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A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson, Translator of The Message
This essential authorized biography of Eugene Peterson offers unique insights into the experiences and spiritual convictions of the iconic American pastor and beloved translator of The Message.
“In the time of a generation-wide breakdown in trust with leaders in every sphere of society, Eugene’s quiet life of deep integrity and gospel purpose is a bright light against a dark backdrop.”—John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
“This hunger for something radical—something so true that it burned in his bones—was a constant in Eugene’s life. His longing for God ignited a ferocity in his soul.”
Encounter the multifaceted life of one of the most influential and creative pastors of the past half century with unforgettable stories of Eugene’s lifelong devotion to his craft and love of language, the influences and experiences that shaped his unquenchable faith, the inspiration for his decision to translate The Message, and his success and struggles as a pastor, husband, and father.
Author Winn Collier was given exclusive access to Eugene and his materials for the production of this landmark work. Drawing from his friendship and expansive view of Peterson’s life, Collier offers an intimate, beautiful, and earthy look into a remarkable life.
For Eugene, the gifts of life were the glint of fading light over the lake; a kiss from his wife, Jan; a good joke; a bowl of butter pecan ice cream. As you enter into his story, you’ll find yourself doing the same—noticing how the most ordinary things shimmer with a new and unexpected beauty.
“In the time of a generation-wide breakdown in trust with leaders in every sphere of society, Eugene’s quiet life of deep integrity and gospel purpose is a bright light against a dark backdrop.”—John Mark Comer, author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
“This hunger for something radical—something so true that it burned in his bones—was a constant in Eugene’s life. His longing for God ignited a ferocity in his soul.”
Encounter the multifaceted life of one of the most influential and creative pastors of the past half century with unforgettable stories of Eugene’s lifelong devotion to his craft and love of language, the influences and experiences that shaped his unquenchable faith, the inspiration for his decision to translate The Message, and his success and struggles as a pastor, husband, and father.
Author Winn Collier was given exclusive access to Eugene and his materials for the production of this landmark work. Drawing from his friendship and expansive view of Peterson’s life, Collier offers an intimate, beautiful, and earthy look into a remarkable life.
For Eugene, the gifts of life were the glint of fading light over the lake; a kiss from his wife, Jan; a good joke; a bowl of butter pecan ice cream. As you enter into his story, you’ll find yourself doing the same—noticing how the most ordinary things shimmer with a new and unexpected beauty.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published March 23, 2021
About the author
Winn Collier
15 books82 followersWinn has written for periodicals such as Washington Post, Christian Century, Soul Journey, Christianity Today, In Touch, Campus Life, Leadership Journal, Radiant, Preaching Today and Clear & Seven. For six years, Winn was the Deeper Walk editor for Relevant Magazine. His first solo book, Restless Faith: Hanging on to a God Just out of Reach is a candid exploration into the perplexing, riveting and mysterious nature of God - and the humility we discover in the encounter. His second book Let God: The Transforming Wisdom of Francois Fenelon enters conversation with a 17th century French spiritual guide. Winn's most recent book, Holy Curiosity: Encountering Jesus' Provocative Questions, explores the strange reality that Jesus often held out a question rather than an answer. Winn's first fiction was the epistolary novel Love Big, Be Well: Letters to a Small-Town Church which narrates the story of Jonas McAnn and the community of Granby Presbyterian via letters Jonas writes to his friends (i.e. "congregation). Winn's most recent book is A Burning in My Bones, the authorized biography of Eugene Peterson.
A pastor for 25 years and the founding pastor of All Souls in Charlottesville, Virginia, Winn and his family now live in Holland, Michigan, where he teaches at Western Theological Seminary and directs the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Winn earned a PhD in religion and literature from the University of Virginia.
A pastor for 25 years and the founding pastor of All Souls in Charlottesville, Virginia, Winn and his family now live in Holland, Michigan, where he teaches at Western Theological Seminary and directs the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. Winn earned a PhD in religion and literature from the University of Virginia.
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March 24, 2021
The summer before my senior year in high school I spotted an unclaimed copy of The Message in my church’s lost and found cabinet buried underneath a pile of outdated eyeglasses and discarded t-shirts. My church leaders and parents had eyed it with suspicion, so when enough time had passed to know it wouldn’t be claimed, I secreted it away and carried it with me to my first summer away from home. The words I found inside changed my vision of God’s Word—it simply came alive. Quietly, in secret, reading The Message felt like putting on royal robes as I realized I was wholly loved by God. That discarded Bible in a pile of glasses and shirts sparked new sight and covered me with love.
It wasn’t until a decade + later, that I would stumble into Eugene’s words in books, but this time *I* was the thing discarded in a church’s proverbial lost and found pile. I began reading Eugene’s books right as my pastor husband and I confronted spiritual abuse and consumeristic church sin—where we and so many others were treated like pawns in propping up a leader’s power and ego and discarded when we were not willing to be crushed any further. In Eugene’s books, I found the same cautions we had spoken. When you stand up to power and are unheard, you sometimes wonder if you are crazy. In Eugene’s words, the Spirit strengthened me to trust that there remained a remnant of a church and that on the margins of power, we remained in the center of God’s love and plan. As Eugene loved to quote, “there are still 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” We were not alone.
Eugene became my pastor when complex PTSD from spiritual abuse made attending church physically re-traumatizing for a season. Every Sunday in that season, I read a sermon from As Kingfishers Catch Fire, and my body learned to relax into the rhythm of a pastor’s voice being kind, safe, and more attuned to presence than accumulating power.
Even now, I pick up one of Eugene’s books every time I feel weary in my work as a therapist and author. In his words, I remember how to see the world as brimming with grace and myself as clothed, irrevocably, in love.
In Winn Collier’s biography of Eugene, I found space to sit with my friend and pastor Eugene—the friend I never met and only began reading the year he died. Collier was a sensitive steward of Eugene’s story, telling it with both tenderness and truth. The man Eugene came more alive—even in his shortcomings. Considering the amount of research Winn had to do to hold Eugene’s mammoth corpus of writing, journals, and correspondence into a comprehensive yet compelling book—I’m honestly amazed. Thanks be to God for Winn’s faithfulness to tell this story and to tell it with a beauty matching its subject.
