I was low key obsessed with this book in college, and I wanted to revisit it and see if it held up. Hoo boy. No. No it does not.

A quick, reflective read with some thoughtful insights and funny self-deprecating stories

Miller is not exactly a prolific writer, but he has some beautiful ideas. He talks about his religion bravely.

4 stars for just the chapter 'Confession' alone. Powerful, thought-provoking stuff. I feel like a re-read is needed and I'm not even done with the book yet.

Miller has a definite voice. He's like a converted, reformed Bukowski. There's theological heft, if you're willing to think for yourself. A book for those of us looking to break free from the religious infrastructure and make Christianity practical.

A simple story with a main character whose feelings felt so much like my own that I could be changed by them:

God on a Dirt Road Walking Toward Me

"If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God. I was into habit. I grew up going to church, so I got used to hearing about God. He was like Uncle Harry or Aunt Sally except we didn't have pictures."

"...I can't be here anymore. I don't feel whole here. I feel, well, partly whole. Incomplete. Tired. It has nothing to do with this church; it's all me. Something got crossed in the wires, and I became the person I should be and not the person I am. It feels like I should go back and get the person I am and bring him here to the person I should be."

"...the trouble with deep belief is that it costs something. And there is something inside me, some selfish beast of a subtle thing that doesn't like the truth at all because it carries responsibility, and if I actually believe these things I have to do something about them. It si so, so cumbersome to believe anything. An it isn't cool...it is not a fashionable thing to believe."

There are blurbs out there saying that if you like Anne Lamott, you'll like this guy. Don't believe them.

worthwhile message compromised by an inflated self-awareness / self-congratulatory attitude that can quickly become annoying

"Today I wonder why it is God refers to Himself as 'Father' at all. This, to me, in light of the earthly representation of the role, seems a marketing mistake." Blue Like Jazz hooked me early on, in part due to lines like this. But mostly, I was hooked because the themes are right down my alley, so to speak. I consider myself a Christian who is very uncomfortable with calling myself a Christian. I shy away from the title, just like the author does when asked to defend Christianity on a radio show. He, like me, is conscious of the distorted non-Christlike character of American evangelicalism.

In one passage, the author recounts an encounter with a writer who presents a “trendy” spirituality: “I felt as if I were being visited by the ghost of Christmas future, and the ghost was saying, ‘Hey, Don, you’re going to end up like this guy: a yuppie Christian writer with no backbone!’” Funnily enough, this is exactly how I began to feel towards Donald Miller as I continued to read this memoir. The aspects of the book which I related to early on became an unsettling mirror reflection.

Miller says things like, “Jesus did not mix His spirituality with politics.” What could be more obnoxiously trendy than that? He looks back on the days in which he protested Bush’s invasion of Afghanistan as if that were a childlike thing to do, as if a follower of Christ should not be calling out injustice.

This book might appear to offer insightful reflections about Christianity, but Miller makes sure to stop short of any intellectual engagement. Instead he describes the feelings he has about a given topic, and decides that’s enough: “My dislike for institutions is mostly a feeling, though, not something that can be explained. There are upsides to institutions, of course. Tradition, for example. The corridors at Harvard, rich with history, thick with thought, the availability of good, hot Starbucks coffee at roughly thirty locations within five miles of my home. And what about all those jobs? Without the corporate machine, where would people work? I suppose we need them. The institutions.”
For another example, consider his disdain for anything “trendy” or “cool”. This disdain, accompanied by his one-dimensional understanding of those concepts, makes him unable to embrace the progressive spirituality that he’s searching for. An intellectually mature person has to be able to argue against the things he dislikes, and defend the things he stands for. But for some reason, Miller consistently refuses to do either.

It’s not clear what postmodernism means, and Miller does not attempt to define it. But in this book he is trying to contextualize Christianity within a postmodern age. In that sense, he is too late. Maybe this book would have carried weight in the ‘60s or ‘70s, but it feels hopelessly out of touch today. If you’re interested in that topic, this may be worth checking out, but if you’re not then I would stay away.

I loved this book. I feel like it gave me my faith back.