Wednesday, 16 July 2008
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Book Review: Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
Official description:
"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.How long it will take to read:
A week at most maybe? It's 240-or-so pages of storytelling with some funny (and real) characters.
(But if you're like me, it'll take you a month b/c I have a short attention span for books. Plus, I found a lot of his ideas challenging and I had to mull them over to myself.)My take:
A lot of you have probably already read this book, but I'm quite behind when it comes to Christian literature. Plus, I'm pretty skeptical about what's out there in terms of solid Christian writing and teaching. But I must admit, this book took me by surprise.It reads like the author is just chatting to you about his experiences with Jesus and the church. It's very casual - sometimes so much so that I felt like a teenager was writing it. But once I got over that, I realized that the stuff he was talking about was really challenging me. His Christian walk is not about rules, traditions, and order, but rather about truly loving people, honesty and vulnerability, and letting God transform him. He doesn't reference the Bible directly and doesn't rebuke his readers - he just explains how his understanding of the Christian life has changed over the years.
I had expected this book to be a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but despite the lack of Bible references and "straight-forward" teaching, it's actually very sound. The book is about personal experiences, yet I found nothing to be blasphemous or shady. It is honest, refreshing, simple, and it completely rocked me (in a good way).
Also, it further proved to me that Oregon is awesome and I shoud eventually move there.
If you're a Christian:
Absolutely read it. Especially if you've been doing the church-thing for quite a while and feel yourself getting stuck in a rut. His experience is evidence that a relationship with Jesus is not boring and traditional - it's alive and challenging and wonderful and unexpected.If you're not a Christian:
I think this is a good account of the Jesus you might want to know. Not the one that supposedly lives inside stuffy, judgemental churches (that one's not my favorite either).
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Comments (18)
I bought this book for my 17 year old son for Christmas last year because he told me "I'm not sure I am a 'Christian' ". Unfortunately, I don't think he has read it yet. I really think it would re-define the way he thinks about who and what a Christian is, and help him understand that everyone's faith is unique. To not agree with or not understand everything he hears in church, to have questions and doubts, to seek new answers, does not necessarily mean he is without faith, it may just mean his faith is developing.
I appreciated reading your review.
Great review! I recently read this book for the first time, and I got the same feeling of a conversation throughout the whole book. While I would not say it is the most maturely written book, it was of course written at least seven years ago and I know he has done a lot of maturing since then. Still I would recommend this book to people. The Lord taught me more about loving people through this book than almost anything I have ever read or heard. It changed much of my perspective on things, and also was a huge encouragement for me to start writing myself!
I know that this book has caught a lot of flack because Miller tends to be very unorthodox in some of his theological takes on things.
Personally I very much enjoyed the book...and even if someone disagrees with Miller on some points, they could get something from this book.
I think many believers/teachers would do well to understand that Jesus is not a system, he's not a science. He isn't some predictable, inanimate object like the weather or a tree.
Rather, he's a person...with thoughts and feelings. He can like one thing and dislike another. He doesn't fit into a system because He's bigger than that.
And that is the base of everything Miller is trying to express in this book.
There are things to which believers tend to focus on. They make a big deal of these things when in actuality they aren't the big deal at all. To me, Miller's book doesn't demand that you agree with everything he says, rather it is a call to understand what matters.
Honesty is a lot more important than having an abundance of theological knowledge.
Well, I beg to differ.
From his first self-indulgent personal "I-used-to-have-the-wrong-idea-of-God-too" chapter, Miller tries to preach a gospel of experience that is alternately vulgar or secular. And believe me, if it strikes ME as vulgar/secular, it has to be pretty unspiritual stuff, indeed.
Didn't like it. Don't recommend it.
Holy cow I adore this book! I read it just a few weeks ago, and it took me less than twenty-four hours to read. I haven't done that since the fifth Harry Potter book haha.
Thanks for the review; I too have been very cautious when looking into books such as this and Rick Bell's (Velvet Elvis, Sex God) for their affilliation with the controversial Emergent Church. With Christian literature, I often wait to hear a general consensus from mature Believers before potentially wasting my money and, worse, confusing myself.
I feel safer with Christian literature that has "stood the test of time," such as C.S. Lewis, Ryle, Spurgeon, etc. But I greatly appreciate your opinion and might borrow this one from somebody. --Miss Goldenrod
Personally I hated it. Sure it had some good ideas in it but
there were times when it struck me as though he was preaching a gospel
of "this is how it has to be done to be a Christian" and not only did I
disagree with some of those things but I was also put off by that kind
of a tone. Also, it is so strongly believed by some people that
I have even almost lost friends a couple of times over a disagreement
about the book which turned me off of the book even more and gave me a
new perspective on those friends.
@SwordAndSacrifice@xanga - I had never before found anyone who disliked it.
@Miss_Goldenrod - i think you mean Rob Bell, right? i haven't read his books yet, but i think i'm going to read Velvet Elvis. i'll do another review once i get around to it :) my church small group really likes his Nooma DVD series - me, not so much. but i can see the appeal i guess. anyway, i think Blue Like Jazz is worth reading, even if you don't agree with everything in it.
@mrcolorful@xanga - You, me and God make the majority.
Seriously, I'm sure some of God's purposes have been served by the book. Just didn't work for me.
This book was amazing. Two thumbs up!
I started to read it once, and was so put off by it that I quit reading it and threw it in a donation pile. I don't remember exactly what I didn't like about it, but I do remember that it annoyed me for one reason or another. I think it was because it reminded me so much of a church I used to go to and the things they preached that I didn't agree with.
Personally, I'll stick with the straight-up truth of the bible. I might read some commentaries every so often, but I try not to get too much into other people's opinions and interpretations because I feel it can really take the focus away from God's Word.
Sounds like a great book; I'll keep that in mind!
I'm also behind and, like you said, kinda wary when it comes to Christian literature... do you have any more suggestions?
I absolutely loved this book; it remains one of my all-time favorites simply because of its humorous and cautiously candid approach (although that's somewhat paradoxical). I think it depends on the approach that you take towards extra-Biblical reading. In regards to Christian non-fiction, I generally classify them either as teaching/didactic and perspective. I tend to be put off when a book advertises itself as one category and attempts to be another. "Blue Like Jazz" is a perspective book, and if read as such will probably cause less controversy and distaste; there are moments when he appears to be "preachy", but those occur only when he expresses a firm belief in a stated truth... and any statements on truth are fundamentally preachy (which is not a bad thing).
I read this book last year and was completely blown away by it. I have recommended it to everyone I know - great book!
I started reading it but had to put it down because of school work. What I did read from it was awesome and really made me contemplate my walk with Christ a little more. I can't wait to start from the beginning again and read it to the end!
I just finished reading this book the other day. I thought it was quite good. I like to see other people's viewpoints and didn't feel at all like he was saying "you have to live THIS way or else...". I thought it was a neat "testimony", really. I enjoyed it. And, it did challenge me to think some.
::reads last 4 lines and drives to nearest bookstore::
I just wrote a review of the same book today, find it here or here. I do find Kelly K's thoughts interesting and telling. The straight up truth of the Bible is an amazing thing. But so is the gift of art. So is the gift of thought. The gift of reading something and discussing it with others. These things, of course do not replace the Bible or come above it but they are gifts from God. Read Franky Schaeffer's "Addicted to Mediocrity".