Saint Irenaeus is famously known for writing, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Eugene was a man, more than almost any I have encountered, who chose to live aflame by grace, fully alive. I ended the book with one lingering thought: if Eugene could radiate such goodness, imagine how good it will be to encounter to Jesus.
Thank you, Winn (and God, thank you for Eugene), for ushering my heart to worship the Son of the Living God.
It wasn’t until a decade + later, that I would stumble into Eugene’s words in books, but this time *I* was the thing discarded in a church’s proverbial lost and found pile. I began reading Eugene’s books right as my pastor husband and I confronted spiritual abuse and consumeristic church sin—where we and so many others were treated like pawns in propping up a leader’s power and ego and discarded when we were not willing to be crushed any further. In Eugene’s books, I found the same cautions we had spoken. When you stand up to power and are unheard, you sometimes wonder if you are crazy. In Eugene’s words, the Spirit strengthened me to trust that there remained a remnant of a church and that on the margins of power, we remained in the center of God’s love and plan. As Eugene loved to quote, “there are still 7000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” We were not alone.
Eugene became my pastor when complex PTSD from spiritual abuse made attending church physically re-traumatizing for a season. Every Sunday in that season, I read a sermon from As Kingfishers Catch Fire, and my body learned to relax into the rhythm of a pastor’s voice being kind, safe, and more attuned to presence than accumulating power.
Even now, I pick up one of Eugene’s books every time I feel weary in my work as a therapist and author. In his words, I remember how to see the world as brimming with grace and myself as clothed, irrevocably, in love.
In Winn Collier’s biography of Eugene, I found space to sit with my friend and pastor Eugene—the friend I never met and only began reading the year he died. Collier was a sensitive steward of Eugene’s story, telling it with both tenderness and truth. The man Eugene came more alive—even in his shortcomings. Considering the amount of research Winn had to do to hold Eugene’s mammoth corpus of writing, journals, and correspondence into a comprehensive yet compelling book—I’m honestly amazed. Thanks be to God for Winn’s faithfulness to tell this story and to tell it with a beauty matching its subject.
Saint Irenaeus is famously known for writing, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” Eugene was a man, more than almost any I have encountered, who chose to live aflame by grace, fully alive. I ended the book with one lingering thought: if Eugene could radiate such goodness, imagine how good it will be to encounter to Jesus.
Thank you, Winn (and God, thank you for Eugene), for ushering my heart to worship the Son of the Living God.
Read
January 14, 2022I thought I knew my friend Eugene. In this biography, Winn Collier has unearthed new, fascinating details about him, while painting a portrait true to the writer/pastor that so many loved and respected.
March 29, 2024
My dad introduced Eugene Peterson to my boys sometimes reading aloud passages from Run with The Horses during his visits to us or our visits to him. He sprinkled his conversations with references to Jeremiah the rest of his life. Later he gave us A Long Obedience.
Eugene Peterson is closely linked to my dad in my mind and in fact they died the same week in October of 2018.
When I finished reading the Vaughn bios of Elisabeth Elliot, Audible suggested this biography too and I could not resist. Eugene’s attitude toward ministry and fame resonated deeply with me. He was always his “authentic” self and he had the humility to prove it.
I could spend this review splitting theological hairs but that would be to miss the point that it is God who works in us giving us a life. Eugene and my dad, two men who let God add it all up.
Eugene Peterson is closely linked to my dad in my mind and in fact they died the same week in October of 2018.
When I finished reading the Vaughn bios of Elisabeth Elliot, Audible suggested this biography too and I could not resist. Eugene’s attitude toward ministry and fame resonated deeply with me. He was always his “authentic” self and he had the humility to prove it.
I could spend this review splitting theological hairs but that would be to miss the point that it is God who works in us giving us a life. Eugene and my dad, two men who let God add it all up.
May 5, 2021
Some books are hard to put down and then for others, there’s also a sense that you don’t want them to end — Winn Collier’s biography of Eugene Peterson was just that. I finally got to the end of the book and shut it with tears in my eyes, held it to my chest for several minutes and whispered, “wow.” Collier’s writing is captivating yet earthy, and his retelling of Peterson’s quiet integrity and unpretentious spirituality amidst the twists and turns of his life is remarkable. Peterson was by no means a perfect, heroic figure, and Collier’s writing carried no hint of romanticized idealization.
Here are Collier’s own words, after listing Peterson’s tremendous achievements: “But what mattered to me—to so many of us who knew and loved him—was something so much deeper, something none of us can really explain. You would just have to sit with the man. You’d have to encounter his warmth, his welcome, the hospitality of his silence. You’d have to encounter the way he knew God.”
Most of us who resonate with Peterson’s spirituality and approach to pastoral ministry would not have had the opportunity to sit with him but Collier has helped us do just that: encounter Eugene Peterson and the depths that he embodied. I’m a fast reader but I deliberately savored this book and I think it will stay with me for a while.
Here are Collier’s own words, after listing Peterson’s tremendous achievements: “But what mattered to me—to so many of us who knew and loved him—was something so much deeper, something none of us can really explain. You would just have to sit with the man. You’d have to encounter his warmth, his welcome, the hospitality of his silence. You’d have to encounter the way he knew God.”
Most of us who resonate with Peterson’s spirituality and approach to pastoral ministry would not have had the opportunity to sit with him but Collier has helped us do just that: encounter Eugene Peterson and the depths that he embodied. I’m a fast reader but I deliberately savored this book and I think it will stay with me for a while.
June 18, 2024
Thank you, Winn, for writing this book.
It was a gift to listen to Eugene's life. I can scarcely put into words what it meant to hear his story. His experience intersected with mine in so many unexpected ways. I feel bolstered. Inspired. Carried.
Thank you.
It was a gift to listen to Eugene's life. I can scarcely put into words what it meant to hear his story. His experience intersected with mine in so many unexpected ways. I feel bolstered. Inspired. Carried.
Thank you.
