{Book Review} A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller

Feels like It Was Thrown Together

This book that I just finished reading wasn’t originally what Donald Miller had in mind when he started writing his new book. However while in the process of penning his new book things weren’t working out, he went to his publishers told them that and what we got was “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”.

Now don’t get me wrong I really enjoy Donald Miller. I like the fact he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Most of the time his essay style works quite well and makes for easy reading and he can be quite funny. He has good observations and he really can speak to the Millennials of this generation. But, I just feel like this book was thrown together.

This book is organized in Miller’s typical essay form. And centers on few central topics: The writing of script for the movie “Blue Like Jazz”; the idea of story, what makes a good story ,and the fact we are all living stories and should try to live good ones; and the Donald dealing with his issues with his Father who was missing from his life. In between these central topic s he peppers various essays about different topics and relates them to his “Story” and how he is trying to live a great “Story”.

I did like the book, I don’t feel bad that I read it, Don is still a heck of a writer, but I just felt like this book was all over the place and that the theme he used to hold it together “Story” was rather week. Also Miller would jump from one essay where he would be joking and not taking himself seriously at all and then move into a subject that you could tell he really cared about and it just didn’t flow well. So while this is an enjoyable read it is not one of Miller’s best and I really think he can do better, and I just think he kind of had to force this one out, and you can tell he did.

{Book Review} The New Christians by Tony Jones

“The best primer available for the emergent movement”


If you are even interested in reading this book I guess you may be one of three people. One, you could be an “emergent” and you are just wanted to learn a little about the movement you are involved in. Two, you have heard about “Emergent’s” and the “Emerging Church” and you wanted to learn more about what it was all about. Or third, you have heard about these heretic emergent devil worshippers and you were looking for a book that could reveal all the heresies and non-orthodox practices. Well I am glad to report that this book will satisfy the needs of all three people.

A little about Tony Jones, Tony has been at the forefront of the emergence for most of its existence and until recently was the national coordinator for the emergent village. He went to seminary at Fuller Seminary and is getting his Ph.D. from Princeton, he writes like a down to earth academic. Speaking to the normal everyday Christians who have never had a class in theology class, but every now and then he likes to drop his knowledge and you will have to break out your dictionary to look up a word or you have to scribble down the name of some obscure theologian so you can look them up later. Basically I am trying to say that Tony comes across as an everyman’s theologian. A guy you could go have a beer and talk baseball just as easily as you could discuss the early church father’s views on the doctrine of atonement.

As I mentioned above I see this book as being the best primer on the book shelf to the emergent movement. In fact if you want the full treatment, get Phyllis Tickle’s book “The Great Emergence” to tell you why the emergent movement is here and then get this book to fill in the details of what the movement is.

In the book Tony starts off by giving some background on his own personal story and where he is coming from and how he got where he is now. Then Tony gives his take of the story of how the emergent movement evolved and began from a few young pastors and theologians. Then we get a description of the kind of people that are drawn to the movement and why they are attracted to this new form of Christianity. Next Tony really shines as he lays out much of the theology of the emergence, and while it is no way a doctrinal statement or comprehensive description of what the movement believes, it is more like what they don’t believe and what they are open to. He also spends a good amount of time addressing the idea of truth and dispelling the idea that this is just relativism dressed up in trendy clothing and cool haircuts. Finally we get an inside view of several church’s that Jones feels fall inside this movement, a nice cross section of what is going on in various emergent churches across the country.

All in all I really enjoyed this book. I came in as a person who has had the thoughts of an emergent for the past few years I just didn’t know it. This book helped me see the others who feel/think about Christianity the way I do and understand how others got to this place. So if you are interested in this movement, (Although I don’t think “Movement” is a good word for it) or are just looking for something new in Christianity then I think you may like this book.

{Book Review} Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

“A Bit Much for a Newbie”

To be honest I have never been much of a reader of fantasy books. I read a little bit of science fiction here and there, but typically my interests lie in other fields. I was interested to read this book because first, from what I have heard and read Sanderson is a fairly well respected new author on the fantasy scene. And secondly I was interested in this book in particular because it was being released in drafts on the web for free before its final publication. Knowing that I was reading a relatively unfinished product interested me, to see if it affected the author’s process knowing that rather than keeping his work isolated from the public until completion, instead we have more of an open progression.

In saying all that I am happy to say I was pleased with, and did enjoy reading this book, even though it got to be tough by the end. Many have called Sanderson Tolkien-esque, in that he created whole new worlds full of new physics, myths, legends and laws. I have to admit any author I see do that deserves some credit, because it takes a very creative mind to do that, and then to be able to articulate that word on the page, I have to give Sanderson credit he does his job here.

Without getting into the plot (I mean you can read the book online) Sanderson does a great job of creating this magical new world and all of the things that make an interesting canvas on to which paint his story. But there is just so much to explain that half way through the story you are taking some things for granted even though you don’t really know how or why they work. The plot is decent, and kept me interested, but it all just got to be a bit much by the end. I would think if you are a fantasy fan you could really find a lot in here to enjoy, but as for me it was just a bit too laborious to really allow me to really love it, but I did enjoy the book, and hoe you will too.

