Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint, Nadia Bolz-Weber – Jericho Books 2013
Nadia Bolz-Weber writes in the final paragraph of the introduction to her book: “Death and resurrection — the recurring experience of seeing the emptiness, weeping over our inability to fill it or even understand it, and then listening to the sound of God speaking our names and telling God’s story — is a messy business. But it is my business, and it’s the most beautiful thing I could tell you about.” (p. xviii)
If these words intrigue you, I invite you to open the book and read Nadia’s contagious, honest, and captivating spiritual memoir. By her own testimony she is a loud-mouthed, irreverent, tattooed Lutheran pastor in Denver who proudly claims the derisive term “Pastrix,” which is defined by the New Wineskins Dictionary as “A term of insult used by unimaginative sections of the church to define female pastors.”
Nadia takes the Gospel outside the walls of well-manicured churches into smoky bars, church basements, and store fronts. As she says, “These are my people!”
Nadia’s story is a story of grace. She revolted against her fundamentalist background and by all accounts “went off the rails.” She was a stand-up comic in comedy clubs around Denver, was addicted to alcohol, and toyed with Wicca. Now she is a Lutheran pastor, married and a mother of two. As she states it: “… I have only confession — confession of my own real brokenness and confession of my own real faith to offer … It is about the development of my faith, the expression of my faith, and the community of my faith. And it is the story of how I have experienced this Jesus thing to be true…” (p. xvii)
You will laugh, you will cry and you will shout out “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
—Richard R. Kuns
Good News from St. Philip's 