March 17, 2021
In 2007, I attended a conference for Christians in the arts at which Eugene Peterson was the week's chaplain. I had been companioned by The Message and had read a number of Peterson's works, but the man himself had been less of a draw than the conference, tentative and green writer as I was. To be surrounded by people of faith who valued the arts and called the artistic community to a rigor and honor of both the tradition of the medium to which each was called and to the Christian tradition was a revelation.
Even still, Peterson was a sort of celebrity that week, with people vying for his attention and care. Somehow, he managed to dodge the pedestal while acknowledging each attendee's need to be seen and spoken to by a man so many considered and still consider a spiritual father. I was somewhat chagrined to watch as people approached Peterson to have him sign their copy of The Message, but also wondered how I, too, might ask for a blessing from the man who—quite apart from his notoriety—pastored this collection of artists and my own heart during the week of this event.
Eventually I decided that I would approach him at a quiet moment and ask him to write a word or two in my journal, and ask for a blessing to be spoken over me. When the appropriate time opened up, I was able to share some of my own story, briefly, and ask for what I had intended. I expected a short word of prayer. Instead, Peterson asked me to sit down, and named things he saw in my journey with heart and gravitas. And then, tenderly as a father would, he asked permission and took my hands in his and blessed them with words that resonate in my heart even to this day.
I share this story because reading A Burning in My Bones was like having my hands held by Peterson all over again. While I can never thank him for that moment or how it has shaped me over the years, holding Collier's biography feels like sitting down again in those faded orange and burgundy auditorium chairs and having Peterson share a little of his own story, the journey that brought him to that moment (and beyond), and being able to take those weathered hands in mine as he once did and say, Thank you.
Thank you, Collier, for writing an honest and timely story about the man who pastored so many of us, who eschewed pedestals for pulpits, but even more turned away from platforms toward people.
In high school I memorized a John Keats poem that spoke to me of the importance of writing, and I share it here because it encapsulates what I believe Collier's biography does for us, allowing us finally to hold the hand of the man who held the pen and our hearts for so long.
This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calm’d–see here it is–
I hold it towards you.
Even still, Peterson was a sort of celebrity that week, with people vying for his attention and care. Somehow, he managed to dodge the pedestal while acknowledging each attendee's need to be seen and spoken to by a man so many considered and still consider a spiritual father. I was somewhat chagrined to watch as people approached Peterson to have him sign their copy of The Message, but also wondered how I, too, might ask for a blessing from the man who—quite apart from his notoriety—pastored this collection of artists and my own heart during the week of this event.
Eventually I decided that I would approach him at a quiet moment and ask him to write a word or two in my journal, and ask for a blessing to be spoken over me. When the appropriate time opened up, I was able to share some of my own story, briefly, and ask for what I had intended. I expected a short word of prayer. Instead, Peterson asked me to sit down, and named things he saw in my journey with heart and gravitas. And then, tenderly as a father would, he asked permission and took my hands in his and blessed them with words that resonate in my heart even to this day.
I share this story because reading A Burning in My Bones was like having my hands held by Peterson all over again. While I can never thank him for that moment or how it has shaped me over the years, holding Collier's biography feels like sitting down again in those faded orange and burgundy auditorium chairs and having Peterson share a little of his own story, the journey that brought him to that moment (and beyond), and being able to take those weathered hands in mine as he once did and say, Thank you.
Thank you, Collier, for writing an honest and timely story about the man who pastored so many of us, who eschewed pedestals for pulpits, but even more turned away from platforms toward people.
In high school I memorized a John Keats poem that spoke to me of the importance of writing, and I share it here because it encapsulates what I believe Collier's biography does for us, allowing us finally to hold the hand of the man who held the pen and our hearts for so long.
This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calm’d–see here it is–
I hold it towards you.
August 11, 2021
Summary: The authorized biography of pastor-theologian and Bible translator Eugene Peterson.
He pastored a congregation for nearly thirty years. He preached thousands of sermons, wrote dozens of books, translated the Bible into vernacular English, welcomed hundreds, if not thousands into his and Jan’s home, including Bono. He never sought popularity or engaged in the polemics that roiled American evangelicalism. In the end, what mattered most was contemplating the wonders of God in the words of scripture and the beauty outside his Montana home, loving Jan and his children. That was Eugene Peterson.
I have roughly two feet of his books on my shelves. I cull many books. These remain. Why? Because, unlike many others, these seem to speak from a place beyond my generation. How did he come to write such works? Winn Collier’s biography of Eugene Peterson begins to give me some clues. Collier enjoyed access not only to Peterson during the last years of his life, but also to his papers. He is now the director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary. He offers a rendering of Peterson’s life that probes the formative influences of his life, the decisions he came to about pastoral integrity in his own ministry, the continued quest for congruence in his life, and the beautiful soul he became, amid both his flaws and longings.
We begin with his Montana upbringing, his boyhood in the beautiful country, his Pentecostal preacher mother and distant butcher father. We learn of his running career at Seattle Pacific that eventually culminated in a Boston Marathon and the beginnings of his writing career. After an aborted effort to plant a Pentecostal church, he headed off to seminary at Biblical Seminary in New York, and really discovered scripture as a narrative in which we encounter the living God, not a sourcebook for talking points. Then on to Maryland, studies with William Albright, where he would not only encounter biblical languages and archaeology, but Jan Stubbs, who would become his wife.
It appeared Peterson was headed toward an academic career when he turned down the chance to study at Yale with Brevard Childs to begin a church in Bel Air, a suburb outside Baltimore. The next choices of pastoral integrity came as he dealt with the conflict between his biblically informed intuitions of the work of a pastor and how he was being taught to “run the damn church” as he expressed it in his frustrations that came to a head when he uttered these words in a session meeting. In the end, the elders agreed to run the church, while he prayed, studied scripture, and cared for souls–and finally began to take the time he needed to with Jan and his children.
