Patrick Henry is a scholar of early Christianity who taught at Swarthmore College and now runs an ecumenical institute in Minnesota, yet he can"t say exactly what his book"s title means. In other circumstances, imprecise authorial intent might be annoying. But in The Ironic Christian"s Companion, such imprecision is actually refreshing. And even though Henry can"t quite bring himself to say what "ironic Christianity" is, he"s quite articulate when describing what it"s like. Ironic Christians, he says, have "an instinctive, abiding suspicion of no-loose- ends answers." They "inhabit a world that is more "as if" than "just like," a world fashioned by a God of surprises." Henry, who writes like a grandfatherly Kathleen Norris, calls his grab- bag book of autobiographical sketches, literary anecdotes, and spiritual meditations a "field guide" for Christians who seek amazing expressions of grace. With passages such as the following, Henry begins to build a reputation as a latter-day Audubon of the spirit: Over and over again grace has come off as irony: an off-balance deflating of my pride, sometimes as funny as vaudeville slapstick; a gentle dismantling of my despair (when I"m really hopeless nothing is scarier than hope, so grace has to be indirect, sneaky; clarity when I"m too confused and confusion when I"m too clear. --Michael Joseph Gross