Brett's Two Cents

Hello, everyone. I have a book recommendation for you today. From Fire by Water is the spiritual and intellectual memoir of Sohrab Ahmari, a journalist who’s written for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, amongst other publications.
 

In this short but thoughtful work, Ahmari takes us along from the beginning of his life as a young boy growing up in Iran through his immigration to Utah and eventually to New York. His real interest, however, is tracing his spiritual and intellectual journey from somewhat nominal Shiite Islam through his dalliances with atheism, Marxism, and post-Modernism, until (despite his best efforts) he ends up at the doors of the Catholic faith.
 
Ahmari’s story is fascinating on several counts, but what I find most interesting is the way it serves as a lens on our contemporary society. Questions around identity, culture, privilege, power, truth itself — all of these he struggles with and describes in a way that helped me to see in a clearer way why we are where we are in our culture today, and how we got here.
 
And he does this in a way that’s accessible for the average person, though it does require a willingness to stop and think from time to time. In the end, From Fire by Water left me with a greater appreciation for the heritage of Western civilization that is so easy to take for granted.
 

On a deeper level, however, Ahmari’s story is really a story about God’s tender but relentless pursuit of a soul, and that soul’s growing recognition of God’s voice inside. On that count, it’s really a love story, much like Augustine’s Confessions. A really wonderful story of grace, for this season of grace.