Searching for God Knows What
by Donald Miller
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Book Summary Information
Author: Donald MillerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-10-13
ISBN: 0785263713
Number of pages: 256
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Book Reviews of Searching for God Knows What
Book Review: Discovering Our Future in Faith
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a powerful paperback book that many churches are finding refreshing and insightful to provide a new look at the community that has developed around them while they were sleeping in their comfortable Modern Rationalist religious homesteads. They find themselves unable to talk to their non-Christian neighbors about anything meaningful.
Miller writes out of his own experience of discovery in his own spiritual pilgrimage. This is a hilarious book, that often had me bursting out unexpectedly because of his splashes of off-hand delights as he expressed an experience or described a situation. He also has a healthy ability to laugh at himself and in this way puts his own limitations in perspective! This helps the reader approach deep challenges requiring change in our attitudes as we discover that there are whole areas of reality out there that we did not yet know about!
Millions have read his delightful book Blue Like Jazz and other books about his trek through through life. Here he is more reflective and presents a more analytical survey of what he sees in current society and how the message of Jesus might address it.
This is one of the volumes in which Miller has addressed the changing and changed culture many churches are puzzled to see around them. The current western American culture is not based in Christian religious traditions, has no knowledge of Christian or biblical stories or basic concepts and is oriented to a world very different from that of the traditional educated rationalist culture of abstract established doctrine.
They find the current generation asking questions about life and reality and truth that many churches find themselves unequipped to answer, largely because they have accepted a pre-packaged faith that was handed down in the cultural forms and language of the past. The church speaks a language no one else still speaks. Often they cannot express their faith themselves, other than in religious cliches and traditional terms.
Many Modern Christians (also called Modernist, including liberal and fundamentalist ways of thinking) are unable to express their faith in common terms of speech used outside the church. This increases the sense among the society at large that "Christianity" is irrelevant and outdated and "Christians" as uneducated and unaware.
This further blurs the distinction between Christianity as a religion or religious institution and real faith found in the the teachings and life of Jesus and the New Testament writings. Non-Christian society usually does not even know what "Christians" believe. There is little communication going on. Miller addresses this situation.
The current generation is now usually referred as Post-modern, indicating they have moved past the rationalist and naturalistic assumptions of the Enlightenment foundations of the Modern worldview. They are seeking spiritual values beyond the empirical, scientific categories that are established only through the human senses and their technological enhancements.
One thing I liked about this book by Donald Miller was that he was so intent on referring everything back to the Bible, bypassing the inherited cultural traditions that are the real basis of much of what we see in Modern Christianity. He wants to focus on the faith of Jesus and the concepts of the New Testaments more than the developed western cultural traditions.
I got this book at a small rural Methodist Church in Pennsylvania, where the church was providing these free to members and visitors. It was good to see a rather traditional church in a very traditional Allegheny village providing this resource. This would be a way to learn more about the larger swift-flowing American secular culture, and perhaps help these folks of faith understand differences they were observing in their work in larger urban areas and in their TV news.
I recommend this and other books by Miller. This is one author who is wrestling to understand his society with its exciting multi-cultural challenges and opportunities, and discover how God is working in today's world just as others historically discovered God working in their life and times.
As the previous eras of western culture discovered, learned and adapted, let's do that by accepting the challenge to know and understand the cultural stream flowing around us and step out to communicate. Miller is one strong resource for that trek.
Summary of Searching for God Knows What
In Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller's provocative and funny book, he shows readers that the greatest desire of every person is the desire for redemption. Every person is constantly seeking redemption (or at least the feeling of it) in his or her life, believing countless gospels that promise to fix the brokenness. Typically their pursuits include the desire for fulfilling relationships, successful careers, satisfying religious systems, status, and escape. Miller reveals how the inability to find redemption leads to chaotic relationships, self-hatred, the accumulation of meaningless material possessions, and a lack of inner peace. Readers will learn to identify in themselves and within others the universal desire for redemption. They will discover that the gospel of Jesus is the only way to find meaning in life and true redemption. Mature believers as well as seekers and new Christians will find themselves identifying with the narrative journey unfolded in the book, which is simply the pursuit of redemption.
"Miller . . . writes on faith with candor and passion reminiscent of Frederick Buechner and Anne Lamott." -The Oregonian
"Like a shaken snow globe, Donald Miller's newest collection of essays creates a swirl of ideas about the Christian life that eventually crystallize into a lovely landscape . . . [He] is one of the evangelical book market's most creative writers." -Christianity Today
"For fans of Blue Like Jazz, I doubt you will be disappointed. Donald Miller writes with the wit and vulnerability that you expect. Sharing stories of his upbringing and his journey in more recent years, he perfectly illustrates important themes in a genuine and humorous manner . . . For those who would be reading Miller for the first time, this would be a great start. -Relevant
"Whenever people ask me about Donald Miller, I notice the first thing I say is, 'That guy can write.' Having met Don, I also know he seeks to live what he writes, or better said, he writes what he lives. That, I think, is the top credential for a person who writes about ultimate concerns-spirituality, meaning, purpose, life, God, and joy. In Searching for God Knows What, you'll find more of his great writing, honest feeling, and spiritual insight to help you on your journey. -Brian McLaren Pastor, Author-www.anewkindofchristian.com
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