I am among many, many thousands who love Catherine Marshall’s story of the life of Peter Marshall; A Man Called Peter. In case there are some of you who are not yet among them I would like to tell you some of the reasons I love this book.
Romance First, everyone loves a romance and A Man Called Peter is a beautifully-written romance story between Peter and Catherine Marshall, a Scottish immigrant and a pastor’s daughter from the mountains of Tennessee. It’s not the kind of contrived, one-dimensional romance that is the stuff of popular fiction, but a real romance described in the setting of life.
The Romance of Ministry A Man Called Peter is an inspiring story of the romance of Christian ministry. It is about the pastorate and preaching and being a pastor’s wife. It is a healthy look at what it should look like to shepherd a congregation. It is an honest but positive telling of the trials and triumphs of the pastorate.
The Romance of Living Third, Catherine Marshall is a very gifted writer and a good storyteller and the story of Peter Marshall is a good story. Catherine Marshall had a beautiful way of looking at life and a moving way of describing living and dying.
The Divine Romance Finally, the story–front to back–is a story of the providence and love of God in the life of one Scottish boy who overcame the loss of his father when he was young, his unrequited longing to go to sea, and the hardship of poverty, to become one of the most popular pastors in America and the Chaplain of the United States Senate.
It has one of the most moving endings of any book I have ever read. It is one of the books I read and re-read. I know it has influenced how I look at life and ministry. It is a rich, romance in the highest sense of the word. I like the movie but I love the book. I predict that if you read it you will read other books by Catherine Marshall.
