Every few years a book is released into the Christian subculture that creates a stir, as well as a lot of reads. A few years ago, Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life book exploded all over the world. Soon entire congregations were studying Warren's premise that God has a plan for your life.
Over the last couple of years the movement (or conversation as its leaders refer to it as) of Emerging Churches has taken the Christian subculture by storm. By breaking with non-traditional forms of worship (both high-church and seeker sensitive), the Emergents have a curious draw on a large (albeit young) portion of Christianity.
One of the books at the forefront of this movement is Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. Most college students and those in their twenties have read this book. Some people laud Miller's work with praise while others claim it is tantamount to heresy
As with any book that has had such a profound impact on Christian culture, it should be read and asked the question, "Why is this book popular?" I am going to begin a series (a looooong one) on Blue Like Jazz. I confess that it is one of the pieces of literature of the Emerging church that I have, for some reason, not read. A good friend of mine who is a Reformed University Fellowship staffer challenged me to read it so that we may converse about its premises. Therefore, I am prepared to offer and fair and balanced (not akin to FOX) critique of Miller's book, chapter-by-chapter. Keep reading if you're interested...
Note: I am going to try to approach Miller's work with as little presuppositions as possible. The only standard I will use to judge Blue Like Jazz will be its adherence to Biblical truths. With that, let's look at Chapter 1 which is entitled: Beginnings: God on a Dirt Road Walking Toward Me
From the very first page, a clue to Miller's style is discovered when he curiously dedicates the book to "David Gentiles."
Miller's first chapter deals with the doctrines of man and God (in sort of a round-about way). The way he has written it, is actually, pretty genius
Almost immediately into his body of work, Miller shares that he only saw and spent time with his biological father on three separate occasions. He says:
"My father left my home when I was young, so when I was introduced to the concept of God as Father I imagined Him as a stiff, oily man who wanted to move into our house and share a bed with my mother...I imagined God as a man who had a lot of money and drove a big car. (1)"
It's easy to see that Miller has a terrific sense of humor and a keen wit, but also a resentment towards his father (with probably a good reason). He continues:
"Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as 'Father' at all. This to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake. Why would God want to call Himself Father when so many fathers abandon His children?...I understood what a father did as well as I understood the task of a shepherd. All the vocabulary about God seemed to come from ancient history, before video games, Palm Pilots, and the Internet. (4)."
I have to admit when I first read this section, I gasped. I thought to myself, "Is Miller degrading how God has chosen to reveal himself to us by the simple fact that he had a lousy father?" Then, upon pondering this question, it seemed appropriate that someone would ask that kind of question who did indeed have a lousy father. It's a fair question, that, I hope, Miller answers later in the book, and does not just confuse and confound his readers with.
From this thought, Miller states an almost equally curious sentence:
"I started to sin about the time I turned ten. I believe it was ten, although it could have been earlier, but ten is about the age a boy starts to sin, so I am sure it was in there somewhere. Girls begin to sin when they are twenty-three or something, but they do life much softer by their very nature and so need less of a run at things. (5)."
I really hope that Miller is using his aforementioned keen wit and biting sarcasm at this point. It has also occurred to me that Miller might by telling this section from the eyes of a ten-year old boy. Being, that, he was ten years old when he first learned that he was a sinner and thought to himself that girls really didn't sin until much later...at least I hope so.
Miller then writes about how this realization of being a sinner led him to feelings of guilt which, in turn, led him to think that maybe religion would somehow cure his guilt. I think that Miller makes a great point with this thought process because this is exactly how people realize that they need a Savior. All people, eventually (10 years old for boys according to Miller), realize that they have done some bad things in their life. And everyone incurs guilt as a result. Likewise, we also all need some resolution to this guilt problem. How can we do that? Miller states that this thought process brought him closer to religion and in the next chapter he writes an excellent essay on the doctrine of sin....
Grading Scale: (out of 5 being the highest)
Keeps My Interest: 5
Sound on Doctrine: Not sure...
Easy to Understand: 3
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