Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Review: Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

I just finished Donald Miller's Searching for God Knows What (Thomas Nelson, 2004). Overall, I appreciated Donald Miller's fresh approach to the Gospel. His fast-paced, witty style was less mature in this book than in some of his more recent works, but his writing still kept me turning pages.




It is easy to slip into a checklist version of Christianity. Went to church...check. Didn't steal a car...check. Gave money to charity...check. However, in this book, Miller takes a step back and presents the Gospel in a way that is both refreshing and convicting.

Miller's description of "The Lifeboat Theory" and his comparison of the Gospel to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet were particularly powerful.

My quibbles with Miller are generally political. He tends to lean towards the political left and, quite frankly, I just don't agree with many of his conclusions on matters political and social. But that's another issue for another time.

If you can overlook the occasional jab at political conservatives and can be open-minded towards the potential pit-falls of formulaic Christianity, then Searching for God Knows What will be a rewarding read.

Favorite Quotes from Searching for God Knows What:

"There are two essential problems with believing God is somebody He isn't. The first problem is that it wrecks your life. The second is that it makes God look like an idiot."

"It seems like, if you really knew the God who understands the physics of our existence, you would operate a little more cautiously, a little more compassionately, a little less like you are the center of the universe."

"But if [the gospel of Jesus] is more, if it is a story about humanity falling away from the community that named it, and an attempt to bring humanity back to that community, and if it is more than a series of ideas, but rather speaks directly into this basic human need we are feeling, then the gospel of Jesus is the most relevant message in the history of mankind."

Miller, Donald. Searching for God Knows What. Thomas Nelson, 2004.

Image taken from: http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/searching-for-god-knows-what.jpg

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

love this! love you!