Mike Erre
I finished this book a little while ago, but for some reason, I'm just getting around to blogging about it. The subtitle of this book asks the question, "Have we tamed the Son of God to fit our lifestyle?" I doubt a single book published on the subject has answered "no" to that question, so it's not surprising that the theme of this book is that we have taken the Jesus of the Scriptures and conformed him into the image of a nice, happy Jesus that fits into the values of suburban culture.
There's really nothing ground breaking or revolutionary about this book. The ideas contained in it have been written by others for years, and many are common critiques of evangelicalism even from its staunchest defenders. For instance, the chapter entitled "The Danger of Theology" gives the same distinction between knowing God and knowing about God that has been explained by J. I. Packer and countless others within evangelicalism.
At the same time, however, this book packages these concepts into one book for easy consumption and digestion. Clearly the highlight of the book is its first chapter, entitled simply, "Revolution." The chapter does an excellent job of reorienting the evangelical portrait of Jesus around his revolutionary intentions--even the announcement of his birth would have been read as intentionally subversive to the reign of Caesar, and people gave their lives for the claim that "Jesus is Lord" as a result.
Other chapters highlight what to me are core convictions of the Reformed tradition--the dismantling of the sacred-secular divide in the church today, a treatment of mystery and paradox and how much of evangelicalism has tried to answer questions that need not be answered, and the mission of the church to live redemptively in culture. If you already have formed deep convictions in these areas elsewhere, this book may not add much to your convictions, but if you're looking for a book that packages it all together succinctly and simply, this is a good book with which to start.
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5 comments:
What are some of the questions that Evangelicalism has tried to answer but need not have attempted to do so? I'm lazy and don't intend on reading the book.
:-)
Dude! I read the book...that first chapter gave me a great idea for a Christmas sermon.
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I am trying to find the origin of the quote you have from Henri Nouwen on ministry for a book I've written that's about to be published. Do you happen to know where that came from?
I've looked for it as well. I've seen lots of references to the quote, but I've never found the origin of it. Sorry I can't be more helpful. If I had to guess, I'd say the Wounded Healer, but I read that book and never found it.
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