I requested a review copy of "The God I Never Knew" because I recognize I have long neglected the influence and presence of the Holy Spirit in my own life. I was one of those who grew up in a denomination where I was given poor teaching and theology regarding the Holy Spirit, so I grew fearful and reserved about His role in my daily Christian life. Over the course of years, I flip-flopped from one extreme of Holy Spirit theology to the opposite, and I don't believe either of them are/were biblically healthy.
I read "The God I Never Knew" with an open mind; with a fresh set of lenses, as though I was discovering the Holy Spirit with the faith of a first-time reader of the Bible. I was open to learning fresh what the Bible has to say about the Holy Spirit, and as a result, I'm pleased I read this book. Maybe the Holy Spirit knew I was ready to receive something about Him from scratch; I certainly won't call it coincidence.
The chapters in the book are divided into themes about who the Holy Spirit is, what His character is like, how He came "onto the scene", His gifts, the baptism & filling (although I'm not sure I see a difference theologically), and the controversies over speaking in tongues in public and the use of tongues as a spiritual prayer language.
Morris approached the topics biblically and candidly from his vantage point. His writing is simple to read and not too heady. There were moments when I had to pause my reading to contemplate what was being conveyed, but all-in-all it was not a difficult one to read. He breaks down 1 Corinthians 14 and other passages quite well, making good arguments for the role of the Spirit in believers today. I'm sure he did not intend this book to be the final authority on all that is of the Holy Spirit, but he convinced me to trust the Spirit and look into His role further.
DISLIKES: I have one major dislike, and that is the overuse of the word "amazing" (or a derivative thereof). Sadly, Hollywood (via reality TV) has taken this word hostage and it seems to have lost its true meaning. Morris used "amazing" (or amazed) no fewer than 28 times in the book's 198 pages. That equates to one use per every 7 pages!
I recognize this book is an "advance reading copy" and has not been finalized, but there are other corrections that need to be made by the editor prior to official release. There were several misspelled or misused (correctly spelled but used in the wrong context) words. Additionally, on page 60 there was a complete sentence repeated immediately one after the other. Verbatim. It was obviously not a literary technique, but a "copy and paste" error. Minor errors, but never-the-less these are some of the mistakes I'd like to see corrected.
RATING: All-in-all, I give "The God I Never Knew" 4 stars. It was biblically sound, it was pretty well written, and it caused me to consider my position (right, wrong, or indifferent)...and isn't that all an author can hope to accomplish?
DISCLAIMER: I received this book free of charge in exchange for my unbiased opinion. I was not threatened or coerced to provide a positive review.
Funniest book error I ever ran across was one where I was reading about "Stan's Kingdom of Darkness." Gotta love auto correct! Being the book was riddled with spelling and gramatical errors, I don't think they proofread it at all.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. Poor Stan.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at an unnamed department store back in the day, his auto-corrected name was "Mason Retard". He always had to double check before he submitted any reports. hahahaha
Sounds interesting. I just started reading "Remembering the Forgotten God" by Francis Chan for much the same reasons that you read this book. I want to look at the Holy Spirit through a fresh new set of lenses since I've seen/experienced so much bad theology on both sides of the continuum with regard to this person of the trinity in the past.
ReplyDelete