Rob Bell's New Book

I finished this book last night, and I continue to hold to my stance that even if you do not totally agree with Rob Bell’s theology he always brings up some very good points that are worth think about and discussing. This book is a collaborative work of Rob Bell Teaching Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and the former Lead Pastor of said church Dan Golden on the current exile of the Church in America.

The point and ideas that Rob and Dan make in this book are clear and simple enough that I do not want to ruin it with a shoddy summary but I do encourage you to read this book. Bell is known to sometimes make links and correlations between New and Old Testament that are sometimes thin at best. And there are a few of those, also in one biblical reference he confuses Philip the Evangelist with the Apostle Philip, but small little things like this do not take away from the fact that Rob Bell & Dan Golden bring forth some very interesting ideas that can really make you reevaluate what you think your position in the world is. There are people who love everything Rob Bell writes or speaks about, they will enjoy this book.

There are people who hate everything thing Rob Bell writes or speaks about, they will dislike the book and probably find hundred’s of things wrong with it. Then, there are those of us to listen to Bell, and agree with him on some things and disagree with him on others. I get the feeling that is the kind of reader or listener he enjoys the most. Bell & Golden don’t ever claim to have everything right, but they do want to ask questions and encourage people to think and do. If you read this book with an open and without preconceived notions this book should deliver that for you.

Book Review: Truth and the New Kind of Christian

“Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church” by R. Scott Smith

I had the pleasure of having Dr. Smith as my last professor while at Biola University. He taught two classes, one on organization ethics and another on moral decision making. Besides teaching in the Organizational Leadership program Smith is also an Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics. I really enjoyed my time in class with him, he was very articulate, affable, and always took a Christ center approach to his teaching. During the class I learned more and more of his background and his interest in postmodernism the emergent church movement.

Through exposure to figures like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and Tony Jones I had become very interested in the Emergent Conversation myself, as I learned Dr. Smith I had. During the class I read Brian McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian”. I found the book to be intensely interesting, some ideas I read seemed to really make sense and open my view to God and ministry, others scared me a little and maybe even whispered heresy in the back of my mind. But either way it got me thinking, and looking for an alternate take of McLaren’s views I decided to read Dr. Smith’s book “Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church”.

This book while being approachable to the layperson does require a quite a bit of critical thinking, and is not as easy to get into as the McLaren work is aims to respond to. A little bit of experience or knowledge of academic logic and basic philosophy would go a long way to help you get through this one.

Those hoping to see a detailed response to the ideas and approaches McLaren talks about in his book will probably be disappointed in this book. Rather then solely addressing McLaren’s work Smith takes on the broader concept of Postmodernism in Philosophy and in the Church. While picking a choosing and choosing a few select ideas from the like of Tony Jones, Brian McLaren and certain postmodern Christian philosophers, Smith gives a basic overview/introduction to their worldviews and philosophies. As others have said this is probably the best part of the book as it gives a fair well balanced review of the current Christian postmodern movement.

After this, however, Smith focuses on taking apart all these thoughts and views using philosophical logic, and boiling everything down to the idea that postmodernism prevents one form knowing truth, therefore they can’t know truth, therefore their ideas are faulty. I know that probably is a rough way of saying it and I may have even gotten it a little off, but that is how I interpreted it. He also spends a chapter disputing the entire characteristics McLaren find problematic with the Modern Church. Smith used his own church to disprove most of these ideas. But I felt he missed the point McLaren was making. He was talking about general overall impressions that he has (And I too) about the modern church, and I don’t think presenting one church that does not match any of those characteristics does not constitute a valid argument against McLaren’s statements.

Then after doing such, Smith spends a chapter pretty much calling Christian Postmodernists relativists, and then he goes on deconstructing and disproving relativism as a viable ethic, I found this to be a helpful lesson in showing how relativism is not viable, but this all hinges on his argument that postmodernism leads to relativism which I do not agree with. The final chapter deals with knowing objective truth and how modern philosophy and worldviews allow for that, which I felt is his way of saying everything is still fine and postmodernism is not needed and will not work.

I respect Dr. Smith immensely; his thoughts in this book are very well thought out and presented. But unfortunately after reading this work I think he still falls under the Modernist idea that everything has to fit the logical and philosophical standards set, I believe he misses a little bit of Neo’s point that maybe we can’t quite understand where and how it all works. Postmodernism allows for a bit more of that I think. Dr. Smith approaches the whole topic like a philosophy professor, and while I understand all that, I don’t think that is what people are looking for today. I think Brian McLaren or Tony Jones would agree that arguing philosophical proofs with a nonbeliever today is a rather unlikely (But not at all impossible) way to lead someone to Christ. Dr. Smith brings up some interesting topics, thoughts and criticism to the conversation but I feel like his extensive philosophical training creates a modernist views that causing him to miss the greater overall postmodernist/emergent message.