Between Two Trees: Our Transformation from Death to Life

by Shane J. Wood

The problem of Eden is much worse than you thought, but the solution is much better than you could have ever imagined. Between Two Trees reveals that the real tragedy of Eden is a union with death, a union that produces division and despair. Life isn't lived under Eden's tree of life or beneath the healing leaves of the tree in the New Jerusalem. It is lived between them. And between these two trees, life is hard. In spite of this tragedy, Between Two Trees will challenge you to embrace hope, love, and the beauty of reconciliation at the true tree of the cross of Calvary. By exploring the problem of Eden and the power of the cross, Shane Wood calls us to walk on a path to transformation, a path to union with God. The book s journey ends under the shade of the tree of life in the New Jerusalem with God s unfinished creation now complete. Yes, Eden, but more importantly, you . The unfinished creation in us . If you doubt it's possible for one image to tell the whole story from Genesis to Revelation, then you need to read Shane Wood's masterful Between Two Trees . There isn't another book that comes close to it, both in its pioneering methodology and in its brilliance of presentation. I found myself completely absorbed and provoked by my own missed readings of the Scriptures.
Leonard Sweet , Charles Wesley Distinguished Professor of Doctoral Studies, Evangelical Seminary Through theological reflection poised with poetic flare, Shane Wood admirably explores the trials and triumphs of a world united to death yet wooed by a tender father to return home. This book challenges our understanding of the problem of Eden and enhances the revelation of the depths of God's solution in Jesus union with God. Reading Between Two Trees , you will be deeply enriched, tenderly called, and masterfully guided into the transformative power of the incarnate Christ.
Fr. Richard Rohr , founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and best-selling author of Everything Belongs and Falling Upward A professor of mine once told me I could not understand either the apostle Paul or the Bible until I understood the potency of death. He said Paul was a 'thanatologist,' which means one who studies death. That professor was right, but very few until Shane Wood's excellent, playful, and poetic exploration of the Bible's thanatology have let the specter of death emerge in furious force in their theology. Between Two Trees is a splendid entrance into the heart of Christian theology.
Scot McKnight , Julius R. Mantey Professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary, and author of The King Jesus Gospel The Bible tells a huge story, one big enough to embrace, empower, and transform everyone's story. This book unpacks that huge story as well as any I have ever read. I am so grateful to Shane Wood for giving the church such an insightful and helpful way to understand God's big story. Between Two Trees will help us grasp a better narrative and help us transform our own stories into better tales of redemption.
Rick Atchley , Senior Teaching Minister, The Hills Church, North Richland Hills, TX The Bible opens with a tree, and it closes with a tree. In between, we find an epic tale of God's love for us. Shane Wood knows the metanarrative of Scripture like few others, but what is more important is that he lives its principles every day. He trusts the author who writes the story and the gardener who cares for his creation. Be sure to read Between Two Trees and nurture the fruit within.
Kyle Idleman , author of Not a Fan and Don t Give Up

Genres: Theology, Christian, Nonfiction, Christian Living, Religion, Christianity, Faith

240 pages, Paperback

Published February 12, 2019

Reviews

[Gage Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the spirit of my professor Shane Wood, I’ll give this book a 100%… and then critique it in the comments lol

I’m afraid to sound like a fanboy, but this was super good. Even in chapters that I didn’t think I needed to read, I always found something fascinating about my God. It’s written so tastefully that it surprised me, he balances super well so that anyone can read it and be encouraged and challenged, yet he’s still a scholar… and it shows.

Overall, I think God’s using this book in my transformation so I’d say for that, it deserves the 5 stars.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those unique books targeting a Christian audience that actually has substance. What I mean is that if you are a Christian who has some knowledge and understanding of your faith, you can still find some depth in here. But if you are a Christian who is new to theology and the Bible, I think you could tackle this book. I work with college students and this is the sort of book I feel like I could give to them and they could read, while I also could read this with lifelong Christians from my church and have good discussions.

