The concerns were thankfully unwarranted, as Jared has written a wonderfully engaging and challenging book on the gospel and its place in our lives.  With wisdom, compassion and humor he outlines what it means to be alive to the gospel in your life and have it infiltrate every area of that life.

Do you ever feel like your desire for God is waning? Are you numb to the routine of church? What does it mean to be truly awakened to the wonder of the gospel?

Jared Wilson contends that we must be regularly engaged and engaging others with the good news of the sacrificing, dying, rising, exalted person of Jesus Christ. Wilson reminds us of the death-proof, fail-proof King of kings who is before all things and in all things and holding all things together, and of the Spirit’s power to quicken our hearts and captivate our imaginations. The message of Gospel Wakefulness will make numbness the exception (rather than the norm) and reawaken us to the multifaceted brilliance of the gospel.

But it is another one of those deep and meaty spiritual books that I am simply not going to have the time or focus to review properly.  But if you are seeking a deeper and sustained faith and looking for a book that will both inspire and challenge you, then I recommend you read this book.

A book of this sort can easily come off and as a tired combination of verses and platitudes – the same old, same old dressed up as a revolutionary way to understand orthodox theology.  Or seemingly profound spirituality that quickly wilts under sustained examination.

But Wilson avoids that for two reasons.  He has lived it and it shows; and he keeps it simple.  Not simple in terms of ease but simple because he doesn’t over think it.

Because Wilson has lived this out and struggled with his own demons and doubts his writing has an authenticity that is refreshing and encouraging.  He also has a passion that comes off the page; a powerful sense that he believes in the power of the gospel and he is not just writing to prove how clever he is.

I made dozens of notes throughout the book, but here is a section that should give you sense of the book:

One of the marks of gospel wakefulness is the failure of anything else to thrill the soul like the gospel.  When the heart treasures Christ and savours his power, sin grows bitter.  Even good gifts that God made delicious recede to their proper flavors.  Good things we have made “god things” don’t cease to be good; in fact, they continue to provide pleasures and satisfactions, but they keep their proper functions and blessings, in service to the common grace the God of Glory ascribed to them.

Gospel wakefulness doesn’t lead to asceticism.  it does not lead to a withdrawal from society and simple pleasures into a monastic religious regimen.  Rather, gospel wakefulness is foremost about orienting your spiritual system around the sun.  When the sun is at the center of the system, the planets and moon don’t cease to exist.  in fact, they exist more securely, more beautifully, in their proper positions and proportions.  With God at the center of your universe of worship, with gospel at the center of your life, all other good gifts – people and pleasures, thoughts and things – take their proper place and proportion in our lives.

After outlining and unpacking the term gospel wakefulness, Wilson then moves on to discuss the impact this has on things like worship, spirituality, depression and church and results in a new approach to sanctification and increased confidence for the believer.

Along the way Wilson adds in stories from friends about how this has played out in their lives.  Many of these are compelling and some quite powerful.  The confession of someone who dealt with depression and struggled with Easter week was one of the more powerful expressions I have read in some time.

At its most basic this book is about not taking your eyes off what is truly important; not thinking that seemingly simple things are not deep enough to sustain the deepest of faiths.

Jesus is big enough to fit into infinity. He is the true light of the world.  He is the risen King, the exalted Lord.  He is before all things and in him all things come together.  All things were made through him and for him, that he might be preeminent to them and supreme over them.  He is the radiance of God;s glory.  One day we won’t need the sun, because he will be the lamp of the new heavens and the new earth.

Why in the world do we fix our eyes on anything but him?

If you find your eyes and mind easily distracted, Gospel Wakefulness will get you back on target.

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday’s edition of Coffee & Markets featured Jordan Ballor discussing Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science & Art a collection of the writings of the theologian Abraham Kuyper.  Pejman Yousefzadeh and I spoke with Jordan about Kuyper’s unique life, his ideas and the challenges of cultural and political engagement for people of faith today.

Listen Here.

I mention this because I have been avoiding posting on The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited for this reason for quite some time. I am not sure I can do it justice or engage the real meaty issues it touches on. But the good folks at Net Galley and Zondervan didn’t send me a review copy so I could fret about my self-esteem … So. Some thoguhts below.

