Finding God in Other Christians is a laudable and readable attempt to inspire Christians to work for a more generous-spirited and open dialogue with those with whom they disagree. Drawing on the author's experience of chaplaincy at Cardiff University, it focuses on how to improve relations for Christians who feel a sense of unity with some of their fellow Christians, while at the same time feeling divided against others. Cavanagh asks what sort of peace it is in which we keep our distance from one another. 'Is it a matter of anything for a quiet life? Or is there a real yearning for reconciliation?' (p. ix) Is it acceptable to say that we love God while being content to despise and condemn our brothers and sisters (cf. 1 John 4.20)? Cavanagh's answer is a resounding 'no'. Following God is not a recipe for a quiet life, nor is it a licence complacently to pretend that everything is all right. 'Experiencing God means wanting reconciliation between Christians in the way we want God himself' (p. x). Cavanagh recommends that we learn from the example of St Dominic. Dominic was, we are told, so frustrated during a particular encounter with some German speakers that he fervently prayed that God would help him to understand their language and so become better able to communicate with them. If we want to find reconciliation, form relationships and build up the unity of the Church, Cavanagh argues, then we should follow Dominic in trying to learn the 'faith language' of our listeners and talk with them in their own terms (p. 8). Cavanagh urges us to resist any temptation to be like the stereotypical Brit abroad, assuming that everyone speaks English, and getting frustrated and shouting louder if the other person does not understand what is being said (pp. 14-15). Cavanagh perhaps takes this faith-language analogy too far when she suggests that 'To speak another language fluently is to understand what makes a person tick, ... to see things the way they do' (p. 12). I wouldn't claim that I understand the mind of a French person, simply because I can speak their language. This overstatement aside, however, Cavanagh's argument that we should always try to communicate using the language of our audience, is powerful, apt and helpful. Ironically, for a book about learning the 'other's' language and trying to understand the 'other' in their own terms, Cavanagh's portrayal of 'other' Christians is frequently less sympathetic than it might have been, especially in the later chapters. At no point did I feel that she had gone beyond typical liberal stereotypes of the evangelical 'other'. Although a St Dominic-inspired attempt to speak the language of one's hearers is certainly a good approach when attempting to communicate with other Christians, it is not a good approach for engaging with similar Christians about other Christians. Finding God in Other Christians, therefore, while persuasive, does not quite live up to its own aspirations of helping the reader to engage generously with other Christians and so to find God in their otherness. -- Tim Laundon * Modern Believing *