There are not many books like that. Many Christian bestsellers appear to simply want to make you feel guilty about your life and move you to be "radical", while others are simply self-help with a Christian angle. Wood offers insights from scripture, beginning with the tree in Genesis, where it all started, and ending with the tree in Revelation, where we have hope it is all going. We live, as the title says, between these two trees.

I especially found Wood's insights into things like union and humanity to be helpful. Sin is worse than we think, he says, because its not just that we are broken, but that we are in union with death. But when we sin, our attitude ought not be, "I'm only human." This is because we believe Jesus Christ was fully human and lived a sinless life. Thus, to sin is become less human while to become more like Christ is to become more human. This is an idea I've pondered quite a bit recently and brings to mind another thing I appreciate about Wood. If you know historical theology, you can see that Wood is well-versed in theological topics. I am pretty sure some of these ideas that he brings forth are rooted in traditions of which he is not apart. Yet he argues his ideas from the Bible, so his readers who come out of a Protestant "scripture only" view will be open to them.

In other words, Wood is giving teaching from scripture that, in subtle ways, is different than the Western theological tradition we accept. But not only is he finding it in scripture, I suspect he could recognize he is finding it in other traditions or lesser known traditions. To me, that's great.

All that good said, there was one spot I thought Wood went a bit off the rails. One chapter discusses separation and he argues intimacy comes through separation (87). We rage against boundaries (92). These ideas are rooted in arguments about the incarnation, in which God and human are united but still remain separate (86). This is all fine, but then he uses it to bring up "transgenderism and homosexual marriage". His few paragraphs discussing that just seem random and totally uneducated about the actual issues. It begs the question of why bring something up if you don't understand it.

The problem to me isn't Wood's view or belief in regard to same-sex marriage. Its just that, whatever we think, we should show that we've listened. His lack of listening seems indicated in that he says "homosexual marriage". Who calls it that? His use of "transgenderism" indicates to me he assumes people who identify as transgender are just making a wrong choice. But if you just talk to and read stories from people who identify as transgender, the least you come away with is that it is not just a mere choice, as if all transgender persons are being contrarian or something (maybe some of them are, who knows?). In the next paragraph he mentions people opting for being "asexual," as if this is a problem. But being asexual is actually a thing and, from even a conservative Christian perspective, is not really a problem (as asexual people, not being interested in sex, are celibate).

I make no claim to be an expert in any of these issues. But I've read and heard enough to know that Wood's glossing over the whole thing is unnecessary and uninformed. The unnecessary is really what bothers me for these 2-3 paragraphs do not add anything to his otherwise fantastic book.

All that said, this is still a book worth reading. There is so much biblical and theological depth here. It just leaves me wishing Wood would turn his depth of intellect to understanding things outside his realm of expertise before commenting on them in unneeded ways.

[Ryan Dufoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book on theology that expands the mind with old and new ideas and coerces them into practice. Shane is a well of knowledge about God and theology, not only through study and training, but also through deep personal and emotional reflection and healing. This is a great book for any people of the faith, lay or clergy, academic or not. I highly recommend reading this.

[Dave Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, let me just address the elephant in the room. I was curious about this book largely because of it's recommendations. It is endorsed by voices across the spectrum, from conservatives to progressives, which made me curious about what precisely this book was attempting to do with it's theological focus.

Having read the book this now makes a bit more sense to me. Shane Wood is a conservative Christian thinker who dialogues and thinks largely outside of the conservative Christian box. On one hand this is the book's greatest strength. It is when something can't be boxed in that has the greatest chance to impact and challenge its readers with something worthwhile.

At the same time though, this stands a real danger of isolating itself from both audiences. In particular, and most noted, is a tiny portion of the book, a mere sentence or two even, where the author chooses to make his conservative leanings most obvious. It comes in a section that is actually quite compelling (speaking about how union comes from differences), and he makes a choice to narrow in on and target same sex relationships. The problem here is not necessarily his belief, even if one does disagree with what he has to say, it is that it comes out of left field and actually derails the point he is making by shifting our focus to that singular issue. It's also quite surprising given how he had been approaching his theological interest up until this point. The statement he makes, which arrives without nuance and with a degree of uncharacteristic harshness and dumbing down, sits in complete contrast to what he has arguing up until this point, which is for a broader definition of Sin. This immediately narrows down his working definitions without any sense of added context, proving how one sentence can deflate an entire argument. This happens in somewhat less affronting ways in other places in the book (his casual use of hell at one place for example), but it is this single sentence in the book that I think will be most likely to throw some readers way off the trail and maybe even abandon the book.