First, what is this all about anyway? Publisher synopsis:

Contemporary evangelicals have built a ‘salvation culture’ but not a ‘gospel culture.’ Evangelicals have reduced the gospel to the message of personal salvation. This book makes a plea for us to recover the old gospel as that which is still new and still fresh. The book stands on four arguments: that the gospel is defined by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 15 as the completion of the Story of Israel in the saving Story of Jesus; that the gospel is found in the Four Gospels; that the gospel was preached by Jesus; and that the sermons in the Book of Acts are the best example of gospeling in the New Testament. The King Jesus Gospel ends with practical suggestions about evangelism and about building a gospel culture.

This is a powerful examination of what it means to speak of the Gospel and how our understanding of it impacts our “Gospeling” or evangelism. McKnight argues forcefully that to present a plan of salvation, or soterian, gospel is to miss the larger picture of scripture and God’s plan for the universe.

As noted, there is a lot packed in there and a lot you can, and should, debate.  But for now, a few thoughts …

I think the aspect that McKnight is absolutely right on is the plan of salvation focus on current evangelicalism.  This is exactly the environment I grew up in: one focused on making a decision about personal salvation.  Not that there wasn’t an attempt to connect the Old and New Testament, or that spiritual growth beyond salvation wasn’t discussed, but that the gospel was very much seen as personal salvation and the lens through which we saw everything else.  It felt like to me that this was the point.  McKnight calls this focus soterian from the Greek word soteria which we use for salvation.

For McKnight the Gospel is the story of Israel being completed in the story of Jesus who is the Messiah King. This is the Apostolic Gospel and the Gospel Jesus preached. If we lose our focus on this larger story and the context it provides we end up with an individualistic “get saved to avoid hell” type gospel not one focused on the larger Kingdom of God; of how God is writing our story even now.

McKnight presents this very well and uses stories from students and the perspectives of some pastors to highlight how this view has come to dominate. He then outlines how 1 Corinthians 15 is the Apostolic Gospel and the earliest form of the Gospel in the church.  From this start he outlines what this means and how we lost our way.  He then goes on to explore whether Jesus preached the Gospel. Peter’s perspective on the Gospel and how we approach evangelicalism and the Gospel today.

I really feel like I need to read this again to get a strong grasp on the argument and the deeper issues involved.  But the one thing that I absolutely agree with McKnight about and belive deserves to be highlighted is how the big story of the Gospel is so often lost today – the way the plan of salvation approach leaves out the wider lens of God’s action and plan for all of creation – and how the content and style that results from this mindset fails to develop disciples and build communities.

Scott McKnight has down us a valuable service looking at a central aspect of our faith, clearing away the cultural, theological and historical ruble and forcing us to think in a fresh way about what we mean when we talk about the Gospel.

The King Jesus Gospel is a challenging but necessary and, in many ways, refreshing book.

For most who live,
hell is never knowing
who they are.
The Singer knew and
knowing was his torment.

Recalling the popularity of  The Singer: A Classic Retelling of Cosmic Conflict by Calvin Miller when I was younger, and having a vaguely positive recollection of reading and enjoying it as a teenager, when I saw it for a dollar at a library sale I snatched it up.  Seeing it as a quick and potentially inspirational read, I read it read it that same week

It is a rather unique book (the first of a trilogy), a sort of poetic narrative – some poetry, prose – that re-imagines the Gospel in the form of a classical myth or fairy tale of a troubadour compelled to sing the song that points man back to their creator.  His opponent is the World Hater who seeks to keep mankind enslaved and unaware of the song.

And even after all these years, it stands up very well. A little forced in places and certainly “artsy” in a sense but with beautiful and evocative language that re-imagines this timeless story in a way that knocks the dust off and allows us to see it fresh.

What struck me most was the way the story could help explore both the universal and simple nature of the Gospel in terms of love and redemption but also how the aphorisms at the start of each chapter were thought provoking and somehow fragile – if you thought about them too much or for too long they fell apart, but if you glanced at them they seemed quite profound.

I also really enjoyed the way the relationships played out.  The emotions involved in how the Singer interacted with God, his mother and the people he encountered really seemed to capture the Christ of the Gospels in a fresh and insightful way. This simple prose poem somehow cleared away the clutter and allows you to see the arc of history and Christ’s sacrificial love as the touchstone of that arc.

