 [ Large Image ] | Skin Boat: Acts of faith and other navigations John Terpstra 2009 / Memoir / $25.95 9781554470792 / Trade paper / 160 pp “I have thought every thought about how I would rather be somewhere else, anywhere else. I have thought that there is no place on earth that I would rather be. I have asked myself, Why do I persist?” Skin Boat is John Terpstra’s frank reflection on faith and church in a secular era. In the contemplative but direct prose style of his previous works of prose, Terpstra draws on his daily interactions with friends, neighbours and fellow congregation members, his work as a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and the stories of St. Brendan and St. Cuthbert. Turning over words like worship, praise and maker—mainstays of the Christian lexicon—Terpstra prods at vocabulary too often glossed over by believers and nonbelievers alike, approaching faith as equally an intellectual as instinctual and physical act. “As this book began to grow,” says Terpstra, “I knew that I wanted to work the story lines of two medieval saints into it. The one, Cuthbert, had been rattling around in my brain for twenty years or so. It wasn’t his life or achievement that interested me most, but his uncorrupted body. He was exhumed a decade after burial, but his flesh had not decayed and he appeared to be only sleeping. He slept on, and became a spiritual tourist attraction for centuries afterward. Brendan, my second saint, was famous for a sea voyage. He may have been the first European to set foot on North America—in the sixth century. I had read an account of a modern re-enactment of his fabled journey: a gripping high-adventure, a kind of North Atlantic Kon-Tiki. What I found when I turned to the original medieval account of the journey was mesmerizing, mysterious, contradictory, open-ended and, well, as strange as Cuthbert’s uncorrupted body. I thought I would hook my sail to their boats and see where they took me.” Over the course of the book, Terpstra considers the religious tradition in which he was brought up, his and his wife’s decision to leave that tradition, the evolution of their adoptive church community, and occasional visits to other denominations. Conversations with members of his congregation, friends and co-workers illuminate and complicate any provisional conclusions reached en route. Ultimately, it is this degree of honesty and perplexity, too often missing from contemporary examinations of faith, that set Skin Boat apart as a thoughtful inquiry into its persistence. To purchase this title: Add it to your cart | Other Books by this Author |  | Call Me Home John Terpstra 2021 / Canadian Poetry / $21.95 CAN 9781554472260 / Trade paper / 108 pp |  | Mischief John Terpstra 2017 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554471676 / Trade paper / 80 pp |  | The House with the Parapet Wall John Terpstra 2014 / Memoir / $24.95 CAN 9781554471393 / Trade paper / 160 pp |  | Brilliant Falls John Terpstra 2013 / Poetry / $17.95 CAN 9781554471232 / Trade paper / 64 pp |  | Falling Into Place John Terpstra 2011 / Nature, Politics / $24.95 CAN 9781554471102 / Trade paper / 240 pp |  | Two or Three Guitars: Selected Poems John Terpstra 2006 / Poetry / $49.95 CAN 9781554470273 / Fine / 144 pp |  | Two or Three Guitars: Selected Poems John Terpstra 2006 / Poetry / $19.95 CAN 9781554470266 / Trade paper / 144 pp |  | Brendan Luck John Terpstra 2005 / Poetry / $4.95 CAN 9781554470136 / Pamphlet / 24 pp |  | The Boys, or, Waiting for the Electrician’s Daughter John Terpstra 2005 / Biography / Memoirs / $25.95 CAN 9781554470112 / Trade paper / 144 pp |  | Disarmament John Terpstra 2003 / Poetry / $18.95 CAN 9781894031738 / Trade paper / 104 pp |  | Falling Into Place John Terpstra 2002 / Nature, Politics / $25.95 CAN 9781894031608 / Trade paper / 320 pp |  | Restoration John Terpstra 2000 / Poetry / $2.95 CAN 9781894031325 / Pamphlet / 16 pp |
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