[BOOK REVIEW]: All is Grace, by Brennan Manning

Brennan Manning’s memoir All is Grace is searing, disarming, poetic, and poignant. Not one to mince words when it comes to his own shortcomings in life, including an alcohol addiction that consumed him, even in the midst of a celebrated career as a speaker of the Good News of grace, Manning leaves no stone unturned in this honest account of his life as a ragamuffin.

Born Richard Manning in Brooklyn, whose parents wanted a girl but got Brennan instead, Manning’s life seemed a constant struggle against shame. Whether it was failing to live up to his alcoholic father’s expectations (“I learned then that there is more than one way to orphan a child.”), feeling inadequate next to his stronger older brother, or only ever sensing his mother’s pride from her smiles at Brennan’s winning picture for the “Cutest Baby in Brooklyn,” Brennan may have been destined to drink.

He began at age 16. “Drinking gave me a rush of confidence, and for a boy hounded by feelings of inadequacy, the buzz was a welcome relief.” With the separation of time and the accrual of wisdom, he then acknowledges that drinking was “shooting myself in the head in some strange time warp where the bullet takes many years to finally reach its target.”

Yet there were always hints of grace scattered through his life like pieces of bread so Brennan could find his way back home. In All is Grace, Brennan picks up these pieces, examines them without fear, and sees traces of the loving God he has so long proclaimed.

After a time in the Marines, Brennan attended the University of Missouri to pursue writing. After only one semester, he felt called to attend a Franciscan seminary, a transition he believed his friends and family would view as a cowardly and backward professional move. After one week in seminary, Brennan wanted to leave. As he was waiting to say his final farewell to Father Augustine, he visited the seminary’s chapel, and millions of people have been changed as a result. It was there that Brennan met God. “The experience was like rolling waves, spring storms, and bursting dams all in the same breath. Like the prophet Isaiah, it left me a man undone.”

From the Little Brothers of Jesus to an experimental Christian community in Bayou La Batre, Brennan lived his life espousing a God overflowing with love, yet still wrestled with how this immense love could exist for a sinner such as him. In this honest reckoning of his own soul, Brennan’s words, both spoken and written, assumed a power much greater than his own small frame could muster, simply because these words were infused with an authenticity wrought in the fires of grace.

http://youtu.be/j73mYgpxhTY

Yet his greatest regret was that he “did not know how to be married.” Later chapters in the book describe the ways alcoholism and workaholism eventually caused his marriage to crumble. Faced with a loss of identity in the aftermath of his divorce, God placed the ‘Notorious Sinners’ in his life, a group of men, like the late Mike Yaconelli, who met once a year and were “earthy, boisterous, noisy, and rowdy, tromping around our souls seeking God, hanging out with a rambunctious Jesus who is looking for a good time in our hearts.”

Now in poor health requiring constant care, Brennan is likely soon to depart this earth, and I will mourn his loss. His words have been lifeblood to me for so long, and I am all the better for the fact that he has bared his soul through each and every one of his works. Were it possible, I wish he could write dozens more books, but All is Grace is a fitting final chapter for such a ragamuffin soul.

Read All is Grace if you struggle with an issue you mistakenly believe prevents God from loving you or using you to effect real change in others’ lives.

Read All is Grace if you can attest to this statement: ”My life is a witness to vulgar grace.”

Read All is Grace, even if you’ve never read a book by Brennan Manning before (especially if you haven’t), and see that life with God truly is all grace.

All is Grace releases today, October 4th.

This review was based on a review copy provided by the publisher.

Originally posted on October 4, 2011.