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The Gospel of RuthFields of gold?THE GOSPEL OF RUTH The Gospel of Ruth is Carolyn James’s third book and the one she claims in her forward, she was ‘born to write’. You may be familiar with her other two books: When Life and Beliefs Collide and Lost Women of the Bible. In my opinion, this is her best piece of writing yet. When we think of the book of Ruth, we often think of a nice love story. But what you find on this book’s pages is quite different. It is the story of three different people, who converge in a powerful alliance that transforms their lives and changes the world. The book was written when personal tragedy was assailing Carolyn’s life. This gives it empathetic depths when exploring the suffering of Naomi. It meant that writing this book was no academic exercise for her. She draws interesting analogies between Job and Naomi and explores the fact that Ruth, rather than being a passive character, was full of love for God, which mobilised her to radical living. Carolyn also explores the ezer idea further. That is, of women being strong helpers of men, serving the Lord together. Themes of the biblical roles of women, suffering and the transforming power of the gospel in our everyday lives, are covered in depth. As the dust jacket says: ‘The Gospel of Ruth reveals how God can resurrect and transform a woman’s life and then use her in the building of his kingdom — all woven into the fabric of a moving, ancient and surprising story.’ I commend it to you. For those of you who follow blogs — check out Carolyn’s: http://www.whitbyforum.com Heather Stephens,
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