Blue like Jazz

Whilst away the main book i read was by Donald Miller called 'Blue like Jazz' - there's a fair amount of buzz about this one around as it offers what Miller calles 'nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality'.

It's a good read and approaches the issues of faith and what it means to be a Christian in a very accessible way. A collection of essays, the language is straightforward and the style quite simple, yet there is plenty to think about in this book. Some of the insights are surprising, some seem banal yet are filled with meaning. It's a book of contradictions - simplicity with depth, poignancy with humour, meaning in meaninglessness. It's certainly a good introduction to the core of Christian faith, which is Jesus Christ, and responds to many criticisms aimed at church and Christian believers with down-to-earth yet passionate conviction.

Its laid back style, which some might find infuriating, belies the passion with which Miller has sought to know Jesus. It doesn't try to answer any questions, but offers obvservations on the deeper reality of faith and meaning. Worth buying, IMHO.

Comments

Becky said…
Thanks for the book review, I'll look for it, : ) and thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting!
1:43 pm
Tom said…
It's definately a good read. What I like most about Miller is not his answers (I disagree with him on occasion), but his questions. It's hard to read one of his books without spending a lot of time thinking about what you believe and why you believe it.

On a side note, because the questions are so good and the style so approachable, it makes a good book to read in a small group/study format.
2:35 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trying to connect the dots, unnecessarily

Image
Another sermon - as seems to be the way of this blog at present! Life is busy and complicated, and good, and bad, and exciting, and challenging, and (in short) not conducive to getting Blog posts written! So, here's my thought for today taken from these passages (Click for details): Exodus 16:1–5, 9–15,  Psalm 78;18–29 Mt 13.1–9 Grace and Meaning In the words of St Paul, or perhaps St John, or maybe St George, or even St Ringo “When I was younger, so much younger than today.” Ah, sorry, couldn’t resist!  No, it’s not a tubby boy story – but just a general reflection that today’s story from the book of Exodus used to cause me great consternation.  Or at least was one of those parts of Scripture that didn’t seem to fit… I knew the story, the mythological story I am now convinced, of the temptations in the wilderness when Jesus proclaims, quoting Deuteronomy 6 ‘you shall not put the Lord your God to the test’. As I moved into the Anglican Church and got to kno
Read more

A Sermon which upset someone

So, I'm not a theological conservative.  That probably comes across in pretty much everything I write, but I thought I should say it.  I believe myself to be orthodox, however, and hold to those things which the Church expresses in the catholic creeds.  I also have a relatively 'high' theology regarding the inspiration of Scripture. But I am not a Biblical literalist, nor do I hold to a doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture. I can't.  The Bible is too rich, too deep, too difficult, too flawed for that.  And by flawed I mean I understand it to be the record of human beings trying to make sense of God at work.  It has the breath of the Spirit blowing through it's words and on every page, but when we try and make sense of God there is a chance we will go awry.... 'Hey lets condemn (and or murder) pretty much everyone who isn't in our tribe, that's obviously what God wants' kind of awry.  And if we study this book carefully then we see that ideas
Read more