Last year I came across a program through Thomas Nelson Publishers called BookSneeze. This is where they send books to bloggers (me) and in return I write a blog with my thoughts on the book. I got to choose from a list of available books at the time and so I chose one that looked interesting and out of my norm of reading, The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield. When I started reading it I realized that this could cause some division with those who read this blog because of differing opinions about drinking alcohol and differing life experiences involving alcohol. Even so, I feel that I need to complete my review and actually encourage readers to check this book out because it is very well written, thoroughly researched, and inspires a life lived in all areas of life to glorify God, regardless of your stand on alcohol. (This is not a blog to encourage drinking!)
Stephen Mansfield’s quest to understand the fact and fiction behind the stories and legacy of the Guinness family yielded a fascinating story of a family who sought to honor God through living with a sense of calling and do good for their community. Arthur Guinness who began the Guinness brewery in Dublin in 1759 also founded the first Sunday schools in Ireland. I was inspired to see how many vocational ministers came through the Guinness line through history. “What distinguishes his story is that he understood his success as forming a kind of mandate, a kind of calling to a purpose of God beyond just himself and his family to the broader good he could do in the world.”(59) Of course, when you trace a family through that many generations you get all sorts of people who make all sorts of life choices, good and bad. It was fascinating to read how the Guinness brewery responded to local and international times of crisis and how pivotal choices affected the long term success of the company.
An equally interesting part of Mansfield’s book was his history on the origin of beer and tracing the uses of it through history. I learned that “Clearly, beer and wine used in moderation were welcomed by the early Christians and were taken as a matter of course.”(20) And, “The popular attitude toward drink was that of earlier generations of Christians: alcohol in moderation is a grace of life but drunkenness is both sin and a plague upon society.”(217) I also read about many a negative consequences of abuses of alcohol, something of which many of us in our current day society know from family or friends whose lives have been wrecked with substance abuse. Mansfield dips into some of Martin Luther’s thoughts concerning alcohol: “‘Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused,’ he once wrote. ‘Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?’”(29) I am thankful for those in my life who have displayed healthy uses of alcohol and those who have sought health by overcoming past abuses.
Bottom line…I enjoyed reading this book, learning through history, and considering the legacy that we all have through the small daily decisions we make.
Incidentally, our Pastor of Adult Ministries, Steve, recently preached a solid sermon about Jesus’ first miracle of turning water to wine…although the point of the message was not about drinking, he had a nice caveat addressing issues on both sides, you might want to check it out.
I love to read, I have said that many times, and I loved reaching for this goal but just fell short. I read more books than I would have with out the goal. It pushed me to continue reading and therefore it is a goal I am going to set once again in 2011!
Stomping Out The Darkness