To give you a taste, here is an aphorism or poem that introduces a chapter:

Oftentimes Love is
so poorly packaged
that when we have
sold everything to
buy it, we cry in
finding all our
substance gone and
nothing in the tin-
sel and the ribbon.

Hate dresses well
to please a buyer

As noted above, I find this introductions very interesting. There is a sense of the profound about many of them and yet they are hard to nail down and unpack. They sort of hit you on an almost subconscious level.  They give the larger story a philosophical and spiritual weight.

I am sure there are many who might find the poetry to heavy handed or the allegory too thin; a work such as this has a lot to do with taste and style.  I am no expert on poetry or poetic narratives but I found it thought provoking and at times powerful.  Something different and daring even if it doesn’t always succeed.

If you enjoy poetic language and storytelling this is a Christian Classic worth revisiting.

Publisher’s blurb:

What does a transformed life actually look like?

In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed Imaginary Jesus, Matt Mikalatos tackles this question in an entertaining and thought-provoking way—with MONSTERS!!! While Christians claim to experience Christ’s resurrection power, we sometimes act like werewolves who can’t control our base desires. Or zombies, experiencing a resurrection that is 90 percent shambling death and 10 percent life. Or vampires, satiating ourselves at the expense of others. But through it all we long to stop being monsters and become truly human—the way Christ intended. We just can’t seem to figure out how.

Night of the Living Dead Christian is the story of Luther, a werewolf on the run, whose inner beast has driven him dangerously close to losing everything that matters. Desperate to conquer his dark side, Luther joins forces with Matt to find someone who can help. Yet their time is running out. A powerful and mysterious man is on their trail, determined to kill the wolf at all costs . . .

By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, Night of the Living Dead Christian is a spiritual allegory that boldly explores the monstrous underpinnings of our nature and tackles head-on the question of how we can ever hope to become truly transformed.

The challenge Matt faces is trying to use the unique fictional element (the story and his own role within it) to both entertain and offer insight; to make it a story that works while making the points he wants to make.  In Imaginary Jesus I thought it largely came together without any one aspect dominating and toppling over the balance. This time the balance was off and it came out as the foundation of a good story (Luther Martin) surrounded by a lot of silly distractions and ending with mostly preaching.  The hook of viewing Christian living through the lens of monsters is interesting but in the end it felt like too many ingredients forced into a style and structure that didn’t quite fit.

The strongest element of the story is Luther Martin, a werewolf struggling to hold his marriage together.  Estranged from his father the pastor, and disillusioned by Christianity, Luther is desperately seeking answers to his condition before he loses everything.  Luther’s anger and violence is pushing the people he loves most, his wife and daughter away, but he can’t seem to get control.

Luther’s voice and back-story are revealed in interludes in between chapters and are the most compelling parts of the book.  It is a strong voice of cynicism and doubt; a forceful rejection of easy answers and cheap grace.  And the events surrounding Luther’s confrontation with his father that is the climax and the highlight of the book. Some of the sections are moving and deeply sad.

The problem is that Mikalatos’s voice is silly, self-deprecating and self-referential. He sets up comedic situations and throw in jokes and word play.  But instead of comic relief the first half of the book just seems like fluff and disconnected from the very serious issues of the second half which focus on abuse and real pain.  The book then ends by throwing off all pretense of fiction and just has Matt preach the Gospel (and Luther relating his baptism reinforces this sermon like quality).

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with much of what Mikalatos “preaches” but why not just write a non-fiction book that uses the concept of monsters to explore the ideas of sin and transformation (perhaps the Luther interludes as illustrations)?  I give him credit for trying to pull off a creative and challenging book but I don’t think he quite succeeded.  Outside of Luther, and to some degree Lara, the characters are thin.  The plot meanders and really struggles to develop.  The spiritual side is far from subtle and mostly just preaching with the characters as obvious illustrations.

The other problem is that that the various monsters don’t work together thematically. The idea of Christians as zombies is barely developed and is very different from Christians who struggle with sin in such a serious way (vampires and werewolves).

