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983 reviews for:
Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Todd Burpo
3.66 AVERAGE
983 reviews for:
Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
Todd Burpo
3.66 AVERAGE
You will get this little tingly feeling when reading this book!!! i promise!!
This book seemed to have helped me realize that I haven't connected with my spiritual side in a long time. I enjoyed the book and was wow'ed by the story.
I read this book because my church was reading it as part of a church-wide study (partly because a movie version was recently released, which could inspire discussions, and our rector wanted us to be familiar enough with the book to be able to have those discussions). In our Sunday school, we discussed the book and the theology presented in it from the perspective of our own denomination. My family read the book aloud together. My seven-year-old bowed out of the reading early because he found the book to be scary (heaven makes him think of hell, apparently, especially when Colton Burpo is shouting church-speak at funerals such as "He HAD to have Jesus in his heart, he HAD to"). My ten-year-old daughter, however, found the book fascinating. She didn't like it when we stopped reading and took the book to bed with her one night and read several chapters on her own, which was not particularly difficult for her to do, because, like most modern popular Christian literature, the book is written on about a sixth grade level.
I approached Heaven Is for Real with the skepticism that is natural to my personality. When a Christian heavily markets his story as a book, a separately sold study guide, a DVD study, AND a children's book…none of which is cheap…well, I tend to be a bit cynical. I believe in God and heaven, and I believe Colton may very well have had some kind of near-death experience of God or heaven, but I don't think that his childlike perception necessarily reflects the real God or the real heaven, and I think there's some danger in promoting his individual experience as though it is something to be studied (as one might study the words of a prophet). Over the years before this book was written, Colton, like any young child, might have embellished his story or told his parents what he thought they expected him to say, and the plethora of books and guides grown up around his experience probably put him in a position that makes it seem impossible for him to retract any part of his story.
The picture of heaven Colton paints is in many ways a stereotypical one, very much out of the pages of an illustrated children's Bible. As one can see from many of the reviews here, Todd Burpo's insistence that his son could not possibly have known many of the things he mentions sharpens the skepticism of many readers rather than increasing the credibility of the story. It sometimes had that effect on me as well. My daughter is not a pastor's kid like Colton, but as a member of a churchgoing family, and an attender of Christian preschool and Sunday school, at the age of four, she would have been familiar with most of the religious things Todd is presumably amazed that Colton mentions. How could Colton possibly have known Jesus wore colors the Bible mentions--white and purple? Or that he had a sash? I don't know—because that's how Jesus is pictured in a lot of children's Bibles? Todd marvels that Colton knows God is three persons, and I couldn't help but wonder, as a pastor's child, how could he NOT? How could you get to the age of four in a Christian house, a pastor's house, week after week of Sunday school, night after night of Bible stories, and not have a basic understanding of the concept of the Trinity? Todd marvels that Colton could possibly know Jesus sits on God's right hand, but "on the right hand of God" is hardly an obscure or rarely mentioned concept in Christian circles. I'm not saying Colton didn't or couldn't have seen these things – I really don't know – but Todd's insistence that they are beyond the theological grasp of a four-year-old without some supernatural experience is not believable to me. When my daughter was four, she stood over a pile of raked leaves and shouted, "In 40 days, if Nineveh does not repent, it shall be destroyed!" and then jumped into the leaves. Christian kids in active, Christian families know quite a bit of scripture, and they often have active imaginations.
On the whole, I think the book reinforces the somewhat shallow, popular notions of what heaven is. These aren't bad notions – they're popular for a reason – but they aren't substantial. The book presents a child's view of heaven, and a child's view of heaven can be comforting to a child and even to an adult, but this is not a theologically rich book. What theology there is conveniently aligns with popular evangelicalism on nearly every point.
The most interesting part of the book was its mention of a young girl, a daughter of an atheist, who had visions of heaven and painted prodigy-like paintings of Jesus and other things in heaven. That seems like it would be a more interesting story to read about. (Her story touches Colton's because Colton saw her picture of Jesus, and, of all the pictures his parents showed him, it was the only one he said was "right.")