Which would be unfortunate. Because surrounding that single sentence (and a few other casual moments) is a whole lot of good and really powerful stuff. Outside the box kind of stuff. The book emerged from an intentional study of Revelation, which led him back to Genesis and this ultimate picture of the two trees as framing our reality. People often miss how much of Revelation is meant to act as a hyperlink to the language of Genesis and the Prophetic language and tradition that had developed it. If we miss this in Revelation, we miss the book of Revelation entirely.

As a people living between two trees, Wood helps unpack some of the big ideas- sin and salvation most notably, while reintegrating the human experience into the God-Human-Creation relationship. Here he narrows down the essential narrative of the two trees into a picture and question of union. Union with Death and union with Life. This becomes the essential force and problem of Sin out of which all else flows, both into our theologies (such as the relationship between works and faith), but more importantly into our awareness of the character of God, of God's presence in our lives. There are points, such as in his discussion of works and faith, where he bypasses some of the complex theological discussion and scholarship in favor of something more simple (For example, when representing the sides he essentially presents a work-righteousness dichotomy set against a seeker friendly version of a works-righteousness dichotomy, all while assuming these two things to represent the polar sides of the argument. The true polarized sides are faith-righteousness and works-righteousness. In reality he sees both of those extremes as entrapping and misguided, siding in favor of allegiance based approaches that look to uphold both the Victory of the Cross as what our faith expresses, and our response to the Cross as the work of faith made known in our choices, our actions), but I think the awareness he brings to the table is quite helpful. He sees the entire conversation resting on the concept of "transformation". It is transformation that is the most important facet of this faith-works conversation, and it is in the idea of transformation that we find in the Christian faith the reality of a "mutual relational". This avoids trappings up human depravity and upholds a more nuanced and I think faithful approach to the Gospels themselves. Faith in this sense is like a river, to borrow his analogy. A series of movements that is working towards a whole, all while upholding the tension that the river is capable of jumping bank and carving it's own way, it's own path. It is this tension that drives our faith in what the Cross has accomplished (what we could not accomplish on our own), but also takes seriously the call to enter into the Kingdom work, not as a determined outcome but as a relational response to our union with God in faith. His chapter where he talks about the idea and gift of "permission" I thought was incredibly helpful and profound to this end.

I really enjoyed this book, and I loved Wood's emphasis on Darkness and Light, Life and Death as the working contrasts of Union. I am personally geared that way, both in my studies, my understandings and my experiences. I connected with so much of what he writes and brings to the table to this end. And I love the attention he brings to the idea of a meta narrative, one in which we then get to participate. Between Two Trees isn't about God controlling our story, but rather about controlling His story, His promise to stay faithful, and inviting us into to participate in a new narrative. It is about reconciling our self to union with life rather than death despite the powerful ways in which Death, as an agency, plays its alluring game of false desire. Wood embraces notions of God as creator and creative, with this idea of being made in the image of God, the image we have traded for a false one, finding its most robust reflection in our participation as creatives, cultivators. It is in this that we can begin to find union with God, both in our union to Creation and in our union with one another. And we do this knowing that Christ made union possible but defeating Death on the Cross. His chapter that talks about what is finished on the Cross was incredibly helpful to this end. It is in the two trees that we can see God's vision for this union, and it is between the two trees that we can see our union with Death as our reality. Transformation then is the movement from death to life. This is the what our participation in the narrative is all about. This is what drives us forward. Knowing our reality is not the true definition of who we are then is a big part of informing and forming our vision of the truth of who we are. Of being able to filter out the lies of Death (embodied in image of the evil one) to find the truth of Life. And we do so with God's constant pursuit of us, so much so that He came and died on a Cross to both enter into our experience, our suffering reality in union wit Death, in order to give us a way to Life. God gave us a way forward in this movement through the measure of the Cross, by following in the Way of Christ as the fullness of God's revelation.

