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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
challenging
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
An interesting premise, but it lacked oomph. I feel like Galli started with the gospel and traced it back to attributes of Christ that he feels are often overlooked by the church today: Here is the gospel, and what does that tell us about Christ? Which is a fine thing to do, but the book purports to start with Jesus himself and his seemingly unpalatable actions and words, so I think it would have been more effective to say: Here is the Jesus of the Bible, and what does that tell us about the gospel? It may be an overly subtle distinction, but I think the second approach better addresses the very real issues some people have with seeing Christ as He is, rather than as they imagine or want him to be. Also, I felt that aspects of Jesus that he chose are not really the best examples of the meanness and wildness of the incarnate God as revealed in Scripture.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Galli is an evangelical Anglican, and I'm a mainline Episcopalian, so I'm sure there are things we'd disagree about. But his approach to Jesus and scripture is vigorous and inspiring for me. It does help to see Jesus both as meek and mild AND mean and wild. Admittedly some of his points about shame, physical force and intimidation, and fear make me squirm, but I found myself wanting to understand the point he was trying to make, rather than dismiss it all out of hand. It was helpful to read his critique not only of mega churches, legalistic evangelicalism, prosperity gospel, and "church planting for cool people" but also his critique of a tolerant God, laid back theology, and that mainline churches can be boring, bland, and showcase a loving Jesus without any anger or bite to him. An easy read, but with quotes from hefty (if typical) Christian thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, Annie Dillard, Kierkegaard, and Martin Luther King.
I was expecting a book about Jesus. Jesus Mean and Wild>/i> is a book about humans who misunderstand Jesus. Essentially the message is that God as Jesus loves us so much that he has to be mean to us and make us suffer. That’s not a new message, but Galli claims it has been lost in the making of Jesus into our own image—the meek and mild Jesus who wants us to have our hearts’ desires. Galli suggests it is more important to be loving and be perceived as mean than it is to be nice and nonconfrontational. This, he argues is the true spirit of Jesus. As someone generally opposed to the perpetuation of redemptive suffering, parts of the book I simply disagreed with, but I liked the idea of accepting God on God’s terms and not forcing Him into our own manageable paradigms because we are afraid to accept the truth. Despite the random personal narratives and the distracting jaunts through history, there is truth and conviction in this text.
The premise of this book sounded so interesting. I looked forward to reading about a God who would live up to the title of this book. Untame-able, indeed! However, Galli, (whose writing I do enjoy on Christianity Today does not quite reach my expectations with this offering. I found the ideas somewhat watered down, bland, and boring. Nothing mean nor wild about it. Truly disappointing.