Mikalatos has a light and witty style and the book is an easy read; even the preaching isn’t particularly heavy.  And as noted above, the Luther Martin element is well done and quite compelling in parts. But the rest of the story feels distracting and thrown together.  The zombie aspect feels like a side joke rather than a real part of the story.

With this in mind, I think reader expectations will play a big role in reactions to this book.  If you are expecting a strong story with allegorical aspects I think you will be disappointed. If you are expecting “fiction” more as sermon illustration then I think you will enjoy it; if you can appreciate the various pieces and parts without demanding them come together all that much.

For me, Night of the Living Dead Christian was an interesting experiment, with some promising elements, that just didn’t work as a whole.

Watch the video trailer and don’t forget I am giving away a free copy so you can form your own conclusions.

I received this book as part of the Tyndale Blog Network program.

Related articles

• Review of Matt Mikalatos’ Night of the Living Dead Christian (1manandhisbooks.wordpress.com)
• Review: Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos (jenniferajanes.com)
• The Big Idea: Matt Mikalatos (whatever.scalzi.com)

What book? you ask.  God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China

When journalist Liao Yiwu first stumbled upon a vibrant Christian community in the officially secular China, he knew little about Christianity. In fact, he’d been taught that religion was evil, and that those who believed in it were deluded, cultists, or imperialist spies. But as a writer whose work has been banned in China and has even landed him in jail, Liao felt a kinship with Chinese Christians in their unwavering commitment to the freedom of expression and to finding meaning in a tumultuous society.

Unwilling to let his nation lose memory of its past or deny its present, Liao set out to document the untold stories of brave believers whose totalitarian government could not break their faith in God, including:

• The over-100-year-old nun who persevered in spite of beatings, famine, and decades of physical labor, and still fights for the rightful return of church land seized by the government
• The surgeon who gave up a lucrative Communist hospital administrator position to treat villagers for free in the remote, mountainous regions of southwestern China
• The Protestant minister, now memorialized in London’s Westminster Abbey, who was executed during the Cultural Revolution as “an incorrigible counterrevolutionary”

This ultimately triumphant tale of a vibrant church thriving against all odds serves as both a powerful conversation about politics and spirituality and a moving tribute to China’s valiant shepherds of faith, who prove that a totalitarian government cannot control what is in people’s hearts.

Liao Yiwu mostly lets the people he interviews speak for themselves (but offering some rather poetic introductions and descriptions along the way) in this fascinating look at the people who gave everything they had to help grow the Christian church in China.  As a result, he book reads more like a journal or series of vignettes than a stand alone book – it really is a collection of interviews – but because the underlying stories are so powerful this style and structure is easily overcome.  And it’s simplicity and straightforward witness adds to its power. Yiwu focuses mostly on rural areas and the villages that embraced the Christian faith in the early part of the Twentieth Century only to have the horrors of communism and the Cultural Revolution bring suffering and persecution in ways that are almost impossible for Westerners to imagine.
These amazing people held on to their faith despite decades of hardship and persecution. The state took everything they had – their homes, their churches, their freedom, their health – and yet they persevered to see the faith grow and flourish. The tragic irony is that they were punished as foreign spies and imperialist lackeys even as they sought to provide care and meaning to the poorest of poor in the rural areas.

Imagine being forced to kneel on tile and broken pottery in the freezing rain for days without food; dragged to public condemnations and beaten whenever you pray or refuse to renounce your faith; thrown in prison for thirty years for nothing more than preaching the gospel and bringing aid to the poor and helpless; having everything you have worked for taken away by capricious bureaucrats and your own neighbors.

And then as the political winds change you are forced to choose between state run churches with at least the appearance of peace and the ability to worship freely or continuing to fight for true freedom of religion and the ability to worship as you choose.

What a challenge to people of faith today!

Of course, even if you are just interested in the history of Christianity or human rights or China you will find this book (written by a non-Christian) fascinating – a glimpse of history from the participants.

Christianity Today sums it up well

If you want to read one book that sums up the glory of the Christian witness under persecution and the tragic 20th-century story of China’s Christians, read God Is Red. Brilliant and immensely moving, it will, if anything can, inject new backbone into your own Christian life.

