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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
First off, I should say that I'm not going to approach this book from any one perspective, I have my own beliefs and that's fine. I've read a number of other reviews of this books, and they all adequately question the poor quality of the prose and the sporadic nature of the writing. I'm not going to comment on the theology or otherwise of this book, because I don't think it really has one.
Claiborne is clearly passionate, but the price which he pays for this passion is to have produced a book which is part theology, part diatribe, part philosophical tract, part written sermon but ultimately ends up a mess of non sequiters and snatched quotations from the Bible, MLK and Mother Teresa.
The few asides to philosophy (Kierkegaard, Buber and Nietzsche all get a mention) feel like the misnomas of a 17 year old who walks everywhere with a copy of 'Catcher in the Rye' and talks about how his life is a constant fight against the suppression by his orthodox parents but actually the only action this ever leads to is sitting in a coffee shop and explaining about how everything is terrible.
I do agree with Claiborne's overall points about the state of the church and how religion is misalinged for political gains. What he fails to offer though, is anything more than a series of ancedotes about being what he calls 'an ordinary radical'. I read this entire book, and in the end, all I can conclude an 'ordinary radical' to be is a 21st century evolution of a hippy but with less drugs and more Christianity.
That may be an overly harsh reaction and I'm not suggesting that I could articulate my own perspective on life as coherently as Clairborne does here. What I find myself searching for (and without success) is an actual argument, or at least a point. I'm not wanting to read books which adhere to my own perspective, but I'd like them to try and do something more than discuss a collection of loosely connected points without really coming to any form of conclusion at the end.
A well meaning book, but one which has a metaphorical spine as flimsy as its physical one.
Claiborne is clearly passionate, but the price which he pays for this passion is to have produced a book which is part theology, part diatribe, part philosophical tract, part written sermon but ultimately ends up a mess of non sequiters and snatched quotations from the Bible, MLK and Mother Teresa.
The few asides to philosophy (Kierkegaard, Buber and Nietzsche all get a mention) feel like the misnomas of a 17 year old who walks everywhere with a copy of 'Catcher in the Rye' and talks about how his life is a constant fight against the suppression by his orthodox parents but actually the only action this ever leads to is sitting in a coffee shop and explaining about how everything is terrible.
I do agree with Claiborne's overall points about the state of the church and how religion is misalinged for political gains. What he fails to offer though, is anything more than a series of ancedotes about being what he calls 'an ordinary radical'. I read this entire book, and in the end, all I can conclude an 'ordinary radical' to be is a 21st century evolution of a hippy but with less drugs and more Christianity.
That may be an overly harsh reaction and I'm not suggesting that I could articulate my own perspective on life as coherently as Clairborne does here. What I find myself searching for (and without success) is an actual argument, or at least a point. I'm not wanting to read books which adhere to my own perspective, but I'd like them to try and do something more than discuss a collection of loosely connected points without really coming to any form of conclusion at the end.
A well meaning book, but one which has a metaphorical spine as flimsy as its physical one.
This book was uneven. At some points, it was so poignant that I put it down more thoughtful and inspired. At others, I felt it immature in its approach; those sections often had to do with feminism, or with engaging with the rest of the world, where Claiborne was very well-intentioned, but perhaps had not spent enough time listening to the voices of the populations about which he was talking. My hope is that he, like all of us, is evolving, and has, by now, come to grow on those points where the book feels "meh." That said, those inspirational passages were really good, and will stick with me for a long time.
We read this book in our small group and really enjoyed it! By the end it felt kind of repetitive—it generated a lot of good discussions, but by the end we were having the same discussions that we'd had before. They were still good discussions though, so I'd say overall this book is a win. I'd definitely recommend the audiobook, it's really fun to listen to.
