RECENT READER REVIEWS OF SOUL GRAFFITI:
Some people have finished reading SOUL GRAFFITI and here’s what they have to say:
“One of the things that I find intoxicating about good filmmakers, like the Cohen brothers who made among other films Fargo, is their ability to climb inside of a certain cultural context and then speak from that place with authenticity and meaning. This is exactly what I love about Mark Scandrette’s work Soul Graffiti. As a person who grew up in church in Minnesota and has spent the last decade in the Mission District of San Francisco, he provides a practical and prophetic look at life and faith in one of America’s most progressive cities. His work is a perfect collision of his grounded upper-middle America upbringing and the sometimes wheels off life on the streets of San Francisco. He interprets life and faith as a street-wise pastor struggling with people in their search for more. He brings passion, hope and a new language to those of us who sometimes fall a word or two short in our ability to put words to our experiences. As Donald Miller and Blue Like Jazz was to the average Baptist youth grouped southerner, Soul Graffiti is to everyone else . . . .only better.”
–Jason Mitchell, Dallas, Texas. Also see a Video podcast by Jason Mitchell.
“A creative smart version of Blue Like Jazz. If one were to take the mind of Dallas Willard, the tongue of a beat poet, and the heart of a Franciscan brother, put them in a blender, and pour them into a book, you might end up with Soul Graffiti. Soul Graffiti is a poetic, prophetic, call to follow the radical Way of Jesus. Mark Scandrette rips off the scab of encrusted, safe, sentimental American Christianity and invites the reader into the provocative, fresh, improvisational riff of discipleship with Christ. The book is a call to imagine the Way of Christ for the Post-Christian West.”
–Mark Van Steenwyk, Minneapolis
“Mark Scandrette’s first solo effort is really something– lyrical, ethereal, and visceral. It is a compelling call to a life lived after Jesus written by a real person with a real family living in the real world. As arresting and engaging and upending as Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy, but made practical, and set to music.
This book made me hungry, and not just metaphorically. Its look at real-life spirituality made me grateful for my body, my appetites, and for the good world in which I live. I wasn’t hungry for fancy things, either– a piece of chocolate, a bowl of cereal, an egg, a turkey sandwich, or a good beer (since Mark is such an oenophile, and I’m such a contrarian). It is a rare book on Christian spirituality that doesn’t make a person feel guilty for their physicality, but Mark has found a way to affirm and expand our humanity, all at once. Remarkable.
Of some books, it is said, “I couldn’t put it down,” but of this one I want to add, “I didn’t want to keep reading.” On the one hand, I wanted to move quickly; to take in its beauty all at once. On the other hand, I wanted to slow down and accept the gentle invitation to live into this life. And on the third hand, with its call to a new kind of life so compelling and clear, I found myself not wanting to change. And yet, I can’t seem to get the tune out of my head.”
–Mike Stavlund, Washington, D.C.
“Beautiful encounter with lived Christianity. Mark Scandrette’s Soul Graffiti reminds me of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis. What sets Soul Graffiti apart is the practical dimension. Mark uses his unique talents as a storyteller to draw us into real life experiments in following Jesus in the details of life. As he illustrates this way of life he manages to be both raw and elegant at the same time. This book is full of ideas for pressing forward on the journey…walking in new ways, developing new habits, finding new rhythms. You will encounter an inspiring and dangerous faith full of risk taking and love.”
–Nate Millheim, San Francisco, CA
“….a truly remarkable work —best book I’ve read in 2007.…I savored EVERY word on EVERY page. I bathed in this book.”
–Bill Dahl, Author of THE PORPOISE DIVING LIFE.
