This book illuminates the relevance and importance of the church in today's society. Through personal experiences as both a university professor of literature and an ordained minister, Simonson shows us that the church serves those both within and outside its doors. The church door presents a metaphor for the paradoxes of life: entrance/exit, outside/inside, sacred, closed in tradition/opened in Christ. Simonson explores these with informal style and anecdotes threaded with ruminations. Allusions span literary as well as theological and biblical references.