his recognition that faith is not a Golden Ticket to have everything be easy in one’s life, and neither is it a license to avoid thinking about difficult issues of faith and life. Rather it helps to provide a framework for helping think through the everyday issues with which we all deal.  Sometimes, his messages are not easy to hear, because they confront the reader and challenge him or her to think about what he is thinking. However, I think as in so many things, including politics, it is sometimes necessary to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. He does both very well in this collection, particularly the former.  I also appreciate his modesty, both concerning his own life and what he hopes his writing will accomplish.  He writes with a combination of candor and caring of the sort that one might expect from a close friend. 

     True, some of the places he mentions may be unfamiliar to you. I lived about an hour away from them, and even I don’t know most of the churches and a few of the towns he mentions. But, the issues he talks about are so universal in our country that I don’t think these will be significant obstacles for readers outside Ohio.

     There’s something else you will notice quickly in reading this book: his columns are very much in the pithy style of a sportswriter.

     As such, he writes a large number of one sentence paragraphs.

     That doesn’t bother me.

     However, if you’re used to novels, this may take a bit of adjustment.     

     I don’t always agree with his point of view in every place in the book. I suspect he’s a bit more conservative than I am, and he certainly spends a good bit of time talking with clergy in this book who I am sure are. (I should note that he does speak with a wide array of Christian and Jewish clergy from his region).  But in conversations about topics that matter, we can’t always expect complete agreement, and readers from a wide range of beliefs will get a great deal out of this collection. The book more than lives up to its title in providing an interesting way of looking at issues of everyday faith.

—Jim Melcher, September 2006