Blue Like Jazz

[Beautiful Fireball]

Anybody ever read this book? I just finished it today and want to see what everyone else has to say about it. I'll share my thoughts later

 

[f U z ! o N]

i haven't read it but it seems very interesting. i can't wait to hear your thoughts on it.

 

[intricatic]

I couldn't really get into it, I didn't really care for the style it was writen in.

 

[Beautiful Fireball]

I completely devoured the book. I started it and finished it all today. I got it as a Christmas gift last year, but for some reason I was afraid to read it. It recently resurfaced and God said I should read it now and I did. I agree with pretty much all that he is saying and I found I could relate quite a bit to the points he was trying to make. I highly recommend it to anyone.

 

[HannahE]

I LOVE blue like jazz!! I got so many breakthroughs while reading that book. I loved how donald miller really emphasized the importance of loving ourselves. I used to hate myself but this book was an awesome testament to the importance of loving ourselves, if we want to truley and purely love others we must first love ourselves. Blue Like Jazz is definitely one of my favorite books. I also read Miller's book Searching for God Knows What which is just as good.

 

[Beautiful Fireball]

I LOVE blue like jazz!! I got so many breakthroughs while reading that book. I loved how donald miller really emphasized the importance of loving ourselves. I used to hate myself but this book was an awesome testament to the importance of loving ourselves, if we want to truley and purely love others we must first love ourselves. Blue Like Jazz is definitely one of my favorite books. I also read Miller's book Searching for God Knows What which is just as good.

I read it all today, while I was working and that never happens with me and a book. I really liked how he emphasized loving yourself, because I too struggle with that. I also liked how he emphasized loving others and how we can accept them while at the same time, not condoning what they do. I think I'm gonna read it again, because I read through it so quickly today.

 

[HannahE]

I read it all today, while I was working and that never happens with me and a book. I really liked how he emphasized loving yourself, because I too struggle with that. I also liked how he emphasized loving others and how we can accept them while at the same time, not condoning what they do. I think I'm gonna read it again, because I read through it so quickly today.

yes you definitely should! i read it twice and got tons out of it the second time also!

 

[JourneyRain]

I love the book. It was very insightful for me at the time. Plus, his writing style isn't that far off from mine.

 

[ooOHannahOoo]

I loved it. I think it can be taken out of the context that he wrote it in and that can be bad, but for a stable Christian I think it taught me a lot about seeing others the way God sees them and getting out of my legalistic box.

 

[intricatic]

His writing style is somewhat like mine, on an aesthetic level, but it was more about how he drew together ideas, and the ideas in general he was using to tie the book together that turned me off to it. It seemed way too postmodern for my tastes.

 

[Ps28:7]

i read it a while back and i absolutely loved it...i liked his style of writing because it was an easy reader compared to a lot of other stuff that i've read...and i liked it...i'm reading his "through painted deserts" right now and when i'm done reading that i want to read some of his other books...i agreed with a lot of the stuff that he had to say and i liked how he presented it, he wasn't very traditional and kinda stepped outside of the norm, and i like that...and i guess at the time that i read it i could really relate to it...i want to read it again because it's been a while and i kinda flew through it also...probably the fastest i had ever read a single book...so yea, that's my thoughts

 

[Nienor]

I really liked it I also recommend his other book Searching for God Knows What

 

[Manda_24]

I read it a while ago and I thought it was really good. There were some areas that I could definitely relate to and I thought it was well written, he has a different style of writing which I thought was interesting, it's different than what I usually read.

I just bought Searching for God Knows What so I should be starting on that one soon, I have two others I'm reading at the moment that I want to finish first.

 

[Beautiful Fireball]

Hey guys, Thanks for all your input I really enjoyed his writing style. I also have an uncle (the one who gave me the book) who is into the postmodern church and everything like that so it helped me understand it a little bit more, and I found that I agreed with most of what Miller was saying.

 

[Llauralin]

I was quite dissapointed in it -- several of my friends absolutly loved it, and talked me into reading it, but I just didn't find it very substantive. Miller's altogether too self-concious of and pleased with his own freshness and candor for my tastes.

 

[intricatic]

Eh, I didn't think he was either fresh, nor candid. His stuff reads like most of the new, "Purely Relational" pop-Christian authors out there. Although I did like the animations he used. The fact he likes Jazz is pretty groovy, too.

 

[Beautiful Fireball]

Eh, I didn't think he was either fresh, nor candid. His stuff reads like most of the new, "Purely Relational" pop-Christian authors out there. Although I did like the animations he used. The fact he likes Jazz is pretty groovy, too.

For me personally his ideas made a lot of sense and were pretty candid, but that is merely personal opinion and taste. I grew up in a conservative Baptist home, so I was fed a lot of the sugar-coated theology. I am not saying that his book contained a lot of theology but his ideas were ones that I had not really heard before. And I enjoyed reading it, because most of the other Christian books I had read were not nearly as well-written or thought-provoking.

 

[intricatic]

For me personally his ideas made a lot of sense and were pretty candid, but that is merely personal opinion and taste. I grew up in a conservative Baptist home, so I was fed a lot of the sugar-coated theology. I am not saying that his book contained a lot of theology but his ideas were ones that I had not really heard before. And I enjoyed reading it, because most of the other Christian books I had read were not nearly as well-written or thought-provoking.

He definitely had a good angle with the experiential approach - but his failing, as I find with most relational, postmodern ideology, is in the idea that propositional structure to the gospel and theology is a bad thing, entirely. It sort of defeats the purpose of being a Christian.

There has to be a ballance of both, I'd think. 'Man cannot live by bread alone.' A lot of the things he calls legalism is a structure that each individual should strive an understanding in, not simply rules to abide by and try not to break; we have a faith based on Grace and Love, not rules and stipulations. But they're important, nonetheless.

Eh, I should probably try to get back into the book tonight so I can have a better feel for what he's trying to say - i've only read about half the book so far.

 

[onajourney87]

I love Don Miller's stuff.

His "stream of consciousness" writing style can be a bit odd, but I found it easy to get used to.

but his failing, as I find with most relational, postmodern ideology, is in the idea that propositional structure to the gospel and theology is a bad thing, entirely.

A bad thing, entirely? No. But Miller understands that in general, postmoderns don't respond well to a propositional structure of the Gospel. He'll heartily support the use of propositional stuctures of the Gospel and theology when used in the right context.

 

[swingnscream]

ok....I'm starting to get conflicting opinions whether or not to check out this book. I've heard somewhere else that it's a pretty good book too and then there was the:

It seemed way too postmodern for my tastes.

Which I'd have to assume would mean I'd be very into it, but then there's also a couple votes for:

I also read Miller's book Searching for God Knows What which is just as good.

...I read that book...or as much of it as I could, I didn't like it. So, I'm not sure what to think about "Blue Like Jazz", although I'm slightly interested at the moment and thinking maybe I should check it out.