Skip to main content

Review: The Original Jesus: Trading the Myths We Create for the Savior Who Is by Daniel Darling



Review: The Original Jesus: Trading the Myths We Create for the Savior Who Is
Daniel Darling
Baker Books
2015

This book is one the target audience will probably never read.  The cover is less than attractive for starters.  The back page clearly identifies Darling with several conservative organizations that carry enough assumed baggage to deter many readers.  For those that persevere the contents will not disappoint their expectations.

bookThose that most need to rethink who Jesus is generally respond to a different style of writing and presentation in my opinion.  The author may like lattes, but that’s about as far he’ll get with many people.  But, I thought maybe I had misread him, so I tried his blog.  The same “I need to correct your theology” tone oozed from that as well.  

I don’t write many reviews this negative, but this one I just couldn’t avoid.  What the author has to say is important, but he doesn’t seem to know his audience or prefers preaching to the choir in my opinion.  

I would ask that you read this book and form your own opinion just to give this author a fair shake.

I received this book from the publisher in return for a review.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense Dr. Larry Crabb Baker Books 2018 I chose this book because the title intrigued me.   When God’s Ways Make No Sense.    There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit.   Are we even allowed to say something like that?   Even if we think it.   So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it? As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote.   The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not.   His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either.   Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology.   Or at least I think so.   I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating. That said, the book does provoke thoughts from th

Review: Anatomy of the Soul

Anatomy of the Soul Curt Thompson. M.D. Salt River, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2010 This is the most helpful,insightful book I’ve read in a long time. There’s advice, guidance, explanations and examples to illustrate discussion offered by the author. Best of all, for me anyway, it explains some of what I had suspected about how things work all along. Dr. Thompson links human anatomy and physiology to the spiritual part of our being throughout the text. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And God uses His creation of the physical body in amazing ways. The author does a great job showing God’s wisdom found in research and the discoveries that science has made recently in neuroscience. Whether science wants to or not, it is describing the wonders of creation. Read this book. The text will require thought, evaluation, and time to go through. The author’s writing style is quite readable and he covers the material well. While this isn’t a how to or self help boo

Review: What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission. by Kevin DeYoung and Gregory D. Gilbert

DeYoung and Gilbert have authored a thoughtful look at the mission of the church. The first task they undertook was to sort through the different ideas and definitions of mission. They do arrive at what seems a reasonable definition, which means I generally agree with it. Much of the book is devoted to developing their theme that mission and ministries can be distinctly different, even to the place of losing sight of one another altogether. Another point they make later is that the church, a Christian, and a bunch of Christians do not necessarily have the same focus, mission, or ministry. That is a very important point and I think needs to revisited and expanded. The confusion that these authors see about the mission of the church is based in that area, I think. But, as well written as this book is, the crowning glory for it is the epilogue, a fictitious conversation between a young church starter and a mature pastor. If for no other reason than this epilogue, this bo