This little book subtitled “A Conversation Between Spiritual Friends” was on my mind the entire eighteen months I was writing “Dear Walt.” In fact, it provided the basic framework for the correspondence between Andy and Walt, because that is what was really happening in their long-distance conversation over those thirty years. The balance of the book rests entirely on this “spiritual conversation.”

Several years ago I was enrolled in a class which required that we read The Wisdom of Each Other in addition to the regular class attendance, study and homework. This is a fascinating little book of a little over a hundred pages comprised entirely of letters from Eugene Peterson to Gunnar Thorkildsson, a not entirely fictional correspondent. Gunnar is actually a composite of the people with whom Peterson has corresponded during his career as a pastor, and the letters are a composite of the responses Peterson has made to them over the years.

The letters cover a wide spectrum of situations a pastor might be asked to address within his congregation or while responding to a friend in a letter. Each letter brings new insights to every day Christian life and the common influences of American life.

Since each letter is a short, insightful message on a single subject it is easy to read this book in pieces as we grab a minute here and there in our busy schedules.

And don’t miss the foreword and introduction, they are worth the price of the book simply for the perspective they bring.