Shadow Dancing: Living with the Dark Side: The Temptations of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew.

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

This book follows the standard Path Books template. There are a series of relatively short chapters (of about eight pages in this book), each of which concludes with four questions and a brief suggested spiritual practice. Christopher Page, who has written at least four previous Path Books, is a fluid writer whose style makes the text an easy read.

Shadow Dancing is a 15-chapter series of reflections on the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. Page uses the version of that story as found in Matthew 4:1–11, with an introduction based on Matthew 3:13–17. In these chapters Page searches through the many facets of the temptation story to encourage the reader to examine her or his own approach to temptation, repentance, and spiritual renewal. He writes gently, encouraging rather than pushing his reader to look into his or her life, recognize what is found there, and then contemplate changes in how life is approached and lived.

Yet at the end of the book the reader is left strangely empty, perhaps because both the text and the chapter-ending questions are a bit too gentle. Where many theological writers would see numerous pointers to the cross of Christ, Page sees few. That means the book lacks the strong note of divine grace that the author seems to want; instead, it veers into being yet another innocuous religious self-help book. The proliferation of such books, particular in Christian circles, indicates that they are not doing what readers hope for. Perhaps the time has come to focus more on Gospel and less on self.