Related articles

• Hammer and Sickle and Cross (online.wsj.com)
• God is Red (geneveith.com)

James Mulholland is alarmed at the success of recent books that he feels are based on a false understanding of prayer and a false gospel of personal gain. “We so quickly forget the point of prayer. The point of prayer is not to tell god what you want, but to hear what you need. It is not approaching God with our demands, but listening for God’s commands. It is not seeking our will, but learning to discern God’s will. This is so important to understand in a culture that caters to our every whim. Prayer isn’t about me. It is about God.”

Mulholland offers an expansive meditation on the simple, yet powerful verses of The Lord’s Prayer. Praying Like Jesus is an important and timely call back to a vision of the gospel that can transform our world, and a primer on the true role of prayer in our lives.

The obvious hook for this book, The Prayer of Jabez phenomenon, feels a bit dated but the prosperity gospel is sadly alive and well; a perennial temptation it seems.   And the issue of faith in an age of prosperity (and yes, even in our troubled economic times Westerners live in an era of prosperity) is as challenging as ever. So don’t let the hook fool you, this is about much more than a Christian publishing fad.  It is about timeless issues, how do we approach our relationship with God and how does that affect our daily lives.  Mulholand explores these issues through the lens of The Lord’s Prayer.  It is a challenging and thought-provoking read.

The fundamental goal of Mulholland is to reorient the modern believer away from selfish and self-focused thoughts and actions; to see prayer as act that requires a change of perspective and a desire to build a relationship.  He emphasizes that prayer should not be about getting what we want but hearing what we need. Critics may try to jump in and say that prayer IS about asking God for help in need, etc.  Mulholland doesn’t deny this but focuses on coming to God in humility and with love and worship as an attitude not want and desire for mere things.

This book is intended to encourage those who follow Jesus to pray prayers like the one he taught. Such prayers remember to whom they are speaking. They seek God’s will rather than God’s blessing. They focus not on our needs, but on the needs of the world. Praying such prayers change the world by changing us.

What flows from this changed perspective is a faith lived out in the world; a change in how we think and act. I found it interesting that a few of the reviewers at Amazon noted the author’s “liberal” perspective. I must be getting squishy as I didn’t notice that at all. Of course, certain conservative’s are so reactive that the mere mention of “social justice” or the concept that actions (“works” is the loaded term) are a part of faith that they begin rejecting anything that follows as liberal.  But Mulholland flushes out how the prayer of Jesus calls us to action both in seeking God’s will “on earth as it is in heaven” but also in the nature of seeking “our daily bread”  and what it means to forgive and to be forgiven. Just like our faith grows out of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ so too our faith grows as we act it out in the midst of humanity.  We can’t limit our faith to a private life that has no impact on our public life.  This is not liberalism but the gospel. How this is worked out in practice, however, is rightly the subject of some debate.

It should be noted that this book is not a happy-go-lucky one. Mulholland is not interested in making you feel better or allowing you to be comfortable in your beliefs and actions.  He challenges the easy and comfortable life of so many Western Christians and hammers home the temptations of wealth and privileged.  For some this might come off as arrogant or preachy and this makes the reading difficult at times. How many of us like to put our lives under this kind of scrutiny? But I found that Mulholland did it with grace and humility; frequently sharing his own struggles and convictions in this area.

Being told that we are all too prone to selfishness and greed even in our spiritual lives is not an easy message to hear but it is a needed message and a challenge that as Christians in a needy world we must face.

Image via Wikipedia

Excuse the colloquial and inartful title, but it seems to capture my perspective on this subject.

And what exactly is the subject here? Well, my inability to stick to any particular genre or subject or age group, etc.  It seems to me that basic strategy when it comes to building an audience online is know your audience and give them what they want. Pick what you know, or want to know, and cover it well.  Unfortunately for me, I seem unable to do either. Heck, I can’t even settle on a theme or design for this blog for very long.

(I take that back. My audience is Google and I give them what they want by leaving these review for them to find in their searches. My strategy is bet the house on the long tail …)

But the more specific point I wish to make is that if any one is reading this blog on a regular basis – as opposed to surfing in from search engines (when you have a book report due or when you are looking for reviews in preparation for writing your own, trying to decide whether to read said book, or look for reactions to a book you just read) – then I want to warn you about the book reviews headed your way in the days and weeks to come.

