Blue Like Jazz

‘Blue Like Jazz’ by Donald Miller is a brilliant and thought-provoking book on ‘Christian Spirituality’. Miller offers a fresh perspective – certainly not very like the usual Christian book. Rather, Miller speaks to those of us who have become dissatisfied with traditional, institutional church, religious formulas, or the Religious Right for some examples. In...more

‘Blue Like Jazz’ by Donald Miller is a brilliant and thought-provoking book on ‘Christian Spirituality’. Miller offers a fresh perspective – certainly not very like the usual Christian book. Rather, Miller speaks to those of us who have become dissatisfied with traditional, institutional church, religious formulas, or the Religious Right for some examples. In ‘Blue Like Jazz’ I was introduced to a new kind of Christian. Written from a personal perspective, the book reads as if Miller and the reader are sitting and talking over coffee. The narrative of Miller’s own story is the framework for delving into topics of Christian spirituality such as faith, love, hope, belief, worship, etc. The book, however, is not set in a chronological order, but rather, each chapter could more or less stand alone while the whole is brought together by the flow of the topics. This was one aspect I liked and have found allows me to read whatever is most relevant. The book’s brilliance really lies in Miller’s openness about his own human failings to which I could relate, and his self-effacing honesty about personal struggles with faith, church, opening up to close relationships, self-centredness and shallowness, while almost paradoxically offering beautiful insights into ideas such as how we (the church and people in general) use love like money to reward those who serve our interests and withholding it from those who don’t, or the cost of real belief which demands more than lip-service, or the power of confession to bring healing. The story of the reverse confession booth he and his friends set up to confess their own sins to fellow students at Reed University was the story which made me go out and buy a copy for myself (as another reviewer said: that story alone was worth the price of the book). The subtitle, ‘Non-religious thoughts on Christian spirituality’ reflects much of the attitude of the book. For example, Miller writes of how he’d been a guest on a radio show when the host challenged him to defend ‘Christianity’. Miller’s response was that he could not. Saying that if you go out on the street and ask ten people what the word ‘Christianity’ means, you’ll get ten different responses. How could he defend a term which means 10 different things to 10 different people? Instead, he said he’d rather talk about Jesus and how he had come to believe that Jesus exists and cares about him. Although Miller throughout the book is critical of certain aspects of institutional Christianity such as the marriage between many churches and the political right, the embrace of consumerism, or the feeling that ‘evangelism’ has become a sales pitch, more about getting people to agree with us and join our team than about good news, he does so with humility, making it clear that he feels unity is more important than religious dogma and that he has no hard feelings toward Christians with different ideas. Theologically, although he rejects a systematic, ‘bullet point’ approach in favour of viewing the Bible as a story, and emphasizing a mystical take on the gospel as “It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul” and the non-rational/mystical aspects such beliefs as Jesus being both God and man at once, or that God is three distinct persons while being One at the same time. In spite of these differences in how spirituality is viewed, Miller basically affirms orthodox christian beliefs such as the authority of the Bible. On the whole, this was a great book, offering a fresh perspective on Christian life and faith to which I will continue to return. Of course this book is not perfect just as Donald Miller is not perfect. In fact, paradoxically, it is exactly his faults, and his frank admission of them which make this book so good - a work from the heart. The combination of relational ease, honesty and depth were the strongest points, especially in his honesty about faith and the narration of his struggle to find what it means to live it. