SPIRITUAL FOCUS ON BOOKS December 14, 2009 Issue

GOD-SHAPED QUESTIONS

KIM SHIPPEY, SENIOR WRITER

CAROLYN ARENDS PRACTICES a literary genre loosely known as "the familiar essay"—short, discursive reflections on life that are equal parts mind and heart. Though in her case, her offerings are less essay-like than acts of modest self-disclosure blended with tender, God-based insight.

Arends is probably less well known as a writer (despite five books and a regular column in the monthly magazine Christianity Today) than she is as a contemporary Christian singer. She has received two Gospel Music Association Dove awards and has had 15 songs on Top Ten charts in Canada, where she lives with her husband and their two children.

The lyrics of three of her inspirational songs have been dropped into her latest publication, Wrestling with Angels—an updated paperback version of an earlier collection, Living the Questions. In essence, it's a book about having a faith that not only survives but thrives in the midst of unanswered questions.

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