What I loved too about the way Wood words this part is how he describes the reason why God doesn't just come down and destroy death. It is because if He did it would destroy us too because of our union to it, our union with it. The way He chose, in dying for us, is a way of love, a proclamation of our worth, a declaration of our true identity that God sees and wants us to know. He choose to die so that we might live, and in our transformation from death to life this then allows God to destroy death without destroying His creation in the process. This is the multi-faceted imagining of the fire as both restorative and destructive, and this helps us to understand the full narrative of the trees so as to see our place inbetween the trees in proper context. We aren't simply sinners God needs to punish and therefore appease on the Cross. Sin is MUCH bigger than this, and God's character and view of us MUCH different than this. As sinners, we are in union with Death itself, and as sons and daughters of God, God desires to be union with us. We gain our worth from the truth of Creation, that we were created and therefore loved. And thus Death becomes the wages of Sin, the consequence of union with Death (being sinners), the wages that were payed by God in order to defeat Death while also giving us a way to Life. A beautiful picture, and one that has been long construed by popular Reformed Theology. Recentering our theology on the trees so as to apply it to our lives, our reality, between the two trees is a necessary part of the process of this book, and one I deeply appreciated despite that one sentence and a few subtle other wordings that felt deeply problematic to me.

[Paul C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there is anything within evangelicalism that has been watered down or oversimplified in the name of convenience, it is the Fall. And yet, if there is anything that is central to Christianity proper, it is a proper understanding of the forced entry of death into our world. Bible professor and New Testament scholar Shane Wood recognizes understands this, attempting to answer important questions about what sin and death are, as well as unpack the Edenic account. Questions of sin, death, and Eden are indeed complex and thus deserve careful answers, but the answers given are often rushed, over simplistic, and given little thought. Wood pushes past all this, relentlessly attempting to give us a more accurate, robust, and biblical picture of these things.



Wood points out just how severely we downplay death in our society, noting that (according to Scripture) death is not just what happens to our bodies at a given point in time; death is much more sinister and deeply ingrained within our world, our minds, and our bodies. Death, though an invader, is at home in God’s world, busily at work not just in our deeds but first and foremost in our minds (our ways of thinking) and hearts.

Although evangelicals today tend to define death in linear and dry ways, we must take into account just how layered death is on the pages of Scripture. Scripture and experience equally attest to the fact that we eat, live, and sleep death (we cannot get enough of it) as it has become, in the author’s words, the “native tongue” of our world.

The author likens death to a parasite which, though impersonal, still has an intelligence and is also in need of a host. And death has found a suitable host for thousands of years: humankind.

A reminder of how deeply imbedded death is in our societal infrastructures and in the human heart, Wood here seeks out to expose this “parasite” within humanity, exposing along with it our comfortability with its presence, as well as its at-home-ness in us. Our tendency being blindness to its work in our worlds and hearts, death is severely underestimated by the common man, and unfortunately even by the common Christian.

Full of vulnerability, thoughtfulness, and theological rigor, Shane Wood does not merely provide another great Christian book; rather he offers a raw and realistic look into dark forces at work in our world, forces set on disrupting and ravaging God’s good creation. Equally, the author sets about expanding on and illustrating vividly the biblical themes of redemption, reconciliation, and restoration, all the while refusing to paint such themes in triumphalistic fashion (=he remains a realist). Wood points out the ugly reality of sin and death in our world (these things are not merely abstract realities), hiding in the shadows of sexual abuse, social injustice, subtle and overt racism, and the like. We see sin and death daily but have become so accustomed to them that we no longer see them as foreign to God’s good creation.

 

[Patrick Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pheromonal read! Shane has an uncanny ability to guide a reader into theological depths that usually have the tendency of swallowing unsuspecting ventures in the vastness that is theology. I've had the opportunity to hear Shane teach a couple of times in person, and I'm an avid listener to a lot of his work that he has available via his website, and one of the biggest qualities that stands out in his teaching (that you'll notice immediately in this book) is a humble heart passionately pursuing Jesus, along with the selfless pursuit of bringing others along on the journey.

