Sunday, April 15, 2007
Miller, D (2003) Blue like Jazz - Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything. She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she had talked to Him on the phone that day. She- was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians 1 had encountered. They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it's like they really weren't listening to me; they didn't care, they just wanted me to buy their product. 1 came to realize that 1 had judged all Christians on the personalities of a few. That was frightening for me, too, because it had been so easy just to dismiss Christians as nuts, but here was Nadine. I didn't have a category for her. pp46
A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America-about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.
pp 111
IT SHOULD BE SAID 1 AM AN INDEPENDENT PERSON. I don't like institutionalized anything. I don't like corporations. I am not saying institutions and corporations are wrong, or bad 1 am only saying I don't like them. Some people don't like classical music, some people don't like pizza, 1 don't like institutions. My dislike might stem from a number of things, from the nonpersonal feel 1 get when I walk into a corporate office or the voicemail system I encounter when 1 call my bank. It might be the nonengaged look on every fast-food worker's face or the phone calls I receive in the 'middle of dinner asking me what longdistance carrier 1 use. Those people never want to just talk; they always have an agenda.
pp129
"Love your neighbour as yourself"
231
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A friend of mine, a young pastor who recently started a church, talks to me from time to time about the new face of church in America-about the postmodern church. He says the new church will be different from the old one, that we will be relevant to culture and the human struggle. I don't think any church has ever been relevant to culture, to the human struggle, unless it believed in Jesus and the power of His gospel. If the supposed new church believes in trendy music and cool Web pages, then it is not relevant to culture either. It is just another tool of Satan to get people to be passionate about nothing.
pp 111
IT SHOULD BE SAID 1 AM AN INDEPENDENT PERSON. I don't like institutionalized anything. I don't like corporations. I am not saying institutions and corporations are wrong, or bad 1 am only saying I don't like them. Some people don't like classical music, some people don't like pizza, 1 don't like institutions. My dislike might stem from a number of things, from the nonpersonal feel 1 get when I walk into a corporate office or the voicemail system I encounter when 1 call my bank. It might be the nonengaged look on every fast-food worker's face or the phone calls I receive in the 'middle of dinner asking me what longdistance carrier 1 use. Those people never want to just talk; they always have an agenda.
pp129
"Love your neighbour as yourself"
231
Comments:
More questions than answers.
There's a section of the Christian establishment that hates that sentiments and denies it with a passion in relation to anything to do with Christianity.
I like it.
It's the ultimate recognition that God is God and I am not.
It fosters humility.
To a point.
There's a risk, I think, however, of wearing doubt like a crown. Of parading unanswered questions as evidence of a superior understanding of scripture as inscrutable mystery. Of ridiculing those who think they have answers to questions to which you think there are none, or at least none that we can fathom this side of eternity.
In short, there's a risk of arrogance if you think that answers are easy but doubt requires genuine intellect.
I don't think Miller succumbs to this risk but his readers would do well to bear it in mind for themselves. (or at least, this one would!) Read correctly, this book gives space for questions to be floated, tossed around like balloons in a youth group object lesson, and owned, without fear of recrimination from those for whom doubt is a weakness, which it is not.
Neither is it always a strength.
It is however, a reality, and something to be embraced if we want to understand what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
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There's a section of the Christian establishment that hates that sentiments and denies it with a passion in relation to anything to do with Christianity.
I like it.
It's the ultimate recognition that God is God and I am not.
It fosters humility.
To a point.
There's a risk, I think, however, of wearing doubt like a crown. Of parading unanswered questions as evidence of a superior understanding of scripture as inscrutable mystery. Of ridiculing those who think they have answers to questions to which you think there are none, or at least none that we can fathom this side of eternity.
In short, there's a risk of arrogance if you think that answers are easy but doubt requires genuine intellect.
I don't think Miller succumbs to this risk but his readers would do well to bear it in mind for themselves. (or at least, this one would!) Read correctly, this book gives space for questions to be floated, tossed around like balloons in a youth group object lesson, and owned, without fear of recrimination from those for whom doubt is a weakness, which it is not.
Neither is it always a strength.
It is however, a reality, and something to be embraced if we want to understand what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
# posted by 
: 3:28 AM
: 3:28 AM