Collier doesn’t engage in hagiography. He discusses the trouble Eric, Peterson’s eldest had with knowing his father’s love, a consequence of Peterson’s absence in his early childhood. Peterson saw glimpses of his own struggles with his father but struggled to heal this wound. Then we learn of an incident in Peterson’s late fifties when a relationship with a spiritual directee in his church became emotionally if not physically intimate. Jan recognized this with some of the hardest conversations in their marriage to follow. Peterson broke off the relationship. Even the best of marriages are flawed and tested, as this one was.
He had the wisdom to recognize when the good thing of his pastoral ministry was coming to an end, even as his passion for writing was growing. His growing restlessness led to his resignation in 1991 and the beginnings of what became The Message. Collier goes into Peterson’s growing conviction that a translation in vernacular English that captured the unvarnished unsanitized language of scripture. As he did so, he moved on to teach at Regent College. Collier describes his unconventional teaching style, the raspy voice, the long silences, and his growing notoriety.
Once more, congruence called, and the retreat to the family cabin they named Selah House that became a kind of monastery. As Peterson’s fame grew with the completion of The Message (along with controversy about the translation), Peterson felt and inward and upward call. It was a call to cherish Jan and family, while still welcoming many, including Bono who made their way to his door. More and more he felt he was getting ready to die.
There is beauty and pathos in this story. Contemplation of the lake and the mountains, a final camping trip, reflections on the Psalms, writing that slowly came to a trickle after his five books of spiritual theology. He suffered a fall and head injury from which he was never quite the same. His valedictory book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire was marred by the controversial end to his interview with Jonathan Merritt where he confessed some of his personal struggles with the issue of homosexuality and if approached as a pastor, that he would perform a same sex marriage, only to subsequently retract this statement. At this point, Peterson’s vascular dementia was already advancing and Collier’s assessment was that “Eugene should never have been doing interviews at all.”
His end came a few years later. It was a good end that I won’t spoil because Collier’s telling is so rich and poignant. At one point in the book, the observation came up that Peterson only had one sermon. I only heard Peterson speak once, and what he said was indeed congruent with his books. He spoke to InterVarsity’s national staff after one of our largest Urbana conventions. He warned of the danger of success and the temptations that come with it and the quiet path of integrity, the “long obedience in the same direction” for which he was known. Collier captures all of this and a life lived with that deep congruity of love for God that loved both words fitly spoken or written and the silence that allowed others to let down and become themselves. Even as was the case with the things Peterson said and wrote, I will carry this biography in my mind and my heart for a long time as a precious gift.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
He pastored a congregation for nearly thirty years. He preached thousands of sermons, wrote dozens of books, translated the Bible into vernacular English, welcomed hundreds, if not thousands into his and Jan’s home, including Bono. He never sought popularity or engaged in the polemics that roiled American evangelicalism. In the end, what mattered most was contemplating the wonders of God in the words of scripture and the beauty outside his Montana home, loving Jan and his children. That was Eugene Peterson.
I have roughly two feet of his books on my shelves. I cull many books. These remain. Why? Because, unlike many others, these seem to speak from a place beyond my generation. How did he come to write such works? Winn Collier’s biography of Eugene Peterson begins to give me some clues. Collier enjoyed access not only to Peterson during the last years of his life, but also to his papers. He is now the director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary. He offers a rendering of Peterson’s life that probes the formative influences of his life, the decisions he came to about pastoral integrity in his own ministry, the continued quest for congruence in his life, and the beautiful soul he became, amid both his flaws and longings.
We begin with his Montana upbringing, his boyhood in the beautiful country, his Pentecostal preacher mother and distant butcher father. We learn of his running career at Seattle Pacific that eventually culminated in a Boston Marathon and the beginnings of his writing career. After an aborted effort to plant a Pentecostal church, he headed off to seminary at Biblical Seminary in New York, and really discovered scripture as a narrative in which we encounter the living God, not a sourcebook for talking points. Then on to Maryland, studies with William Albright, where he would not only encounter biblical languages and archaeology, but Jan Stubbs, who would become his wife.
It appeared Peterson was headed toward an academic career when he turned down the chance to study at Yale with Brevard Childs to begin a church in Bel Air, a suburb outside Baltimore. The next choices of pastoral integrity came as he dealt with the conflict between his biblically informed intuitions of the work of a pastor and how he was being taught to “run the damn church” as he expressed it in his frustrations that came to a head when he uttered these words in a session meeting. In the end, the elders agreed to run the church, while he prayed, studied scripture, and cared for souls–and finally began to take the time he needed to with Jan and his children.
Collier doesn’t engage in hagiography. He discusses the trouble Eric, Peterson’s eldest had with knowing his father’s love, a consequence of Peterson’s absence in his early childhood. Peterson saw glimpses of his own struggles with his father but struggled to heal this wound. Then we learn of an incident in Peterson’s late fifties when a relationship with a spiritual directee in his church became emotionally if not physically intimate. Jan recognized this with some of the hardest conversations in their marriage to follow. Peterson broke off the relationship. Even the best of marriages are flawed and tested, as this one was.
He had the wisdom to recognize when the good thing of his pastoral ministry was coming to an end, even as his passion for writing was growing. His growing restlessness led to his resignation in 1991 and the beginnings of what became The Message. Collier goes into Peterson’s growing conviction that a translation in vernacular English that captured the unvarnished unsanitized language of scripture. As he did so, he moved on to teach at Regent College. Collier describes his unconventional teaching style, the raspy voice, the long silences, and his growing notoriety.
Once more, congruence called, and the retreat to the family cabin they named Selah House that became a kind of monastery. As Peterson’s fame grew with the completion of The Message (along with controversy about the translation), Peterson felt and inward and upward call. It was a call to cherish Jan and family, while still welcoming many, including Bono who made their way to his door. More and more he felt he was getting ready to die.
There is beauty and pathos in this story. Contemplation of the lake and the mountains, a final camping trip, reflections on the Psalms, writing that slowly came to a trickle after his five books of spiritual theology. He suffered a fall and head injury from which he was never quite the same. His valedictory book, As Kingfishers Catch Fire was marred by the controversial end to his interview with Jonathan Merritt where he confessed some of his personal struggles with the issue of homosexuality and if approached as a pastor, that he would perform a same sex marriage, only to subsequently retract this statement. At this point, Peterson’s vascular dementia was already advancing and Collier’s assessment was that “Eugene should never have been doing interviews at all.”