In this book, Wood takes us back to place with which we are all oh so familiar with, the garden of Eden, and has us sit a while to take notice of the reality that maybe what happened there was MUCH worse than we ever thought. Not letting us sit for TOO long in this despairing revelation, Wood quickly follows with the encouragement that if this is true, then what God has done is SO MUCH GREATER than we ever thought as well! From this foundational element, Wood guides us along on a journey to rediscover the true depths of the gospel, and what it demands when we engage with it. Beyond simply a 'one and done' interaction, the gospel follows us, infuses us, and calls us to live out the scandalous reality we so willingly and gratefully embrace in terms of being saved by Jesus, within our own lives.

I am personally indebted to the scholarship and discipling work that Wood has produced over the years. He is known (and RIGHTFULLY so) for his amazing work that he's done with the book of Revelation. He shares that when he sat down to begin writing this book, he set out to write a book on how to read the book of Revelation. However as he prayerfully wrote and wrestled with the Scriptures, it morphed into a book on how the book of Revelation (and the rest of Scripture as a whole) reads us! This book is a MUST read about the glorious and powerful reality of transformation, from dead to alive, death to life, and lost sinner to embraced child of God! I highly recommend this book!

[Carleene Hibbs Reeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I really enjoyed this book. It was so thought provoking and awe inspiring. It is beautifully written with so much truth but also with great wit and humor as well. It felt like I was having a conversation with a friend. I loved so many different parts of it. I loved the way it explains death and our union with it from the Fall and the first tree in the Garden of Eden. How we are so inclined to lean toward death. Death is ever at our door. But there is another tree, the tree of Life. I love the way he talked about "with" and how God desires to be with us. He doesn't want us to always do for him, he wants us to be with him. I am an introvert and quality time is my love language so this spoke volumes to my heart. It also isn't all. We do have works prepared in advance for us to do and that our purpose is to do those works. There was also the part of transformation. Wow! I loved how he talked about every decision we make is who we become. So there may be things in our life that we say, "is this so bad?", this one thing in and of itself may not be but every decision we make is part of our transformation and we are either becoming more like Christ or we are not. The chose is ours every single day. I am so glad to have had the chance to read this as it has given me pause to think on these things myself. Great book to encourage you in your walk with God.

[James Hallmark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Our senior minister featured it in a sermon a few months ago and I liked what I heard. I’d never given any thought to the fact that the story of the Bible begins with two trees and ends with two trees. In my tradition we mostly ignore Revelations so I hadn’t looked it very carefully, but we are all familiar with the two trees in Genesis, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. Humans chose from the tree of knowledge and that led to us where we are today. At the end of the world, the tree of life will be available to us. Essentially, Wood is saying that life—our world—is between these two trees: when we chose knowledge and hardship, and when we will be given life. Nice metaphor, I thought. Regardless, each chapter is essentially different hardships we have. For example, there is a chapter on sexual abuse, and on death, and on worry, and on…. You get the idea. Each chapter could be written without the two trees metaphor, as they are simply decent chapters on the subject. I would say each chapter is a bit too long and each gets repetitive….Wood must be a preacher, as the oral tradition requires more repetition than the written word requires. Nevertheless, his points are good and worth reading. My favorite chapter was on the word “with.”

[Ryan Sarver · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely an interesting read. The style of writing is unique. It bounces from autobiography to theological discourse to narrative as Craig Bloomberg suggests on one of the back cover reviews. At times, it feels more like a stream of consciousness than a laid out discourse.

With that said, I found it engaging and also providing insight for reflection. He highlights the depths of sins and it’s distorting effects on our lives. I found the chapter on the work of the cross the most interesting.

“In Christ, death has been transformed from a barrier segregating humanity from God into a gateway for humanity’s union with God....Jesus’s sacrifice doesn’t eliminate death; it doesn’t overpower humanity’s choice in Eden. Instead, Christ’s cross repurposes death.”

The book is definitely worth the read. It’s blending of theology with daily life is an important reminder the two aren’t separated.

