And one last quote from Gilead:

In the matter of belief, I have always found that defenses have the same irrelevance about them as the criticisms they are meant to answer.  I think the attempt to defend belief can unsettle it, in fact, because there is always an inadequacy in argument about ultimate things…..

So my advice is this – don’t look for proofs. Don’t bother with them at all.  They are never sufficient to the question, and they’re always a little impertinent, I think, because they claim for God a place within our conceptual grasp.  And they will likely sound wrong to you even if you convince someone else with them.  That is very unsettling over the long term.

Maybe this is why reading apologetics books tend to make me less sure of my faith, rather than more sure?

  Another quote from the book Gilead:

I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again.  I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that.  There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us.  In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don’t imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.

Find your epic in the time you have here.

I have read a larger variety of books about God and Christianity in the past year or two.  Many of these books have been recently published.  I’m feeling the urge to put them into categories, which might go as follows:

Nerd God books

– the kind that use vocabulary like eschatology or soteriology without blinking.  Generally only read by theologians and bloggers (and me, when I’m feeling brave).  I’m thinking Mike Erre, along with classic titles by Ladd or Calvin.  People who know who both Piper and Wright are (and why I put them together) read Piper and Wright and books like these.

Thinker God books

– the kind that require a quiet room and a pen in order to understand.  The book’s principles apply to all levels of Christian, but the language is deep.  Dallas Willard and Eugene Peterson fit here.  Probably my favorite type of book, but I don’t get as much of these read because of the aforesaid quiet room requirement.

Hip God books

– may tackle real theology, but in a way pointed directly at the 27-year-old postmodern person. Cultural references abound. Mark Driscoll and Jared Wilson are good at this.

Alternative God books

- anything that doesn’t fit the stereotypical view of Christianity (but is still awesome). Shane Clairborne, Kathleen Norris, Anne Lamott go here.  

Friendly God books

– readable by anyone. Lots of analogies, heartwarming stories, encouragement. They may still be on important topics, but are not intimidating.  Think Max Lucado.

Junk God books

– the books that involve God in some way (and therefore are sold at Christian book stores), but the draw isn’t God.  It’s the sextuplets, or the athletic prowess, or the charming personality of the author that is really selling the book.  I’ll refrain from listing examples any more specific than that…

What kind of Christian book do you read?

How would you describe Jesus?  Probably “loving.” And “sacrificial.” A guy with good teaching about loving others and being kind. 

Jared Wilson is a pastor in Nashville, and has written a book that tries to get a fuller, more biblical picture of Jesus into your hands.  The theology is deep, the language is slightly snarky.  He spends 12 chapters emphasizing the powerful, holy…. well, “non-tame” aspects of Jesus.

• Jesus the Prophet
• Jesus the Provision
• Jesus the King
• Jesus the Judge

and so on. 

Your Jesus is Too Safe is solidly and tightly written.  Wilson is evangelical and rather reformed – those who are into that sort of thing will take note when he goes on the record as supporting penal substitutionary atonement (which he does in a footnote, and doesn’t expect the reader to particularly care).  I’m less interested in that, but I particularly applaud his chosen quotations by other authors.  Anyone who recommends I read Eugene Peterson AND John Piper AND N.T. Wright AND Dietrich Bonhoeffer is okay by me.

Perhaps it isn’t Wilson’s fault, but this book took me months to get through.  It sat in the car, and then sat on the coffee table.  I wasn’t reading anything  in its place, so maybe it’s just part of my current low-reading phase.  But I never found myself intrigued.  I didn’t scramble for Twitter just to post a great quotation.  I didn’t think, “Wow, so-and-so should really read this.”

The book was fine.  It is very gospel-based.  He actually acknowledges the Kingdom of God.  He is a theology nut who refrains from blasting the reader with his “nerditude.” His footnotes are funny (I think all the posted reviews likely mention the footnotes).  I think you’ll either really like his style, or he won’t make a big impact on you.  From the conclusion:

The most important way that I’ve tried to synchronize the disparate portraits is by tracing throughout the entire journey the great unifying presence of the gospel.  The gospel is the hope of the world – and these days it’s a hope that many inside our churches are just as starved for as those outside. My prayer is that more and more churches in Western evangelicalism will repent of their relegating of the gospel to a place inside the Trojan Horse of attractive programming and performance-driven worship services and self-help sermons, and once again herald it boldly as the only and supreme hope of a dying world.

I live in the suburbs.  I wear my seat belt. I wash my hands after using the bathroom. 

I live a safe life.

It turns out I also live a safe Christianity.   I read books and the Bible. I go to a small group.  I go to church every Sunday.  I give to the poor, and bring up Jesus in the conversation a lot.   But I don’t live as if Jesus was the real treasure in my life.   If I felt God might be telling me to invite the single mom with her children to live in our spare bedroom, I would decide I was mistaken.  If God wanted me to go to India to help rebuild homes after the recent floods, he would pretty much have to pick me up and put me on a plane.

