Winter Reading Challenge Update #1

Well, here is my first review/update.

I finished reading Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller. My reason for reading the book was that I kept running across this title in blogs and articles I was reading, and running into people who either loved or hated it (very few were lukewarm in its regard.) After the daughter of a dear friend posted that it was her favorite book, I decided I should not go by reviews, but give it a read for myself. So I have, and I attempted to be as fair in my appraisal as I could, given that one can never read something without bringing ones own presuppositions and assumptions to that reading.

My first challenge in reading Mr. Miller in any "fair" way was to get over his rambling, stream-of-consciousness, non-grammatical style. He writes like people text message: whatever enters the brain comes on the page. Sometimes this makes for a startling, stark statement. Most of the time I find it irritating. But I did try to overlook the style to a certain degree so I could appreciate the content.

My second challenge was the content: specifically, the adoration Mr. Miller has for the "cool", the non-traditional, and for his own generation of seekers, who apparently are the only generation to have found "authentic" Christianity. Perhaps this is too broad. Let me explain my impression of a couple of these areas.

Mr. Miller is constantly mentioning that things are "cool", and seems driven by what is "cool". Reed College is cool, Latin is cool, his friend, the beat poet, is cool. He doesn't define this, so I am only guessing when he uses this term what he means by it (which I guess is appealing, contemporary, and perceived as relevant.) I, on the other hand, am distinctly "uncool", and see "cool" as a worldly affectation that we as believers should avoid. "Cool" is how the world defines what it wants to look like. I prefer to strive for Christ-likeness. So this didn't earn Mr. Miller any points with me. But maybe I am just old and grumpy.

It is also obvious that Mr. Miller grew up in a culturally-Christian church that de-emphasized a personal relationship with Christ and personal holiness. He is constantly picturing all of traditional Christianity as shallow, superficial and legalistic, and contrasting this to non-Christian, non-traditional, politically liberal people that are far more loving and beautiful than anything he encountered in the church. While I must grant the point that much of traditional (read mainline, and perhaps even evangelical) Christianity in the US today is, indeed, superficial, legalistic and shallow, I have to admit feeling rather aggravated that it has never entered Mr. Miller's mind that there may be more traditional Christians somewhere who can be traditional and conservative, and yet actually love Christ in an authentic way and live a life of community and service and accountability with others in their church family. Mr. Miller bandies about the word "authentic" as if the only authentic Christians are young, Urban, and left-leaning. I found this condescending and ignorant. It seems to imply a kind of immature conceit that at one and the same time wants to accuse those who paint with too broad and stereotypical a brush, but them manages to do just that.

That said, there are some positive things in Mr. Miller's book. I believe he is an earnest follower of Christ. Through the course of the book there are moving accounts at times, and references to people or readings that I encourage others to listen to or read. In the end, it appears Mr. Miller is moving in the right way, towards solid, orthodox belief, even if it takes the whole book to wend his way there. And even though that way was often strewn with politically correct jargon or ideas (such as, all Republicans are non-compassionate to the poor, etc.)

I must say I didn't like this book. I found it irritating mostly. And what I find troubling is the way this book has been touted as "deep", or "meaningful", or "the only Christian book you can give non-Christian friends without being ashamed." (And yes, that last is from some of Miller's promotional material!) Mr. Miller is definitely trying to ride the wave of "cool", post-modern responses to the traditional church. I wouldn't say it was a waste of time to read, particularly because I can now respond to those who speak about it as "deep" or "poignant" with a greater first- hand understanding of the content. But I do not recommend this as a good way to spend precious reading time.

I also completed Terry Pratchett's novel, Going Postal. This is in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, taking place in Discworld. Pratchett is exrtemely humorous, and this is a very strange little novel, full of twists and turns, word-play, and just plain non-sense. This is the only reading I have done from this series, and I'm not sure I'll delve much farther, but it was a nice change of pace. If you want something light and fluffy, silly, funny, and rather interesting, you might give Pratchett a try.

And on another note, I am adding two titles to my Winter Reading Challenge List, mostly because they were thrust upon me in one way or another over that last couple of weeks:

The Mother-in_Law Dance: Can Two Women Love the Same Man and Still Get Along by Annie Chapman. This book was loaned to me by a lady who works out with me at Curves. She overheard me talking about marrying off a son, and having just done the same and just read this book, she brought it the next day to loan to me. It is pretty interesting and full of wisdom from what I've seen so far!

The White Witch by Elizabeth Goudge: This story of the English Civil War was being read by Dave on our recent trip, but after I finished Going Postal, I needed something else to read, and swapped with him.