[Naomi Huisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of the Bible starts with a tree of life (in the Garden of Eden) and a dwelling of God with his people, and ends the same way, in the book of Revelation. Between Two Trees attempts to answer the question: what about for all of us who live in the time in between?
I thought that this book had one of the best explanations of sin and the gospel that I've found. Shane speaks in terms of unity and division - sin is more than disobeying God, it is unity with death. That's why we feel the lack of God so acutely. God's goal has always been to bring us back to unity with him, and Jesus came to destroy our unity with death by becoming both man and God at the same time - another perfect unity.
This book does not provide easy, trite answers, but it does voice honest questions, acknowledge all of the things that are so painful about life "between two trees", and offer real hope about what God has done and is doing.

[A.J. Mendoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shane J. Wood does a beautiful job in offering an alternative view of what truly happened in the Garden of Eden and in the crucifixion of Christ. He reevaluates sin and sanctity, brokenness and wholeness through an union lens, which coming from a God in eternal union only truly makes sense. This book allowed me to finally shift my view of sin as "that bad thing I did" to "the consequences of my union with death." This perspective brings everything into a developmental, process type experience instead of small moments in time that damn or save. With a healthy blend of a contemporary writing style, biblical research, and poetic views of the injustice in this world, Wood gives direction to the Christian trying to figure out what it means to live between the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life in Revelation.

[Adam Bloch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many great thoughts (I've already recommended the book to someone), but it felt kind of all over the place. Think of when a preacher goes off on a tangent that's not necessarily related to the sermon: This book feels like a consistent train of tangent after tangent. That's not bad, but it is unique.

Speaking of unique, I also listened to the audiobook version of this book. I usually don't note that in my reviews, but it was read by the author and he becomes very emotional throughout the book (this is expected in some places, but it was much more frequent than expected). It also feels like he preaches the book more than reading the book, too. This often caused me to think of the presentation of the book instead of just the book's material (and it's therefore worth mentioning in the review).

[John Tyler Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very interested in Dr. Wood’s theology since attending a seminar at my church in Champaign, IL years ago. I’ve been waiting on this book for quite a while. Wood takes an image from scripture and expands it as a metaphor to give context for thinking about scripture, our lives, and our world. It’s a heartfelt book that I found engaging and encouraging. While I did not consider it theologically rigorous it is certainly accessible and feels deeply honest. I don’t agree with all his conclusions but I gained some insight from his thinking.

[K.J. Soze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wood has bestowed us with a wonderful work, a gift to Christians. His storytelling is excellent. He matches real-life stories with theology in a very interesting flow from past to present and into the future, from the garden of Eden to the garden of the earth age to come.

He made me think about how much special care we need to take when teaching or preaching. There are a lot of different Christian views out there and it is hard not to step on toes when my ideas of interpretation differ from another brother or sister. I rate this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[George Kogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of helpful/preachable insights spread out throughout the book. Wood combines authenticity with his passion for biblical theology that he manages to package in accessible prose. He is both a deep thinker and an illustrative, creative writer. His main thesis is that human existence occurs between two trees, one in the Garden of Eden and one in the restored Eden in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). Between these two trees life is hard, for in Genesis humankind united with death through sin, so that death permeates our thought patterns and our actions. Christ, by dying on a tree, makes transformation possible. Wood makes a number of key observations about foundations of Christianity, one of which is that transformation is a movement, not a moment. It presumes a process of working on oneself along with God. While on the journey between two trees, we are never alone because God is One who is “with” us (Immanuel).

Many more things to say here, but I won’t spoil the book. It’s an excellent introductory read for those who want to dive into Christian theology and make sense of their relationship with fellow human beings and the Creator. One place where I disagreed with Wood was his interpretation of Genesis 1:26 as an early indication of the Trinity participating in creation of humankind. Wood may not be familiar with the concept of the Divine Council in the Hebrew Bible/Ancient Near East (see the work of Michael Heiser on this subject). Based on that worldview, Genesis 1:26-27 is where God creates humankind in His own image in the presence of His Divine Council. We were never created in the image of the Trinity. Trinity, although evidenced in the Bible, is a much later conceptualization of God arising from the Christian tradition.