But not everyone lives that way.  There are some who have realized that this safe, dull Christianity is not what God had in mind.  Gary Haugen’s Just Courage is a book that is dedicated to helping God pick me up and put me on planes.

International Justice Mission was founded in 1997 to meet the needs of the poor beyond food and medical aid.  The book describes how much of the suffering of the poor comes from violence by those with power.  The mission of IJM is to work around the world to bring justice to those who cannot afford to seek it themselves – from slavery, from loss of land, from sexual exploitation.  And because those who are in power do not want to lose it, the workers of IJM are regularly threatened and sometimes physically hurt. 

Haugen shares story after story about what becomes possible when Christians step out in faith, and put the call to serve above their fears about safety.  Oh, it’s so refreshing.  The utter dependence on God, and the complete freedom that it provides.

Haugen ends his book with a discussion of the Gospels’ Rich Young Ruler story.  He points out that too often, we interpret this as some spoiled king who refuses to let go of his great wealth (and, since we are not “rich” or a king, the story doesn’t apply to us).  But Haugen points out a different emphasis of the story.  The young man RAN to Jesus.  He was respectful and deeply interested in Jesus’ words.  He was more spiritual than most of us – carefully following God’s guidelines for living and wanting to fully live in God’s will.  And Jesus didn’t scorn this young man – he loved him.  Loved him enough to show him the one weakness, the one fear that was hindering this man.  And it wasn’t that Jesus was mad at him for being rich…

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Mark 10

Jesus was sad that the young man’s fear was stronger than his faith. 

And I’m afraid that is WAY too applicable to me.

Recommended to any Christian who is wondering why Christianity seems so bland and powerless.

I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.  ~E.M. Forster

Ah, books.  Sometimes escape, sometimes challenge.  Mostly challenge, lately.  I’ve been pondering whether those in the college ministry community I am entering are going to be interested in reading a book with me during the year as a way to guide their growth.  And as I ponder that, it leads to thinking… well, what should a college student in our community read?  And I decide… either something about Jesus, or something about the missional and community nature of church, or about the Holy Spirit (recently re-invited to our church at large).  And so I end up at Amazon, and spend the last of my birthday gift card:

• Your Jesus is Too Safe by Jared Wilson
• Total Church by Tim Chester
• Forgotten God by Francis Chan

I haven’t received any of them yet as I am too cheap to pay for shipping.  But I look forward to being challenged by these, even if I have to read them on my own.

This thinking about discipleship and college ministry led me to Ben Hines’ work and blog, and to ask his advice on good books for discipleship.  And his encouraging email back introduced me to Byron Borger, of Hearts & Minds Bookstore.  Wow.  This is even more dangerous.  Borger blogs about the books he sells (the online bookstore itself does not have linkable books), and he makes me want to read everything he talks about.  I must have read 20 book reviews today.  And in addition to a wonderful emphasis on college ministry, he has a great annotated bibliography on vocation, or finding Christ in all areas of work and life.  And now I’ve got three more books ordered, although these I’m getting for a quarter each because I’m borrowing them through the county library system.  This is the only Christian bookstore that has ever made me feel guilty for buying books at Amazon.

• Finding our way again : the return of the ancient practices by Brian McLaren
• Take this bread : a radical conversion by Sara Miles
• Shop class as soulcraft : an inquiry into the value of work by Matthew Crawford

Byron, I’m sorry I’m just handing out link love right now.  I will do my best to buy from you in the future, because your writing about books is an amazing ministry.

I would like to be a bit transparent about what a book I’ve recently read means to me. The book is called Love is an Orientation, by Andrew Marin. My hope is that these following posts show both grace and salt – that they are written with love towards both the Christian and gay communities, and yet are still thoughtful and important words.

I am part of the Evangelical Christian community in North America. My community is seen by outsiders (and some insiders) as being homophobic and judgmental. I think these labels are to some degree caused by a secular culture not understanding the importance of our covenant with God to work toward lives of holiness. But I also think that some of us Christians are responding to society’s new acceptance of same-sex attraction with fear rather than trust in God. And that fear is understandable, since we believe that many in the gay community are pushing very hard for others to accept their behavior as normal, telling Christians in organizations and elementary schools and psychology offices how we must treat them.

It is my opinion that the solution is not that Christians need to focus on returning society to a more Christian-looking state (although some Christians DO think this), but that Christians need to re-learn how to exist as a community of Jesus’ brothers and sisters living in a culture that disagrees with our views. Since we haven’t had to do this in Western society since Constantine, we need some help. Love is an Orientation seeks to be that help, and I would like to process it here. I’ll be sharing the outline of the book and then some of my feelings about the book.