His end came a few years later. It was a good end that I won’t spoil because Collier’s telling is so rich and poignant. At one point in the book, the observation came up that Peterson only had one sermon. I only heard Peterson speak once, and what he said was indeed congruent with his books. He spoke to InterVarsity’s national staff after one of our largest Urbana conventions. He warned of the danger of success and the temptations that come with it and the quiet path of integrity, the “long obedience in the same direction” for which he was known. Collier captures all of this and a life lived with that deep congruity of love for God that loved both words fitly spoken or written and the silence that allowed others to let down and become themselves. Even as was the case with the things Peterson said and wrote, I will carry this biography in my mind and my heart for a long time as a precious gift.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
March 23, 2021
What Winn Collier did with A Burning in my Bones is quite remarkable. Read this for a peeled-back look at a private, contemplative pastor—and one of Evangelicalism's most consequential writers. You'll discover the interior life of a would-be saint, fall in love with his marriage to Jan, and be delighted by the blossoming relationship between the old man who wanted no notoriety, and the rock star adulated by the masses. His struggles, longings, pains will feel real—maybe even familiar.
If I have one critique, I would have loved to read more about the circumstances surrounding why The Message was born. Collier zooms into Peterson's personal, interior life often—through journal entries and stories from people in his life and congregation—it feels like he skimmed past what could have been an enlightening look at the motivations for the text that defined the man.
This isn't, in my view, reason for one less star, just a question left only lightly answered. Regardless, this is a book I cherished—and will for some time. I'm already plotting who in my life needs to receive this as a gift.
If I have one critique, I would have loved to read more about the circumstances surrounding why The Message was born. Collier zooms into Peterson's personal, interior life often—through journal entries and stories from people in his life and congregation—it feels like he skimmed past what could have been an enlightening look at the motivations for the text that defined the man.
This isn't, in my view, reason for one less star, just a question left only lightly answered. Regardless, this is a book I cherished—and will for some time. I'm already plotting who in my life needs to receive this as a gift.
June 14, 2021
Just outstanding. Now one of my favourite biographies of anyone. It’s as well written and warm as anything Eugene Peterson wrote and it never transgresses into hagiography or reductionism. How Collier’s subject would have loathed that.
I imagine that the life of a man or woman of letters is a challenge for a writer at the best of times. But Peterson was also an intentionally unspectacular pastor who utterly despised and thus avoided the trappings of American celebrity Christianity (despite at times battling their temptations). So on the surface the life of a bible translator and local
Church pastor will seem slim pickings to the outsider.
But what a rich and gloriously good life. And a loving life. I never came close to meeting him but this book seems to welcome us into Peterson’s inner sanctum as his friends. Such a privilege.
And what surprises along the way! Pat Roberson! Sir Roger Bannister!! Bono!!!
I imagine that the life of a man or woman of letters is a challenge for a writer at the best of times. But Peterson was also an intentionally unspectacular pastor who utterly despised and thus avoided the trappings of American celebrity Christianity (despite at times battling their temptations). So on the surface the life of a bible translator and local
Church pastor will seem slim pickings to the outsider.
But what a rich and gloriously good life. And a loving life. I never came close to meeting him but this book seems to welcome us into Peterson’s inner sanctum as his friends. Such a privilege.
And what surprises along the way! Pat Roberson! Sir Roger Bannister!! Bono!!!
December 13, 2022
Encouraging, invigorating, sobering, sad. A must read for pastors and those who know and love them. Ultimately hopeful, though honest. A beautiful story that rings true.
February 23, 2024
Pristine writing. Intricate detail. The right peak into Peterson's life. I felt like Peterson's son looking at Eugene praying with a sense that he is on holy ground (xvi).
Favorite quote:
"Alarmed by the beguiling assumptions undergirding most church leadership trends, Eugene cautioned pastors that true ministry typically requires a pastor to operate from the margins. This is modest work. This is not glamorous work, this is behind-the-scenes, ignored, patient servant work. Forget about being relevant, about being effective. Friends, you are living in exile – get used to it... The less people notice you the better" (270).
Favorite quote:
"Alarmed by the beguiling assumptions undergirding most church leadership trends, Eugene cautioned pastors that true ministry typically requires a pastor to operate from the margins. This is modest work. This is not glamorous work, this is behind-the-scenes, ignored, patient servant work. Forget about being relevant, about being effective. Friends, you are living in exile – get used to it... The less people notice you the better" (270).
January 10, 2022
I loved learning about Eugene Peterson’s life and Winn Collier’s telling of it!
Eugene’s charity, love for people, and simple life seems to me to be a balm for pastors today.
Eugene’s charity, love for people, and simple life seems to me to be a balm for pastors today.
August 14, 2021
For me this was the right book at the right time as I came off a good but exhausting season of ministry. I don’t agree with Peterson on everything, but his (cultivated) instincts about pastoral ministry are a lifeline in the midst of the ubiquitous emphasis on ambition, platform, and celebrity. Peterson charted a different course and encouraged others on the way. Through Collier, he’s still encouraging us.
I’m grateful to Jonathan Rodgers for interviewing Collier on his podcast as that is what convinced to read this book (and I’m so glad I did!).
I’m grateful to Jonathan Rodgers for interviewing Collier on his podcast as that is what convinced to read this book (and I’m so glad I did!).
November 7, 2021
Such a rich, textured portrait of a pastor who strove to be faithful. I appreciated that Collier doesn’t shy away from Peterson’s frustrations and longings. And though there is much to admire about Peterson, he’s still very human (as he was well aware.) I just love to hear about those who served in small, faithful, persistent ways and resisted bigger/better/faster as a life goal. Collier’s prose is loving and nimble, as he pulls together themes and observations with simple and elegant language.
July 10, 2022
Deeply indebted to Jon Crantz for giving me this book… this is pure gold; transformative and entertaining in the highest degree.
