Each year, I write a column sharing with readers the title and a brief synopsis of the 10 books that touched me most that year. Occasionally, however, I judge a book to be exceptional enough to merit its own column. Robert Ellsberg’s new book, A Living Gospel – Reading God’s Story in Holy Lives, is such a book.
Ellsberg is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Orbis Books and in that role has shepherded into print some of the more challenging spiritual writings of our generation. Among others things, he has edited the selected writings, diaries and letters of Dorothy Day (he had the privilege of living in community with her during the last five years of her life). But beyond publishing the thoughts of others, Ellsberg has himself quietly produced a huge treasury of writings on the lives of the saints. He has three major books on the topic – All Saints, The Saints’ Guide to Happiness and Blessed Among Women – and each day he writes an account of the life of a saint for the booklet Give Us This Day.
