From death to life
Review of "Fully Alive" by Elizabeth Oldfield.
Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times
Elizabeth Oldfield
Brazos Press, 2024.
British thinker and podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield has given the English-speaking world a gift via her first book, Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. This title comes from a quotation by St. Irenaeus, born in Smyrna (now Izmar) in AD 130: “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
Oldfield explores the mandate to embrace being fully alive in the present context of turbulence, including polarization and tribalism, the climate crisis and Western peoples’ increasing disillusionment with institutions, especially religious ones. She engages the skeptical, post-modern, rootless reader by saving a chapter at the end to write more directly about [God] (brackets hers). She invites readers to “experiment with” the timeless “themes, rituals and rhythms” found in the Christian faith and the church. In this way, she provides a possible onramp to faith.
Particularly in the introduction and epilogue, the author shares some twists and turns of her personal faith journey. She writes as a person rooted, yet respectful of other traditions. Honest and vulnerable, she occasionally uses four-letter words.
Some may be surprised to discover that her book about life-giving practices has chapter titles referencing the seven deadly sins. Oldfield reflects on the contrast between truly living and being held back by destructive impulses that are considered sin. She knows that the idea of sin is not necessarily welcome in public discourse; however, her definition of sin shows it’s not some arbitrary construct meant to point fingers. Rather, sin “is a relational concept about the threads between us and others, us and the natural world, and yes, us and God.” At its root, sin fosters disconnection.
Thus, each chapter takes us from a deadly sin like wrath, acedia/sloth and pride to its life-giving opposites of peacemaking, attention and community, respectively. Along the way, she articulately refers to the work of a wide range of philosophers, poets, theologians and storytellers of the Western canon as she provides grounding and practical ways to resist being enticed by seven distinct forms of self-obsession.
