Image: Blue Like Jazz by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 9 out of 10. An unconventional and entertaining book on Christian living that confronts American Christian culture and challenges the reader to authentically pursue a relationship with Jesus.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD, author of unJoy / 2.26.2022; No. 76
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Star Rating – 9 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Donald Miller
About the author
Donald Miller is a speaker, host of the Business Made Simple podcast, author of several bestselling books, and the CEO of StoryBrand, a marketing company based in Nashville, Tennessee.
General description
Blue Like Jazz is a Christian book for people who want Jesus but not the negative aspects of modern Christianity. The back cover describes the text as a “fresh and original perspective on life, love, and redemption.” In this book, Donald Miller shares a series of unflattering and humorous stories from his life and how he came to a different understanding of faith in Jesus. The author explores problems within Christian culture and examines his transformation from being a mainstream Christian to having an identity only explainable through his relationship with Jesus.
Unique and most important aspects
Blue Like Jazz is a book that is unconventional in many ways. A common finding among other books on Christian living involves the author earnestly expressing an opinion that is then supported by a quote from the Bible. In contrast, Donald Miller includes cartoons in a couple of his chapters. The author weaves in and out of stories from his life in a manner that is mostly conversational and at times stream-of-consciousness. The thoughts and experiences of Donald Miller are genuinely funny, in part, due to their being embarrassingly candid. His writing style is highly engaging – neither forced nor highly organized. The author simply tells story after story.
I’ve read Blue Like Jazz several times. The book is nearly 20 years old. I find it interesting how provocative this book seemed to me when it was first released. By today’s standards of societal discord, it now appears relatively tame. However, I could imagine readers who are strongly aligned with the Republican party being offended at times by the author’s negative view of the association of Christianity and the Republican party or mixing of politics and religion in general. Important concepts from this book include:
Differentiating Christianity and Christian spirituality
Addressing the negative history and stereotypes of Christians
The story about the confession booth at Reed College
The problems of using a war metaphor in Christian evangelism
The reasons behind being faithful in tithing
The importance of relationships over opinion and love over likemindedness
The attractiveness of Jesus and the barriers to faith that can exist due to religious dogma
Best quotes
“The guilt was so heavy that I fell out of bed onto my knees and begged, not a slot-machine God, but a living, feeling God, to stop the pain.”
“I think Jesus feels strongly about communicating the idea of our brokenness, and I think it is worth reflection. Nothing is going to change in the Congo until you and I figure out what is wrong with the person in the mirror.”
“The message, however, was appealing to me. God said he would make me new. I can’t pretend for a second I didn’t want to be made new, that I didn’t want to start again. I did.”
“My belief in Jesus did not seem rational or scientific, and yet there was nothing I could do to separate myself from this belief. I think Laura was looking for something rational, because she believed that all things that were true were rational. But that isn’t the case. Love, for example, is a true emotion, but it is not rational.”
“Stop ten people on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear the word Christianity, and they will give you ten different answers. How can I defend a term that means 10 different things to ten different people? I told the radio show host that I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe that Jesus exists and that he likes me. The host looked back at me with tears in his eyes. When we were done, he asked me if we could go get lunch together. He told me how much he didn’t like Christianity but how he had always wanted to believe Jesus was the Son of God.”
“For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained.”
“The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money…I used love like money. The church used love like money. With love, we withheld affirmation from the people who did not agree with us, but we lavishly financed the ones who did.”
“I think the most important thing that happens within Christian spirituality is when a person falls in love with Jesus.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who are interested in an engaging, humorous book on Christian living that focuses on Christian spirituality rather than mainstream Christianity would likely enjoy Blue Like Jazz.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who would be turned off by a book that criticizes American Christian culture and the notion that the Republican party is Christian are unlikely to enjoy Blue Like Jazz.
Conclusion
Blue Like Jazz is an unconventional and entertaining book on Christian living that confronts American Christian culture and challenges the reader to authentically pursue a relationship with Jesus.