Blue Like Jazz
My mom was the one who recommended this book to me, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the local library carried it. It didn't take long to read, but it definitely had me thinking. I should start by saying that I really enjoyed it, although I can't say that I agreed with Donald Miller on every point he made. What I did like was his honesty about his own struggles as a Christian. I've grown tired of Christian cliches, such as the Purpose-Driven Life campaign. That's largely just bumper-sticker theology and doesn't do anything to help me in my own Christian walk. But Miller's honesty was refreshing, if occasionally frustrating.
My favorite aspect of this book was Miller's willingness to take part in and engage the culture at a place like Reed College. Many Christians would stay away from Reed, because of its liberal reputation. But I don't think Christianity is about running away, and we can't create a clean and perfect world of isolation. Even more than Miller's involvement in the local culture, I liked his honesty about how difficult it is. I am the person who would live thirty miles outside town and turn into the weird hermit writer. But his pastor was right: that's not what Christians should do. We don't live for ourselves anymore; we are daily making sacrifices to self, because that is our calling as disciples of Christ. I wish I would say I'm better at it, but I'm not. That's not much of an excuse, though, and this book reminded me that I need to keep my focus in the right place.
There were things I didn't like about the book, although some of them are a little nit-picky. I thought a few of his ideas and the conclusions he drew about Christianity were a little wonky at times. But I don't know if that's just because I'm pretty steeped in the routine of Christianity. I'll probably have to read it again to decide. I loved the idea of the confessional booth, although I'll admit something about it bugged me. Do we really need to apologize for the Crusades? (Like I said, I'm nit-picking.) Of course, that wasn't the point of the exercise, but it irked me nonetheless. My mom said she didn't like the part about his living in the woods with the hippies, because the hippies weren't (in her opinion) demonstrating true love; they were just demonstrating general tolerance for everything and everyone. I think she's half-way right, although I think the people he lived with in the woods were genuinely believing that they loved everyone.
All in all, I'm glad I read the book. In a way, it reminded me of a book I read a while back, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, by Thomas Cahill. I don't know if Cahill is a Christian, be he made some excellent points about what Christ commanded and how Christians have fallen short of that. Another good read, for anyone who is interested.
posted by B @ 4:07 PM
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“Life is too short to read a book you don’t love. At age 50 or younger give a book 50 pages to see if you like it. Over 50, subtract your age from 100 and that’s the number of pages to read before you bail on a book you’re not enjoying. And when you turn 100, you get to judge a book by its cover!”
Nancy Pearl.
Over this last weekend I read Blue Like Jazz. As I write this review I’m sitting in the Starbucks in Terminal B of the Cincinnati airport, cup of Earl Grey in hand an hour left before I see any real need to head towards my departure gate. Contemplating the aroma of my favorite black tea I read the above quote on the side of my cup. I smile. I failed to take that advice when reading Blue Like Jazz.
First, a brief note on the writing style. I think Miller’s writing style could be appropriately likened to blue jeans and a ratty tee-shirt on paper. The writing style is informal, lazy and conversational in form, expressing the equally unimpressive rambling of a 30+ bachelor who left me wondering at times if he was mentally and emotionally balanced.
As to the substance of the book, I found it consisted largely of self-reflectant statements of an individual identifying is own shortcomings and struggles. The aspect of the book that disturbed we the most was the apparent lack of resolve. Although, perhaps this lack of “resolve” is precisely what Miller intended ~ as reflected by his choice of title “Blue Like Jazz” and his quote on the back cover of the book “I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve...” The problem with Miller’s choice not to “resolve” the issues in his book, however, is that he presents the problem, tells of his own struggles and gives us an all to real look at the depravity of man without resolving the underlying issues. There is and can be a resolve to the life issues he raises.
Many of the issues he deals with in the book, he shrugs off as being “dead weight” to a true “Christian Spirituality.” Miller writes as if there is no right and wrong on many issues. He does except from that attitude the personal belief that Jesus is the Son of God.
While that belief is fundamental to “Christian Spirituality” as Miller terms it, Miller has failed to discuss what it means to have a Christian world view. Miller fails to acknowledge that there are absolutes–choosing rather to be “tolerate” and embrace all things so long as the name of “Jesus” is evoked. Examples of this abound within the pages of his book. Examples such as the cussing pastor, his communist roommate and his good friend who started an advertising business posing naked in his own brochure. Miller, rather than recognizing issues and problems and then dealing with them, merely observes them and moves on.
We as Christians in this depraved world have two distinct callings. One is to have an evangelical voice to our culture ~ going into all the world (wether our own neighborhood, India or Reed College) and preaching the gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That calling, while broader than a mere confession that Jesus is the Christ, certainly includes such a profession. Like Philip taught the Ethiopian, you must believe with your whole heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
The second calling we have as Christians is to have a prophetic voice in our time. This second calling, given to us from God’s word is to be the “salt and light” in this world. It is to pull our culture “up short” look it in the face and, like the prophets of old, declare that it must repent and change. Miller’s book not only misses the essential nature of what it means to be “salt and light” but I came away from the book wondering if Miller even knows that the culture is headed the wrong way.
Instead of being tolerant we are called to stand...stand in love and call our world to revolutionary change – call our world to repent – call our world to Jesus. This call, however, is more than a personal experience – IT IS A WORLDVIEW CHANGE! With Jesus at the center of all of life, suddenly there is a right and wrong, a clear picture of morality.
That is not to say that there aren’t any good points reflected in this Book. Miller points out that for many of us, our faith is passive. We attend church service, Sunday school or show up at the church potluck with the required side dish and dessert. Miller correctly points out that often we as Christians fail to act as we are commanded, to feed the hungry, cloth the poor, visit the sick and imprisoned and care for the widows and orphans. Miller’s book is a good reminder that wherever we are at, we are called to reach beyond ourselves. To love our neighbors and to act as we have been commanded.
After closing the back cover on this book, however, I disappointedly concluded, I would not recommend this book.
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