The book is not likely to convince an agnostic that heaven is for real. It may offer some extra reassurance to the person who already believes in heaven. In general, though, it reinforces the idea of heaven as "some place up there in the clouds" rather than concentrating on God come down to man, the bodily resurrection, and the creation of a "new heaven and the new earth." It makes me want to re-read NT Wright's [b:Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church|2319645|Surprised by Hope Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church|N.T. Wright|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347624226s/2319645.jpg|2326165].
I approached Heaven Is for Real with the skepticism that is natural to my personality. When a Christian heavily markets his story as a book, a separately sold study guide, a DVD study, AND a children's book…none of which is cheap…well, I tend to be a bit cynical. I believe in God and heaven, and I believe Colton may very well have had some kind of near-death experience of God or heaven, but I don't think that his childlike perception necessarily reflects the real God or the real heaven, and I think there's some danger in promoting his individual experience as though it is something to be studied (as one might study the words of a prophet). Over the years before this book was written, Colton, like any young child, might have embellished his story or told his parents what he thought they expected him to say, and the plethora of books and guides grown up around his experience probably put him in a position that makes it seem impossible for him to retract any part of his story.
The picture of heaven Colton paints is in many ways a stereotypical one, very much out of the pages of an illustrated children's Bible. As one can see from many of the reviews here, Todd Burpo's insistence that his son could not possibly have known many of the things he mentions sharpens the skepticism of many readers rather than increasing the credibility of the story. It sometimes had that effect on me as well. My daughter is not a pastor's kid like Colton, but as a member of a churchgoing family, and an attender of Christian preschool and Sunday school, at the age of four, she would have been familiar with most of the religious things Todd is presumably amazed that Colton mentions. How could Colton possibly have known Jesus wore colors the Bible mentions--white and purple? Or that he had a sash? I don't know—because that's how Jesus is pictured in a lot of children's Bibles? Todd marvels that Colton knows God is three persons, and I couldn't help but wonder, as a pastor's child, how could he NOT? How could you get to the age of four in a Christian house, a pastor's house, week after week of Sunday school, night after night of Bible stories, and not have a basic understanding of the concept of the Trinity? Todd marvels that Colton could possibly know Jesus sits on God's right hand, but "on the right hand of God" is hardly an obscure or rarely mentioned concept in Christian circles. I'm not saying Colton didn't or couldn't have seen these things – I really don't know – but Todd's insistence that they are beyond the theological grasp of a four-year-old without some supernatural experience is not believable to me. When my daughter was four, she stood over a pile of raked leaves and shouted, "In 40 days, if Nineveh does not repent, it shall be destroyed!" and then jumped into the leaves. Christian kids in active, Christian families know quite a bit of scripture, and they often have active imaginations.
On the whole, I think the book reinforces the somewhat shallow, popular notions of what heaven is. These aren't bad notions – they're popular for a reason – but they aren't substantial. The book presents a child's view of heaven, and a child's view of heaven can be comforting to a child and even to an adult, but this is not a theologically rich book. What theology there is conveniently aligns with popular evangelicalism on nearly every point.
The most interesting part of the book was its mention of a young girl, a daughter of an atheist, who had visions of heaven and painted prodigy-like paintings of Jesus and other things in heaven. That seems like it would be a more interesting story to read about. (Her story touches Colton's because Colton saw her picture of Jesus, and, of all the pictures his parents showed him, it was the only one he said was "right.")
The book is not likely to convince an agnostic that heaven is for real. It may offer some extra reassurance to the person who already believes in heaven. In general, though, it reinforces the idea of heaven as "some place up there in the clouds" rather than concentrating on God come down to man, the bodily resurrection, and the creation of a "new heaven and the new earth." It makes me want to re-read NT Wright's [b:Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church|2319645|Surprised by Hope Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church|N.T. Wright|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347624226s/2319645.jpg|2326165].
I thought this book was pretty fascinating. I am bewildered when it comes to thinking about after life, but this cute little kid's interpretation is one I'd like to hope is real. The book gives background information on to the events that took place and stuff about the family. I thought it was neat how the writer compared Colton's re-tale of what happened to him in heaven with that of the bible.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I wanted to be amazed but mostly I just thought it seems like a fabricated tale of a family who loves Jesus seeing what they want to see. Lots of scripture quoting to qualify a child’s imagination. I have a hard time believing “heaven” would be so polarizing.