FROM THE INTRODUCTION
I’ve organized this book in two parts—one for the bad news, the other for the good.
Part One takes a long, hard look at the God who hides within and maintains the institutional structure of evangelical Christianity. Evangelicals do not have a “lock” on this God—“he” has appeared, in one guise or another, in many times and places throughout the history of Christianity, and he shows up in non-Christian religions as well. But evangelicals have put a particular spin on him, and that spin has shaped my life and my religious experience for over sixty years.
In order to know myself, I have had to become more familiar with this God, and try to understand him from the inside. I will show that this God does not give evidence of a truly loving heart, and this makes it hard for his children to love him, as Jesus urged, “with all our heart” (Mark 12:30). Once we can admit we don’t love this unlovable God “with all our heart”—a very painful admission, to be sure—I believe we will have passed an important milestone on the journey to find and love a truer, better God.
Part Two is about this truer, better God. I hear this God’s liberating word in the living spirit and the dying gasps of the shabby human being who was nailed, two thousand years ago, to a splintered pole in Palestine. Unlike the “bad-news God” of evangelicalism, this human God feels genuine warmth for me—in the words of the familiar hymn, “just as I am”—and my heart instinctively reciprocates. In the embrace of this human God, my fear of God and my religiously-inspired enmity toward myself begin to find relief.
Doug Frank
This is a beautiful piece of work, extraordinary for its spiritual and theological—as well as its psychological and sociological—insight. In the first half of the book, I thought, “This is the best and deepest diagnosis of what’s wrong with American evangelicalism I’ve ever read.” In the second half of the book, I thought, “This is one of the best and most moving accounts of Jesus’ humanity and death that I’ve ever read.”
This book will stay with me for a long time, and I will recommend it to many friends. In fact, I’ve already started making a list.
Brian McLaren
Speaker (www.brianmclaren.net)
Author of The Secret Message of Jesus and
Finding Our Way Again—and other titles
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Congratulations Doug! I can’t wait to read this!
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I can’t wait to read it either, Doug. I only wish I could have stopped by for that coffee/tea and received it from you in person.
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Congratulations, Doug. I look forward to getting a copy. May it be a blessing to many.
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A really beautiful cover this time, perfect. May not be able to judge the book by it but it certainly doesn’t hurt! I’ll be there in a couple weeks to buy one off you, if you’re there.
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ok Doug —this better be good because we’ve been waiting for it for —what— about 30 years now.
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Rich, oh it is good. I hope to discuss with you ASAP.
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SWEET! This looks really interesting… I’m going to have to find a way to get my hands on it so I can read it…
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oh hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I just ordered my copy! I cannot wait!
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Will this be out on any digital formats? Amazon Kindle maybe?
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Sorry – not anytime soon.
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received my copy in the mail last thursday and haven’t been able to put it down since … feels like a load is lifting from my spiritual life!
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Rich gave this book to me for my husband to read- we’ve been reading it together and already our everything has changed, and we are not even onto the good news yet:) The way you put words to the Evangelical experience is brilliant, I haven’t seen it done before in a way that speaks verbatim to what has been unsettled in our hearts. Thank you!
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I’ve just finished this book. Hopefully it will provoke some serious debate and soul searching among evangelicals.
I rate the book as the most significant since I entered pastoral ministry 6 years ago. It has helped provide me with an ‘intellectual’ explanation for a heart journey I have been on for almost 20 years – a journey which is a bit scary when outdated but deep seated, unchallenged shibboleths need to be sloughed off. Reminds me of CS Lewis’ claim that God is the great iconoclast and idol breaker of our outdated and inadequate images we hold of him which must be broken if we are to grow. Also relevant is the comment of the late Australian monk who wrote that we also need to break outdated and inadequate images of ourselves.
The first half of the book was, I thought, masterful and well argued from both Biblical and psychological perspectives. Especially revealing is the impact of certain evanglical leaders’ relationship with their fathers in influencing their image of God the Father. It effectively deconstructs the ‘Almighty’ idol of conservative evangelicalism (and traditional Catholicism).
The early chapters of the second half of the book when Doug is ‘reconstructing’ his image of God, offer an excellent, radical and very challenging interpretation of Mark’s Gospel which invites us to see in the humanity of Jesus the truest picture of God.
However, in the last couple of chapters I thought it seemed to lack the discipline of the earlier chapters, and lacked adequate wrestling with difficult scriptures re judgment, hell, God as Almighty, angry etc, which cannot be so easily discarded with a few references to psychological insights. It’s almost as if he were scared of a vacuum that admits it cannot explain some things and is content to be agnostic on some issues. I also have problems with the treatment of the resurrection.
However, overall a great book which I recommending to many friends. I hope it will challenge the unthinking acceptance within the church of evangelical orthodoxy which is actually wrong.
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Congrats! Did not know this was out. Kudos.
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Just sitting here wondering how I could commemorate this special day in the Spirit of Christ, unique n refreshing. In the story of Emmaus, the two disciples asked, “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road . . ” I’d love to feel that fire n sounds like this book would nurture that desire. Thanks for the post Greg.
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Got this book earlier in the year….this is one of the best books ever in my
opinion….so much gold to mine…..I will be rereading this again and again ….
This book deserves to be much more known than it is !! -
I have just finished the book recently – i have read many many books on the theme of God’s love and grace and this is simply one of the best books ever!!
It should be in every major christian bookstore! I have so many pages ‘penciled’ with notes etc and i will be going back through this over and over again for a long time. I resonated strongly with it’s warm perfect mix of theology and psychology – i felt like i was in a great counselling session whilst reading this – every time i picked it up!
Thanks for such a great book Doug!
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