What would it look like for someone to carry God’s love so deep within the contours of his soul that it oozes out at every opportunity? Eugene Peterson has to be the answer. Peaking into his life via this book will continue to have a profound effect on me.
“It takes an unhurried while. Then,
There it is: absence becomes Presence.”
What would it look like for someone to carry God’s love so deep within the contours of his soul that it oozes out at every opportunity? Eugene Peterson has to be the answer. Peaking into his life via this book will continue to have a profound effect on me.
“It takes an unhurried while. Then,
There it is: absence becomes Presence.”
October 8, 2022
This book has been the most impactful to me of any I’ve read this year. It is a rare thing to finish a book and want to turn right back to the beginning and start again. There is so much to absorb and reflect on here. What it means to be a saint…the long obedience…joy…I didn’t know much about Peterson when I chose to read it…the title alone drew me in. But I feel I’ve found a kindred soul in him that causes me to want to read all of his books and absorb all his wisdom, love for Jesus and the scriptures, and in a way model my life after his. I’m grateful to have read this one. Brilliant work by Winn Collier.
August 14, 2024
A beautiful book about the life of a beautiful man. I couldn’t help but feel deep sadness that Eugene is not in the world anymore. Same feeling when reading Keller’s biography.
Imperfect men who taught us a lot about a perfect savior.
Imperfect men who taught us a lot about a perfect savior.
August 6, 2021
I found myself closing the book a good amount and quietly asking God for forgiveness for my ignorant criticism of a man’s work I knew nothing about because it was the “cool” thing to do, to appear like I knew it all. What a gift this book is, to show Eugene’s desire of wanting to be a saint as told in the book, a quiet and contemplative one at that.
October 4, 2021
Thankful to know more about the life of this saint. There’s much to learn about presence, unity and devotion from Eugene.
February 6, 2023
Just beautiful. I have been so deeply helped by Eugene Peterson over the years and I anticipate I still will be for years to come. This book gave context to Eugene's life in ways that will make me even more appreciative of his books. But mainly, this book makes me want to know God the way Eugene did.
January 19, 2022
Nothing but good things to say here!! A great balance of thorough details about his personal life AND commentary on the Christian church through Peterson’s years of faith and leadership.
May 12, 2023
Such a beautiful story of lifelong delight and wonder in the Lord. Reading this made me yearn for the same quiet stillness he in God’s presence.
August 2, 2023
An absolutely beautiful account of a beautiful life. The more I learned about Eugene and Jan Peterson, the more I admired them. If anyone can live with a fraction of Eugene’s desire for God and for loving people, it will be a life well lived.
May 12, 2022
Superb research and writing! I read it in every free chunk of time I had, and really enjoyed the book.
Obviously, I’m a Peterson enthusiast reading a Peterson admirer and friend. Nonetheless, the biography is balanced and deals with imperfections on Eugene’s life (his repetition of an unhealthy pattern of paternal absence, drinking problems, crises in his marriage with Jan, and so on); the scope of letters and sermons cited brings much more color to Peterson’s life than, say, only reading his own “Pastor: a Memoir”.
Obviously, I’m a Peterson enthusiast reading a Peterson admirer and friend. Nonetheless, the biography is balanced and deals with imperfections on Eugene’s life (his repetition of an unhealthy pattern of paternal absence, drinking problems, crises in his marriage with Jan, and so on); the scope of letters and sermons cited brings much more color to Peterson’s life than, say, only reading his own “Pastor: a Memoir”.
May 17, 2022
I so appreciate Collier's work. Over the years, it's been easy for me to put Peterson on a pedestal. Winn put flesh on him and helped me to see and understand Peterson more completely. It's a beautiful, well-written book, and one that honors Peterson's legacy while helping us to see his humanity.
August 30, 2022
Wow. I don’t typically read biographies. They’re never of much interest to me. I was drawn to read this one on the life of Eugene Peterson because I’ve read one of his other books and appreciated his perspective on ministry. I borrowed a copy from a friend and began reading, hoping that it would shape or affirm my own understanding of what a faithful life of ministry and pastoring looks like. It did that and so much more.
As a young person in ministry, with a deepening desire and burden to shepherd a flock of people, I felt like I was given complete access to the heart and mind of a wise, brilliant, but grounded mentor to encourage, challenge, and clarify my perception of the call to pastoral ministry.
This book is so beautifully written. I found myself chuckling frequently, expanding my vocabulary, and being swept away into another person’s life, celebrating how God worked in and through Eugene Peterson and dreaming about how God might work in and through me… not off in some distant future, but right where I am in my present moment.
As a young person in ministry, with a deepening desire and burden to shepherd a flock of people, I felt like I was given complete access to the heart and mind of a wise, brilliant, but grounded mentor to encourage, challenge, and clarify my perception of the call to pastoral ministry.
This book is so beautifully written. I found myself chuckling frequently, expanding my vocabulary, and being swept away into another person’s life, celebrating how God worked in and through Eugene Peterson and dreaming about how God might work in and through me… not off in some distant future, but right where I am in my present moment.
January 23, 2023
3.5 stars (between good and very good)
Other than The Message (Peterson’s translation of the Bible), I’ve only read two of Peterson’s many books, but I know that Christians of many denominational stripes have found his to be an inspiring and potentially unifying voice.
Overall, this biography is decent and provides a basic sketch of Peterson’s life, but I would have appreciated more discussion and analysis of his thought and writing. The Message Bible is discussed at length, but most of his other books are given only single-sentence summaries. Of course this would have expanded this book, but it may have been worth it. I suppose I’ll need to read more of his books for myself. And my appetite has indeed been whetted.
Perhaps I should start with his translation of the Psalms. This sounds terrible, but I’ve always found the Psalms to be a bit, well, dull. Maybe this is a side-effect of overfamiliarity, but Peterson contends that they were originally written in a gritty, everyman style which becomes lost in most Bible translations which favor a lofty, formal, religious style which can make them feel like they aren’t really meant for regular people.
I find much appealing in what Petersen wrote including his well-known characterization of discipleship as “a long obedience in the same direction.” I appreciate his desires to avoid the limelight and eschew celebrity, and to focus on pastoral love over being dogmatically correct.