You might already have noted that there has been a higher ratio of non-fiction of late and with a spiritual or theological flavor. This will continue. I am not really sure why but I have gotten onto a theological kick of late and so have been reading books in that realm. I have both more time on my hands and less information to process these days so non-fiction is something I am able to read more of. Right now it’s theology and spirituality but there is sure to be history, culture and politics thrown in as well.

And since I review fiction faster than I do non, I end up with a large backlog of non-fiction books to post on. I tend to post these then as I am able and am in the mood. So in reducing this backlog, I will be foisting more reviews that touch on theology and Christianity.

But as soon as those who enjoy such reviews get comfortable, I am sure I will switch back to reading young adult fantasy or literary fiction or some other genre or focus. But to be fair, the title of the blog is Collected Miscellany. Eclecticism and unpredictability is the name of the game around here.

Hence the title of this post …

N. T. Wright has undertaken a tremendous task: to provide guides to all the books of the New Testament, and to include in them his own translation of the entire text. Each short passage is followed by a highly readable discussion, with background information, useful explanations and suggestions, and thoughts as to how the text can be relevant to our lives today. A glossary is included at the back of the book. The series is suitable for group study, personal study, or daily devotions.

I had previously read the volumes on Romans for a Bible study we did at church and found it very useful. For a variety of reasons, I recently developed an interest in the Book of Revelation and, as luck would have it, this volume was being released this month.  And through the fine folks at NetGalley I was even able to get an ARC for my Kindle. I tried to read at least a chapter a day and so get through it relatively quickly.

It was an enjoyable and insightful look at this most complex and potentially confusing of books in the Bible.

This volume, like the others, follows the patter of a section of scripture (translated by Wright) and then a section unpacking and discussing that passage. Wright generally takes an experience from his life, or a common human experience, and uses that to illustrate or flush out something in the text.  He seeks to give the reader an understanding of the symbols and history that would resonate for the books intended readership but also a spiritual focus for us today. Without getting too deep into the weeds he attempts to sort out possible meanings for difficult passages and is honest about what is unclear.

Now, I have neither the time nor the competence to outline and explain the various perspectives on how to interpret the Book of Revelation.  But to place this book in context allow me to steal from Wikipedia which offers four basic views:

• Historicist, which sees in Revelation a broad view of history;
• Preterist, in which Revelation mostly refers to the events of the apostolic era (1st century);
• Futurist, which believes that Revelation describes future events; and
• Idealist, or Symbolic, which holds that Revelation does not refer to actual people or events, but is an allegory of the spiritual path and the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

Wright falls in the Preterist/Idealist category.  But if you are looking for a book that discusses these views and/or arguments about which one is correct this is not the book for you.

Instead, Wright’s focus is on making sense of the passages, keeping the larger narrative in mind and not missing the insight into God’s character and plan for the world because we are focused on the apocalyptic symbolism and imagery.  Wright of course is making an argument in a sense because he is explaining the book without connecting it to possible future prophecy. Wright provides a sort of stage map which outlines the narrative of Revelation, the author’s style and perspective, and the historical context.  He then places this within the even larger arc of scripture and history and suggests important ideas and nuggets for modern day readers to wrestle with and think about.

And this is where I think the book is useful in demystifying Revelation to some degree. Wright helps tie the writing to both the Old Testament (particularly Daniel and Isaiah) and inter-testament literature and to the history of the early church.  The conflict that arose between the church and the Roman Empire, and the resulting suffering and persecution, helps provide context for the symbolism and imagery but it’s also a recurring theme throughout history; and thus is part of the unfolding of God’s plan for the redemption of all of creation. Christians throughout history are forced to choose between empires on earth who claim powers and loyalties due only to God and their faith. These empires subvert justice and promote suffering in the name of power and are not slow to crush those who stand in their way.

Christians are called to resist being integrated into these systems and are reminded that doing so will result in suffering and persecution.  What Revelation tells us, however, is that God is in control and ultimately he will prevail. Evil will not triumph and death itself will be defeated.

Faithful believers throughout history have clung to this hope. Wright reminds us that we can too.

