Well, I have this problem you see - I've got this friend who is a great guy and whom I really like who has written a book that I need to review - but I really don't care for the book - what do I do?
Such is the dilemma I face in reviewing Jason Boyett's book - Pocket Guide to the Bible. Jason really is a great guy. He and I have corresponded by e-mail on several occasions and I always enjoy our correspondence. He has written a couple of books for young men that I acquired for my sons and was kind enough to autograph them for my sons - in one of them he even told my son to listen to his father - how can you not love a guy who does this.
So, I wish that Jason may live long and prosper, and I will look forward to reading many excellent books from his pen in the future, and I'll plan to look back on this little book as an aberration in an otherwise fine writing career.
It's funny, all of the things I found so witty and charming about his prior book - Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse - I find bothersome and/or troublesome in this one. The Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse was full of hip lingo and snarkiness that I believed fit the context of that book. The end times is a subject for which so much foolishness and errant stuff has been said and written that I felt the snarkiness was in order.
But that kind of silliness doesn't work on a book about the Bible itself. There is a sense of gravity and submission that we are to have when we read the Bible. And if a book that is designed to get people to read the Bible begins with a snarky, silly point of view, I don't see how that attitude is to be transformed into one of gravity when we move on to the Bible.
I realize that I am out of touch withthe younger generation and I am even further out of touch with cool and hip people, the ones to whom this book seems to be written. I also realize that there may be some of them who will read this book and start reading the Bible and have their hearts transformed, and I do hope and pray that is the case and will bless the Lord and Jason as it happens.
But for this uncool, a-hip old man, I just couldn't get down or do whatever else cool people are supposed to do with this book.
Sorry 'bout that Jason- I still love ya man - I'll look forward to the next book.
Related Tags: Books, Religion, Theology, Bible, Christian, Christianity
So it's only OK to be snarky about the Bible as read by people who come to conclusions you find ludicrous?
I'd tend to think this approach should be off-limits when dealing with revelation as handled by anyone within the bounds of Christian charity--even if I sometimes fail to control my anger, I can't think I'd feel justified to publish something so insincere and evasive as "snarkiness" without retractions.
Take care,
PGE
Posted by: pgepps | October 04, 2006 at 11:22 PM