Here are some passages I thought were worth saving:
“One reason Eugene didn't wade into combustible issues was because in many instances, he'd not arrived at any definitive position on the matter. He was far more comfortable with ambiguity than most of us, and he generally assumed (a presumption many interpreted as naive) that people of goodwill could honestly arrive at vastly different conclusions and that we simply had to learn to live together in that awkward reality. Also, Eugene thought that the hardened, absolutized positions of opposing theological poles typically framed conversations in ways that lacked wisdom, humility, and a Spirit-inspired way forward. He suspected there were better questions and wider angles than our intractable skirmishes. Even more, Eugene had no desire to play the taking-sides game. For his entire life, perhaps in reaction to the factional Pentecostalism of his childhood, Eugene believed schism and the failure to love (to believe Jesus things in the Jesus way) were American evangelicalism's greatest sins. He wanted to leave the door open as wide as possible, open to as many as possible. He wanted to keep the conversation going.”
“When asked about his own views (a line of thinking that understood the term universalist in an older, Christocentric frame), Eugene gave an honest but (for many) unsatisfying answer:
Bob and Adam both enjoyed the book more than I, but wrote fantastic reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Other than The Message (Peterson’s translation of the Bible), I’ve only read two of Peterson’s many books, but I know that Christians of many denominational stripes have found his to be an inspiring and potentially unifying voice.
Overall, this biography is decent and provides a basic sketch of Peterson’s life, but I would have appreciated more discussion and analysis of his thought and writing. The Message Bible is discussed at length, but most of his other books are given only single-sentence summaries. Of course this would have expanded this book, but it may have been worth it. I suppose I’ll need to read more of his books for myself. And my appetite has indeed been whetted.
Perhaps I should start with his translation of the Psalms. This sounds terrible, but I’ve always found the Psalms to be a bit, well, dull. Maybe this is a side-effect of overfamiliarity, but Peterson contends that they were originally written in a gritty, everyman style which becomes lost in most Bible translations which favor a lofty, formal, religious style which can make them feel like they aren’t really meant for regular people.
I find much appealing in what Petersen wrote including his well-known characterization of discipleship as “a long obedience in the same direction.” I appreciate his desires to avoid the limelight and eschew celebrity, and to focus on pastoral love over being dogmatically correct.
Here are some passages I thought were worth saving:
“One reason Eugene didn't wade into combustible issues was because in many instances, he'd not arrived at any definitive position on the matter. He was far more comfortable with ambiguity than most of us, and he generally assumed (a presumption many interpreted as naive) that people of goodwill could honestly arrive at vastly different conclusions and that we simply had to learn to live together in that awkward reality. Also, Eugene thought that the hardened, absolutized positions of opposing theological poles typically framed conversations in ways that lacked wisdom, humility, and a Spirit-inspired way forward. He suspected there were better questions and wider angles than our intractable skirmishes. Even more, Eugene had no desire to play the taking-sides game. For his entire life, perhaps in reaction to the factional Pentecostalism of his childhood, Eugene believed schism and the failure to love (to believe Jesus things in the Jesus way) were American evangelicalism's greatest sins. He wanted to leave the door open as wide as possible, open to as many as possible. He wanted to keep the conversation going.”
“When asked about his own views (a line of thinking that understood the term universalist in an older, Christocentric frame), Eugene gave an honest but (for many) unsatisfying answer:
All my instincts are on the universalist side—Barth and MacDonald and Buechner and many others. But, you're right, the Bible doesn't allow for dogmatism or certainty on it. So what I think is, the ambiguity of scripture is deliberate on God's part. It wouldn't be good for us to be too sure of ourselves in this regard. The tenor and thrust of both scripture and theology and yes, life itself is universalistic. But no good writer is interested in explaining everything so we have it nailed down, but in involving us in the relationships and plot and imagination of the world he/she is creating. God is the author in this case and there is a lot more going on than a saved/unsaved or hell/no hell in the story that he is pulling us into.”
Bob and Adam both enjoyed the book more than I, but wrote fantastic reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
March 30, 2022
Second reading (first reading below)
Takeaway: I enjoyed it even more with the second reading.
__________
First reading Summary: The first full (and authorized) biography of Eugene Peterson
Takeaway: I enjoyed it even more with the second reading.
On my second reading of A Burning of My Bones, I am not sure how to say something new or roughly the same things without making it seem like there was no value in rereading. But after sitting with the second reading for a little while, my thoughts are pretty similar and I finished reading the book deeply encouraged.
I still am not really fond of the start of the book, and I don't really find myself drawn in until the chapters on seminary and early ministry. I am honestly not sure what it is about the early chapters that do not speak to me, but I suspect it is related that there is just less material for Winn Collier to draw on. I re-read this again as part of the Renovare book club. And one of the reasons I enjoy the book club is that they have resources to give background and understanding to the book. Most of the time, there are multiple interviews with the author, a couple of essays, and then a message board for readers to discuss. In one of those interviews, Winn Collier talked about reading Peterson's journals and letters and sermons and books, and I have to imagine that the resources that Collier could draw on for Peterson's early life were limited.
But again, in this reading, I settled into the pastoral years, and I was encouraged both by Peterson's growth as a pastor, his love and orientation toward the people in the parish, and his limitations. Limitations are so important to recognize and embrace. And it is not that we embrace our limitations as an excuse or as a way to overcome them, but we embrace them because we are human, and part of what it means to be human is to have limitations. Those limitations are part of why I personally turn to God. I think the denial of human limitations is what is spiritually dangerous about wealth and much of our culture of autonomy.
I read Wendell Berry's novel Jayber Crow soon after finishing A Burning in My Bones, and part of what I felt about the parallels in that novel and the story of Eugene Peterson is that they both pointed to the reality of the community as part of what is essential for a human-focused life. So much of our culture, whether in the 2020s or the 1950 and 60s that was the focus of Jayber Crow, is the orientation toward progress as a way to overcome our human limitations. I am not against tools or modern conveniences, I am highly dependent on them, and I love them. But as so many have pointed out, we often become dependent upon them in ways that make us the servant of the tool and not the other way around.
