Writing "Water in the Desert"

Water in the Desert has a long history dating back more than 25 years. Author Jim Burklo shares the origin story of the new Chalice book, the gift of writing almost daily, why this book describing Progressive Christianity is urgently needed in 2026, and the origins of the new word otherdoxy.

What do you hope readers will take away from your book?  I hope Water in the Desert will enliven the faith commitment and practice of readers who already have a progressive orientation to Christianity – and that it will introduce a fresh and accessible pathway to follow Jesus for those seeking a more compassionate and common-sensible expression of the faith.  If we can talk about our faith in a clear and compelling way, we are better able to practice it and to share it with others who may benefit from it.  I hope my book gives readers the words they seek to put their Christianity into action in their lives and in their work and witness in the world.

What is the most inspiring feedback you've received from a reader?  This book is the direct result of inspiring feedback from a reader, David Woodard of Chalice Press!  He read my first book, Open Christianity, shortly after it came out in 2000, and he told me that it changed his life profoundly, shaping his understanding and practice of Christianity ever after.  He asked me to write a “sequel” to it, and that lit a fire under me right away – resulting in the book before you now. I have been blessed with many responses like his for the quarter-century of my public writing career, and these responses have powerfully motivated me to keep it up. I didn’t know the impact my first book had on David until two decades after he read it – and that is often the case with feedback I get from readers who contact me long after my published work. To write a book is to “birth” it and let it go forth and have a life of its own, quite apart from mine.  I’m often astonished when it comes back to me with a report!

What is your writing process? Because I produce a weekly blog, and because I’m a preacher, I am in the habit of writing almost every day.  I don’t have a fixed routine:  I am told that my ability to pick up where I left off, and write in short or long spurts as time is available, is unusual.  My wife, Roberta, will often ask me what I’m writing.  Many times, my answer is: “I don’t know yet, but I can tell that my fingers know!”  Ideas drop down from my brain into my arms and hands and fingers on the keyboard, and flow forth beyond my immediate conscious awareness.  Often I find out what I’m thinking by writing.  Words pour out, and that is good – but it requires a great deal of editing to make my work worthy of sharing. 

What makes this book relevant today and different from other books on the subject?  Water in the Desert  is especially relevant in this time when Christianity is so strongly identified with those who invoke it in support of the cruel and backward policies of the current US administration.  Whether Christian or not, people are appalled by the form of the faith that dominates the headlines lately.  Many are looking for another way to practice and express the Way of Jesus.  People with no faith affiliation ask: where are the “other Christians” in this current crisis?  In fact, progressive Christians are taking the lead in protesting the radical excesses and the authoritarian drift of our government everywhere.  But because bad news eclipses our good news in the media, it is hard for us to get the attention we deserve.  This book is my contribution to raising the profile of a much kinder and more sensible form of the faith in a time when people are clamoring for it.  Most books and writings from a progressive Christian perspective give windows into one or another aspect of this kind of faith.  What makes my book different is that I present progressive Christianity as a whole.  

What was your biggest surprise writing your book?  After decades of weekly blog entries and published books and articles, I’m boggled by the fact that I still have more to say about the subject of progressive Christianity!  I was surprised that in writing Water in the Desert I covered territory that I had not explored before.  For years I have led a weekly Zoom group on Contemplative Christian Practices, in which we look at different mystics of the faith.  To prepare, I dive deep into the meditative literature of the faith – and my main take-away is that after years of study, I’ve barely scratched the surface of just this one aspect of Christianity.  It would take many lifetimes to explore it all – and it is so rich and alluring!  More surprises await…   

What’s one of your favorite passages from the book?  I coined a new word:  otherdoxy, in distinction from orthodoxy:  “The Love that is God, as revealed by the words and deeds of Jesus, a man who lived for others, leads to what we might call otherdoxy.  Otherdoxy was the way of this unorthodox rabbi. The Pharisees tried to stone Jesus to death for heresy. They colluded and conspired with the Romans to kill him for expressing Judaism in a manner contrary to their dominant paradigm by declaring love for others, and for the divine Other, to be the supreme law.  So it is orthodoxymoronic for any Christian to claim to practice the once-and-for-all correct version of the faith.”