Book Review: Pastrix: The Cranky Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint

Written by Nadia Bolz-Weber | Reviewed by Jessica Nylund Salt

Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book Pastrix: The Cranky Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint, is a written portrait of a woman who is simultaneously deeply flawed and deeply faithful. An ex-stand-up comic, Bolz-Weber chronicles her unique conversation from atheism to Christianity in this memoir. Currently, Bolz-Weber is the founding pastor of the broken and beautiful people of House for All Sinners and Saints, an Evangelical Lutheran Church of America mission congregation in Denver, Colorado, pastoring with a fresh and uncompromising perspective which offers incredible hope in the transforming power of God’s grace. Based on her deep association with the experience of Mary Magdalene, her thesis resounds around the reality that almost always our experience of God comes in the form of some kind of death and resurrection. Her voice, brimming with newness and risk (Rated R: Language), is a voice that American mainline Christian culture will benefit from hearing. The book is currently available in the Covenant Library.