Kindness Stones– Mark Allan Powell

(Cascade, 250 pp.) Some Biblical scholars not only have writing skills in the form of helpful scholarly books about the Bible for pastors, teachers, and educated laity, as well as the occasional scholarly monograph, but even have some skill in writing interesting fiction– whether short stories, novellas, or novels. Mark Allan Powell, in this interesting and very readable collection of short stories, shows that he’s quite good at short stories with interesting if quirky characters, intriguing plots, and skillful picture painting to set various scenes for the action. Not surprisingly, Christianity in various forms (including the holiness form of the Methodist tradition as well as more progressive forms of Catholicism) show up. But so does American Indian religion, various sorts of spirituality, Charismatic Protestant and Catholic faith, and more. What makes these stories interesting is the characters themselves, for instance Jasper, the war vet still suffering from PTSD, who lives in a park in D.C. and is a gifted story-teller of various tales from Greek mythology. Or there is Father John McCloskey, who wishes he had married Audrey who worked in the church office, but alas he felt ca...