Eugene Peterson pushed back against culture in ways that were not for everyone. His resistance to email and the internet was part of his time; you could resist email and the internet differently in the 1990s to the early 2010s than you can now. It isn't about the particularities of his push against dehumanizing tools as much as that his example reminds us that we, too, should be pushing back against our dehumanization. And not just for ourselves, but for others as well.
After my first reading, Eugene Peterson's weaknesses were the most encouraging part of the book for me. Of course, I know that will not be true for everyone. But when the weaknesses of many spiritual leaders are being revealed regularly, I appreciate that there is space to see weaknesses that are not rooted in the abuse of others. And that Eugene tried to grapple with in spiritually healthy ways. And that he didn't stop struggling to be who God wanted him to be when he turned 50, but in many ways, it was more of a struggle as he aged because he because more aware of himself and God over time.
I do not want to idealize Eugene Peterson, which would be easy for me to do. However, the particulars, I think, really help add nuance and humanity to my view of him in ways that still allow him to be human.
__________
First reading Summary: The first full (and authorized) biography of Eugene Peterson
I have long been a fan of Eugene Peterson. There is something about him and his imagination of what it means to be the church and what it means to pastor people that resonates with me deeply. When his memoir came out, I read it twice in less than six weeks and then again about six months later, and I have read it at least once since then as well. I can't think of any other book that I read three times in less than a year. So when I heard about a new biography, I jumped at the chance to get an advance copy.
It has been about a month since I started and about 2-3 weeks since I finished the book. I have been sitting with it. My last meeting with my spiritual director primarily talked through my response to it. One of the thoughts that came to me as I was reading was that in many ways, without really using the language of spiritual direction (although he does have one book where he does talk about spiritual direction), I think his pastoral method was spiritual direction. If you are not familiar with spiritual direction, that doesn't mean anything. But to me, who is in training to be a spiritual director, it was revelatory to what draws me to his approach so strongly.
The early chapters, on Peterson's childhood and family, felt light and almost verging on hagiography. There were problems identified, especially the distance between Eugene and his father and between his father and mother. But his childhood was presented as near idyllic. Collier points primarily to Eugene's mother as his spiritual teacher, in part because the church does not seem to have mattered much at all. But something drew Peterson to God in ways that we can see both here and in The Pastor. But in neither was I really satisfied that it was explored enough.
In the college, seminary, and early years of the pastorate, I think there is a much clearer grappling with the whole of the man that became, eventually, the Eugene Peterson that many of us hold as a saint and mentor. I am not going to retrace his story in detail. I will re-read A Burning in My Bones again when it officially comes out on March 23, and maybe I will write about the book again then and trace it a bit more clearly.
But the most significant parts of A Burning in my Bones was the recounting of Euguene Peterson as a man who struggled. He struggled with calling. He struggled in seeking after God. He struggled as a father and husband, with alcohol, and with the life laid out before him. Those struggles did not turn me off of him but encouraged me as someone that also is trying to seek after God but certainly still struggles. Seeking after God does not mean that there is no struggle or that there is an always clear path laid out before our feet. What it does mean is that God is with us through the struggle. And what I was encouraged by more than anything else is seeing the life of a man, and his family, that strived to be faithful and who, from what I can see, was faithful in deeply encouraging ways.
I have no desire to read a hagiography. And I have no desire to lionize Peterson in unhelpful ways. But I want to seek after saints from prior generations and learn from them how I might also be faithful in ways that may help generations younger than I am.
May 16, 2021
This book shares how Peterson wanted to be a saint, in the formal "there are some really special Christians, not just everybody a run-of-the-mill-saint" sense, and suggests that he succeeded.
It's engagingly written, and clear--easy to read and follow, full of Peterson's own words from letters and journals.
Collier really wants to give readers a sense of what it was like to be in Peterson's presence, and this I think he has done well. Peterson's presence healed others because it carried God's presence, as a saint's should.
My favourite parts are the last chapter and the coda. Here the personality and core beliefs of Peterson take centre stage, often in his own words. Who he was, I think, comes through clearly.
The biographical part of it is pretty good. It helpfully provides key reasons why, say, he got through the doldrums of the pastorate. Why he ended up in the pastorate. How courting and marrying his Jan changed his orientation toward his vocation. Maybe it looks a little too closely at his struggles and hard times. I wanted more about his joys in the pastorate, if he had any. About his friendships and relationships with people other than Jan and Bono. It's maybe just too short. He was a complicated, beautiful man, and this many pages with this many words on each isn't enough to convey how or why this was who he was. But this was who he was. At several places, his words inspired me deeply, and his life warmed and challenged mine, and gave me hope, as a saint's does.
It's engagingly written, and clear--easy to read and follow, full of Peterson's own words from letters and journals.
Collier really wants to give readers a sense of what it was like to be in Peterson's presence, and this I think he has done well. Peterson's presence healed others because it carried God's presence, as a saint's should.
My favourite parts are the last chapter and the coda. Here the personality and core beliefs of Peterson take centre stage, often in his own words. Who he was, I think, comes through clearly.
The biographical part of it is pretty good. It helpfully provides key reasons why, say, he got through the doldrums of the pastorate. Why he ended up in the pastorate. How courting and marrying his Jan changed his orientation toward his vocation. Maybe it looks a little too closely at his struggles and hard times. I wanted more about his joys in the pastorate, if he had any. About his friendships and relationships with people other than Jan and Bono. It's maybe just too short. He was a complicated, beautiful man, and this many pages with this many words on each isn't enough to convey how or why this was who he was. But this was who he was. At several places, his words inspired me deeply, and his life warmed and challenged mine, and gave me hope, as a saint's does.
August 24, 2021
Very rarely do I truly mourn the ending of a book. This was such a book. Stories of the abuse of power, greed, and salacious activity — particularly within the Christian context — while important to observe, can be numbing and discouraging. It was deeply refreshing to read about a life lived well. Though imperfect, Eugene Peterson’s life could be marked with two words: congruence and simplicity. May it be so with us.
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