[Rocky Woolery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shane Wood has done a wonderful job of describing life as we now experience it. At the same time he offers great insight into what life is supposed to be, why it isn't that way and what God has done and is doing to restore life to the way it is supposed to be.

The great understanding of the concept of union is so insightful and more valuable than the price of the book. I am so glad that I made the decision to let Shane influence me through this book.

[Ken Hannaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. I’m not religious, but very personally spiritual. I enjoyed the reading and the way Shane ties the purpose of the book together around the many questions we have in life.
I’m a big thinker and am always asking “why?” If your curious about the stories of the Bible and how they bridge to our everyday lives with the struggle to find purpose and meaning; you’ll enjoy this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to explain original sin? How to explain our future hope? Unexpectedly this book answered those questions for me. Rooted in Scripture and the entire biblical narrative, Wood centers his book on union. Union with death or life? I was challenged in multiple ways and will refer back to this book often. This book is accessible to the non-theologian while still thought-provoking. A must-read.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most thought provoking book I've read for a long time. At least 3/4 of the pages have phrases underlined.
I'm sure I will be re-reading sections often and will probably read the entire book again within a year. I recently became aware of Shane J Wood as a lecturer, professor, teacher and author.

[Justin Dewell · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to see how bad your situation really is so you can know how great life can actually become, then read this book! It will remind you that God desires to know you so you can be more than you ever could imagine. Pain will lead to growth and death leads to life.

[Nicholas Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shane J. Wood’s book provides a broad theological paradigmatic that is refreshing and truly profound on so many levels although it’s only weakness lies in its third act wherein it’s structure and clarity and precision begins to falter at times.

[Lee Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting “take” on many aspects of the Fall, Death, Living as a Christ-follower, Union with Christ & others, Pain. A thought-provoker. Read quickly, as it belonged to another. Definitely may need another look: there’s a lot to digest.

[Vika · Rating 4 out of 5]

If people ask me about my top three books, this book would be one of them.
Shane Wood use so many parables and real-life example that is so good. This book is about life and everything in between. Many times, on every occasion, he writes, "life between two trees is hard, but there is still hope".

[Jordan Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great portrayal of the biblical narrative. It’s a reminder that there was story before the fall and more story after the ultimate restoration. It was good before and it will be made good again.

[Jim Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall good read. The author has an engaging style and uses words well. I particularly enjoyed the penultimate chapter (15): True Humanity. Definitely some quotable quotes.

[Kathryn Ransom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking and life changing discussion of the Christian as we live in a world today where Satan can control our lives. Every thoughtful Christian should read.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going from a union with Death to a union with God. This is what Between Two Trees was all about. Separated into four unique sections, this book is one of great tragedy and hope. Dr. Wood walks through the ways that humanity was separated from their fulfilling relationship with the Father by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, to how they were redeemed through the Tree of Jesus' Cross, and then how everything will be restored to what it once was when the new Tree of Life appears. A book filled with great theology, humble stories, and admirable advice this book is for those that wish to take the next step in realizing what really separates man from his Creator.

[Brandie Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

"As knowledge increases so does our arrogance, pretending that I-don't-know's tenuous existence is marching ever closer to its end." Between Two Trees artfully illustrates the far reaching effect that the fall had on humanity and creation. The distortion of humanity and creation Between Genesis and Revelation mirrors the beginning quote. We think we know better than God. The author is not condemning but encouraging, sharing many aspects of his own life that were not pretty or perfect. One thing I thought was especially eye opening was looking at sin as union with death and what that means. In the end there is no way of reading this in which you do not sit back in awe of what Jesus' death on the cross meant for us, transforming death into life. Do Not Sleep on This Book, A Must Read!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Shane Wood has written a fantastic book delving into the book of Revelation, Genesis and Jesus' life. I really enjoyed this book and learned a great deal from it. I would recommend this book! I believe it would be great in a small group or bible study as well as for personal study. Woods writes in a way that is easy to read yet informative at the same time.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. The views given are my own. #BetweenTwoTrees #NetGalley