Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
Book Review: A must read, and re-read...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best book I've read all year... maybe even in a few years. This surprises me because I usually don't like religious books -- I read them and then I feel guilty and sucky and like I can't possibly do all the stuff the book says I should. Lately, I don't even bother to read them. But this book is awesome.
This is Don Miller's story about his journey of faith, and in it, he is completely authentic, completely real. This is about his struggle to accept that God really loves him - beyond the "yeah, yeah, I know God loves me". This is not a Catholic book, but there's something a little bit St. Therese in it to me. It is very much about just pouring yourself out in love for others. A very modern day Story of a Soul.
I love this book because Miller places honesty and transparency above, um... piety, I guess. And while I can usually at least see how I can be really me, I can't always see how to be really holy, and Miller sees that being really me IS being really holy. The main thing I got from this book is that if God and I were to sit down at a coffee shop, He wouldn't lecture me about how I didn't like A Mother's Rule of Life and how I haven't worn my scapular in a million years. We'd have real conversation and I could even be sarcastic and He would still LIKE me.
The writing is so good, I didn't even think about whether or not the writing was good. I love how unfussy it is, how it isn't over thought, reworded a million times until it sounds pretty and alliterate, and foreign.
After I read this, I didn't think so much about every word I said before I said it, or write out what I was going to say on the phone on an index card before I called. I mean these things in a good way -- I stopped being so fussy over myself and over being and sounding and seeming and looking and acting all perfect and all holy. I stopped being so self focused. For a few days after at least.
I better read it again.
Book Review: A non-Christian's review
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was mildly entertaining at times, but the writing was weak, the tone apathetic, and the insights close to meaningless. Any who exected an honest view of Christianity, the good and the bad, will have to wait for something else.
The knowledge displayed by the author is that of someone who has never seriously questioned his own persuasions and his views on other religions, at those rare times that he chooses to acknowledge their existance, are pathetic. It seems that, for him, the sum of Buddhism is "rubbing a fat guy's belly" which I think would be insulting to any serious Buddhist.
The whole plot of this book, if something so rambling can be said to have a plot, is a young man who, upon trying and failing to live as he thinks a Christian should, discovers that he should love himself and that Jesus loves him.
Overall, the book is somewhat jeuvenile, conveniently forgetting to discuss many points. It seem that, for the author, there are two types of people: the corporate, horrible, selfish, and greedy atheists, and the "cool", kind, not-selfish Christians. Other religions are only mentioned twice in the whole book. At the end, on the last page, I was very dissappointed to find the "you, too, can be loved as I am" type sentence. After a few pages worth of how much this guy doesn't want to be selling his ideas, that is exactly what he does.
Very disappointing.
Book Review: A note to Mr. Miller
Summary: 1 Stars
Your book was a huge disappointment. Your prose is a doze. Obviously there's a commercial market you wish to fill for someone preaching a
pseudo-Christianity that involves only love of Jesus and appeals to the ideological and political left. This market niche will snicker when you tweak traditional and evangelical Christians, Republicans and those that believe in hell and accountability. The concept of sin, evil, judgment
are not going to play well at places like your hedonist Camelot (Reed College). You believe that if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you can get away with all kinds of perversity (drug and alcohol abuse, infidelity and promiscuous sexuality).
You may believe yourself to be a Christian but you are a post
modern relativist that seeks to corrupt Christianity into the kind of principle-less creed that rationalizes any behavior. Look in the mirror Mr. Miller you are a secular humanist.
Book Review: A quest for coolness
Summary: 1 Stars
I recently told a close family member that I had completely lost my Christian faith, after a lifetime of being a believer. He recommended "Blue Like Jazz", as a testimony from a Christian who has struggled with their faith.
Unfortunately, Donald Miller's book is not very helpful for someone like me, a person that has lost their faith because they no longer believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. Miller's collection of self-indulgent essays is long on feelings and emotion, while entirely lacking in doctrine and all but the most rudimentary apologetic for why he believes what he believes.
There are literally dozens of instances in the book of Miller proving his liberal bona fides by railing against "fundamentalists", Republicans, and just ordinary Christian folks who are so dull and unthinking as to attend a church in the suburbs. Miller takes pains to let us know that they're Christians, too, and therefore he has no choice but to love them. But at the same time, Miller and his circle of highly enlightened friends clearly think that ALL white suburban churches are dens of mediocrity.
Miller loves telling us about the wisdom he's gained from his friends, both Christians and non-Christians alike. The problem is, all of these people share the exact same liberal, bohemian world view, and seem stuck in a perpetual state of extended adolescence. In Miller's world, Christians drink beer, smoke, swear, and attend anti-Bush political demonstrations while they ponder the meaning of existence and the nature of God's love. My problem isn't necessarily that Miller's Christian friends do these things. The problem is that Miller never fails to tell us what he and his friends are drinking and smoking during every conversation they have, reminding us just how "real" they all are IN SPITE OF their shared Christian spirituality.
Miller condemns mainstream Christians for being pawns of the Republican party, simply asserting that Republics = Greed = Bad and expecting the reader will agree. Likewise, anyone who holds these views---regardless of their spirtitual beliefs---are demonstrating the love of Christ, and are therefore the best sources of wisdom in the world.
Blue Like Jazz is not without insight; it's hard to fault Miller's call to live one's faith. But for Miller at least, this faith is all about feelings and vague "can't we all just get along?" expressions of Christian love. But Christianity without doctrine is hardly any different than any one of several half-baked new age belief systems.
Ultimately, Miller comes across as a whiney Gen-Xer trying to reconcile his faith with his socio-political worldview. It's a task he doesn't quite pull off, because his brand of liberal Christianity has it's own orthodoxy that is as narrow-minded as the fundamentalists of whom he is so critical.
Book Review: A quick read...
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is a very quick read. Because the whole time you should be waiting for something worth while, and it never comes!
Donald Miller crudely spills his hypocritical thoughts. His stereotypical beliefs (that he shows no signs of changing). And his polarized views on life.
There is little in this book other than his mostly uninteresting stories which are laden with a gloating undertone. He seems to be proud that the stories of his life show a tangle of loose ends and painfully slow realizations.
Metaphors and images are recycled annoyingly throughout the book. It could easily have been two thirds its actual length with the amount of repeated content.
I wouldn't say don't read. We can all learn from mistakes.