Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Radical Middle

Using an interlibrary loan, I obtained a copy of the book "The Quest for the Radical Middle" by Bill Jackson, which concerns the history of the Vineyard movement and John Wimber. My local library had to send all the way to Alabama to find this book.

Recently I became aware of Jackson's book, published back in 1999, and I very much wanted to read it, especially to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge regarding the movements that started in the 1970s. So far I have found Jackson's "Quest" to be very engrossing, one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time.

This particular copy of the book has a sticker pasted inside the front cover saying "in loving memory of Stefanie R. Sharpe (3-13-77 - 11-8-98) by her brother Bryant Sharpe." It's sad to me that Bryant's sister Stefanie died at the young age of 21. There must be a story behind this sticker. Maybe some day I'll find out what it is. Futhermore, for various reasons which I won't elaborate upon, it so happens by a peculiar coincidence that the well-known author Frank Viola had also read this very same copy of Jackson's book.