My reaction to this book has been mixed. If not recommended to me by a very good friend whose judgment I trust, I probably would not have persevered past the first one fourth of the book. Not because of the writing, which is of excellent quality, but because of my frustration with the idealistic couple in their youth: all of their naive confidence in their Shining Barrier grated against something inside me. But then came their time in Oxford and all that came after it, and I began to understand why my friend recommended this book. Interestingly, she admitted in text to me this week that she still didn't know if she necessarily liked it either; but it's just one of those books that ought to be read, if only for the line of spiritual and theological inquiry that it opens for the reader. Once the author boiled down his conclusions in the last chapter, I found myself in harmony with his arguments--or, to be more accurate, with his questions. To be honest, that's one of the best elements of the book, and certainly the line that hit me: "Of course I do not know. I must not presume to answer, for God may have had purposes beyond my imagining. But I am at peace with the question."