This book is part memoir and part reflections. The author, Mike McHargue, identified as a former Christian turned atheist. His focus for this book? It's science that brought him back to faith in Christ. He uses his story to help others discover God in a scientific age. McHargue hosts and co-hosts two podcasts, Ask Science Mike and The Liturgists Podcast. Both have attracted interesting groups of Christians. The podcasts have also drawn those interested in spirituality, and the religiously unaffiliated. At conferences and churches nationwide he's in-demand. He writes for the Storyline blog and Sojourners and the Relevant magazines. Rob Bell, who runs a "megachurch," wrote the Foreward. Then McHargue covers his content over 15 chapters. He includes an Author's Note, Acknowledgments, Axioms About the Christian Faith, and Notes. The Notes cover the sources the author used for this book. He wraps all this up with an Index and an Author Bio.
I didn't quite expect what I found in this book. McHargue indeed was quite candid about his life, his experiences with and feelings about God, and his church experience. This author apparently is a lay person with a strong, lifelong interest in science. I think this book is quite touchy-feely. HcHargue writes about both the negatives and positives of his God-experiences. I certainly found it hard to swallow how he says he "rediscovered God," through being on a beach and being taken by storm by feeling God's presence. His experience, which he says causes him to cry to this day and "cannot be described," can be found on page 128. Can we call someone like this mystical? I'm quite uncomfortable with his liberal authority and alignment with Rob Bell, a megachurch preacher, whom many mainstream Christian leaders consider to be heretical in his theology. Bell questions the authority of the Bible, supports "marriage equality" and denies that hell is as horrific and final as the Bible seems to depict it as being. In this book, McHargue seems to have taken much of his theology from Rob Bell. I'm not denigrating either Rob Bell or Mike McHargue as people, but by Biblical standards, their theology is ear-tickling and harmful to the Church. This book gives readers what they want to hear, while the Bible gives us what we need to hear. We can't be true to God and to teachers like Bell or McHargue. I see them as what one local Bible teacher called "the unpaid bills of the Church." That is, the Biblically sound Church has failed people like these men. In our congregations, people sit in pews (and even in the pulpit) who may secretly harbor the doubts and fears that this author wrestled with. We should create an environment where people feel safe sharing their doubts and fears. Many people feel judged in local churches. But we dare not follow men like Rob Bell or Mike McHargue. It's like mixing oil and water. You can't do it!
Because of the questionable theology of this author and this book, I'm not comfortable recommending it to the general public. It'll give you what you want to hear but won't tell you what you need to know to be saved. I can recommend this book only for those who are sound in their faith and able to teach others, such as pastors and others in Christian leadership. They need this book to show them the doubts and fears many of their members or clients may wrestle with, and know how to better empathize with and serve those in need.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to give a positive review of this book.
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