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Despite my misgivings, I found that I enjoyed this book more than I thought I might. That is not to say it is without its problems, and without some serious problems at that. But I enjoyed the rambling, conversational tone of the book, even if it is a little difficult to follow at times. In fact, there are times where it is downright irritating as the author launches into tirades about Republicans or traditional Christianity. He subtly applauds Bill Clinton while denigrating George Bush. He sneers at traditional churches, but affirms his enjoyment of the Catholic Mass and the Greek Orthodox Church. And all the while he makes self-deprecating comments and expresses himself in words that are generally considered inappropriate for a Christian book ("kick in the butt," "pissed-off," "crap," etc). His pot shots were one sided.

So what did I like about the book? Blue Like Jazz is built around a sound premise - that the Christian faith continues to be relevant even in a postmodern culture. Miller writes, "I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel" (page 111). I agree entirely that the church can only be relevant to the culture if it maintains the centrality of the gospel and remains unashamed of that simple message. Unfortunately that gospel message becomes somewhat blurred in this book. "[The central message of Christ] is that man sinned against God and God gave the world over to man, and that if somebody wanted to be rescued out of that, if somebody for instance finds it all very empty, that Christ will rescue them if they want..." (page 124). The Bible, however, teaches that no person wants to be rescued. God needs to begin a prior work in order to draw people to Himself. Miller, on the other hand, teaches that there is something within us that draws God to us. "I realized, after reading those Gospels, that Jesus didn't just love me out of principle; He didn't just love me because it was the right thing to do. Rather, there was something inside me that caused Him to love me" (page 238). When we acknowledge that there is something inside of us that draws God to us, we deny that it is His grace alone that saves us, for grace is, by definition, unmerited favor. There is nothing in us that makes us worthy of God. He loves us because of something inside of Himself, not inside of us. The author seeems to contridict himself.

I also enjoyed other aspects of the book. The reverse confession booth makes for great reading, as do many of Miller's other stories. Despite some poor theology, he gave me a lot to think about, especially in regards to taking theology beyond the doors of the church and really turning it into practice.

I believe, though, that the great failing of this book is the author's belief that Christianity is a feeling, and is not something that can be rationally explained or understood. Early in the book, on page 54, Miller writes that God does not make any sense. Just a few pages later he writes that Christian Spirituality is something that cannot be explained, but is something that can only be felt. "It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul" (page 57). Later he writes, "At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay. And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don't think there is any better worship than wonder" (page 206).

This irrational, feelings-based approach to Christianity is consistent with postmodern thought, where experience rather than an objective standard is the arbiter of truth. Miller rarely returns to the Scripture, and instead opts to explain his beliefs through the lens of his own experience. He seems to trust in experience instead of having a rational faith in a rational God who is truly sovereign. In fact, I do not recall any specific references from the Scripture - an oddity considering that the book claims to be thoughts on Christian Spirituality. But perhaps "nonreligious" thoughts preclude the use of Scripture proof-texting.

While I can say that I did receive some benefit from reading it, I would be hesitant to recommend it to others. There is some value to be found, but one has to dig deep beneath layers of rambling untruth and poor theology to find them. There are many other books that contain far more treasure than this.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy! To ciloma - a book from her wish list. For the D for December and RABCK release challenges

One of four in a RABCK bonus book bundle from booklady331!! Thanx a bunch!!

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one. There are a lot of thought provoking comments. Some good some not so much. I did enjoy reading this book. Sometimes it irritated and sometimes I just felt bad for the guy. Sometimes I wanted to shout "YES!" really loud because he nailed something important to me. I do hope that Mr. Miller has matured in his theology some since writing this book. I found some questionable thinking going on and much that was wonderful, too.

On it's way to book_drunkard

Received.
Thank you.

I loved this book so much!
Very down to earth approach to Christianity.
None of that Holier-Than-Thou, all up in your face stuff.
His message is simply Love One Another,
which most of us need to work harder to do.

Wishlist Tag Game Book

Happy Reading!

Received as a wishlist tag - this one is from Mom's wishlist, so the stamps hidden inside were just right. :)

Thank you!

I like the cover art on this one. (Zoomable photo here.)

Update: Mom read this book, so now it's ready to move on.

Wednesday, May 27, 2020: left hanging from the chain at the base of the drive leading up to the park. (Zoomable photo here.)

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