I am most interested in how the Church, defined as all Christ-followers, should best reach out to individual gay and lesbian neighbors in our community. If God has called us to love him and our neighbor, and make disciples of all the nations, and obey his commands, then how should this look? How should the local church act? How should individual Christians act? I really don’t have a lot of answers. But I am trying to believe we can still look like Jesus to the world. That my God is big enough to heal hearts and change feelings and bring unity.

I am tentative, but I want to be more like Jesus.

Part 2 is my overview of Love is an Orientation.

And here’s another quote, near the end of the book Simply Christian.  Wright asserts that the point of Christianity is not “to go to Heaven when you die.”  Instead, it is a new way of life now:

“This is the launchpad for the specifically Christian way of life.  That way of life isn’t a matter simply of getting in touch with our inner depths.  It is certainly not about keeping the commands of a distant deity. Rather, it is the new way of being human, the Jesus-shaped way of being human, the cross- and- resurrection way of life, the Spirit-led pathway. It is the way which anticipates, in the present, the full, rich, glad human existence which will one day be ours when God makes all things new. Christian ethics is not a matter of discovering what’s going on in the world and getting in tune with it.  It isn’t a matter of doing things to earn God’s favor. It is not about trying to obey dusty rulebooks from long ago or far away. It is about practicing, in the present, the tunes we shall sing in God’s new world.”

A full book review is to come.

From the book Simply Christian, a definition of the church:

“It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.  It’s were people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

…

“The Spirit is given so that we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God’s future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God’s kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he has gone into God’s dimension – that is, heaven.”

This does not, of course, completely contain what it means to be a community of believers.  Crabb would add that it is a place of transparency and honesty that strengthens our faith.  Erre would add that it is where Christians seek God’s work through prayer. Piper would add that it is a place to see clearly that we are utterly dependent on the grace and love of God.  And all of those are more fabulous things.  But this is still a great quote of how the Holy Spirit works in a community of believers to bring new life.

Larry Crabb had an interesting thought in Real Church, which I finished reading this past week.  He talks about the feeling of emptiness (the quintessential “God-shaped hole”) that all Christians feel.  His point is that it’s easy to fill that hole with stuff – with alcohol or porn, or even books and coffee and friends.  But his deeper point is that you can’t just fill that hole with God instead.  God isn’t in the business of making us feel good.  He’s in the business of bringing us into relationship with him.

Anyway, that is my attempt to introduce you to the newest book I’ve finished, written by Susan E. Isaacs, called Angry Conversations with God: a Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir.  Isaacs has written for television and movies, but this is her first book, and it is excellent.  Her main premise is that although she has been a Christian from childhood, she has struggled with her relationship with God throughout her adult life.  She has tried to put him first (her true “husband,” biblically), but it seems like God has pretty much stomped on her in return – struggles with family, church, career and relationships abound.  So she drags God to “couples counseling,” with an actual therapist who is willing to help Susan work through her issues with God.  The format of the book takes us through major events in Isaac’s life, with each one followed by the therapy session.  Susan provides both her own voice and that of God’s.

I enjoyed this journey for several reasons.  First, Isaacs is funny.  She shares my “spiritual gift” of sarcasm, so reading her life story is just inherently entertaining.  Her life is also interesting.  I have no idea what the world of TV and film is like, and we are introduced to a wonderful selection of her friends through the years. Second, Isaacs is transparent and honest.  She is willing to share her ugliness and fears and her attitude towards God.  I loved that she WANTED to be in relationship with God, and was ANGRY with him for making it so difficult. 

Third, Isaac’s theology is great.  The book is very helpful for exploring why God would allow things to be painful for someone who loves him.  She provides interesting insight that, perhaps, God brings imperfect people and things into our lives because we’re the best he’s got to work with at that moment.  That’s actually kind of encouraging (though I bet it’s depressing for God).  And while God starts out pretty snarky and sarcastic (as “spoken” by Isaacs), by the end we see his deep determination to follow and love us through our life journey. 

A good quote, where Isaacs ponders the commitment God is asking of her:

   “Come on, I defended myself.  Who would love someone who offered a life of disappointment and hardship?  Sure, people made wedding vows: for better or worse, for richer or poorer.  But what sane person would knowingly sign up just for the worse, the poorer, the sicker, the sadder? Who on earth would do that?  Come on, who?
   A list of heroes and saints, real and fictional, came to my mind.  Frodo Baggins, William Wallace, Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa. Mom. Each was dogged by pain and suffering. They fought evil without, doubt within. Some of them died, but I loved them for their courage. And then there was Jesus, who did not consider his equality with God something to hold on to tightfistedly (the way I hung on to my promises) but emptied himself, became a servant, was stripped, filleted, and hung on a cross to die a horrifying death.
   Why had they done it? For the goodie bag? For the glory? No. For the worse, the poorer, in sickness until death.  For the love.”

I highly recommend for anyone who has wondered why loving God seems hard.