Related articles

• Mercury Falls by Rob Kroese (collectedmiscellany.com)

And I think reading and interacting with different points of view is important.  And one of the authors who has stretched my views and offered a different perspective is Peter Rollins.  His book How (Not) To Speak of God was an interesting and though provoking work that was probably dismissed by too many because of its style and perspective.

Rollins has a new book out (Insurrection: To Believe Is Human To Doubt, Divine) which prompted me to read an older book The Orthodox Heretic: And Other Impossible Tales.  Here is the publisher’s blurb:

‘This book should be banned! It’s DANGEROUS!’

So might any Christian say for whom faith functions like a comfortable chair and a lot of good will. If you are comfy and satisfied, then what you have might not be faith after all, explains Peter Rollins.

Christian faith only has meaning if it affects the ways that people live their lives. For many who are not Christians, critiquing Christianity from the outside, this sort of ‘faith’ appears all-too common and is an easy target. Perhaps Christians are simply those possessed of an ideology that keeps them passive, childlike, and ineffectual, they seem to think.
Rollins has crafted a series of parables that shatter these realities and popular perceptions. Parables that demonstrate how genuine faith is radical—and has never been concerned with escaping the world we inhabit, but rather, with engaging in it more fully. That genuine Christian faith has never capitulated to injustice but rather fought against it at every turn. In opposition to those who would claim that Christian faith embraces God at the expense of the suffering world, Peter shows how the true believer embraces God only inasmuch as he fully embraces a needy world.

Let me repeat a cliché I use often here: your reaction to this book will depend a great deal on what you bring to it (in terms of attitude, your spiritual and philosophical perspective, etc.). I come from a very different background and worldview than Rollins but I find it worthwhile to read him nonetheless. Others mileage may vary.

As the author says in the introduction, these stories are best read one at a time in a quite moment when you have some time to think. If used in the right way and with the right attitude they can help the reader to think differently about faith and belief; to focus more on living out their faith in the here and now rather than dreaming of heavenly rewards or being obsessed with correct doctrine.

Rollins goal in writing these stories is not to offer simple answers or construct a systematic theology. Instead, he seeks to break up the belief that systematic theology is faith; that simple answers are the key. Allow me a long quote that I think gets to the heart of Rollins way of thinking:

Our religious world today is awash with a vast sea of writing and talks designed to make the truth of faith clear, concise, and palatable. For example, one might encounter a talk comprised of three points, all beginning with the letter “p,” and all so clear that by the time you leave the room, you will know exactly what to think.

Parables subvert this desire to make faith simple and understandable. They do not offer the reader clarity, for they refuse to be captured in the net of a single interpretation and instead demand our eternal return to their words, our wrestling with them, and our puzzling over them.

This does not mean that the words contain no message, or that they mock us as some insoluble puzzle (and thus not really a puzzle at all).  Parables do not substitute sense of nonsense, or order for disorder. Rather, they point beyond these distinctions, inviting us to engage in a mode of reflection that has less to do with fixed meaning than rendering meaning fluid and effective.

I think this is an insightful understanding of parables and a lot of fiction in fact.  And many of the stories in this volume will challenge the reader in that way.

But I wonder if those most in need of a shake-up to their worldview and a challenge to their comfortable faith will read a book like this. Rollins would find a melancholy irony in the fact that his book might make those comfortable with his style and approach self-satisfied and be ignored by the audience most in need of the message.

Another drawback is that the message is almost always the same: love of God and our fellow-man is the foundation of Christian faith and too often other things and attitudes dominate; we live in an age of incredible affluence and yet incredible poverty and suffering exists right alongside and the church seems unwilling to choose sides as it were. I also think there is a bit too much commentary in places – rather than letting the reader work harder at the message of the parables.

That said, I believe these stories would be a great tool for a Sunday School class, book club or small group. Reading a story each week would generate discussion and allow readers to further explore the ideas. Some of the stories seem provocative for the sake of it and others might find Rollins ideas a little too heavy on the post-modern philosophy and language (he doesn’t use academic terms and language per se but his perspective is infused with the mindset and viewpoint). But again, I think there is value in getting outside your comfort zone and exploring the ideas presented.

Of course, those more in tune with the emerging and post-modern aspects of Rollins writing and thinking will likely enjoy this “storified” version.

Bottom line, I enjoyed the book but recognize it is definitely not for everyone.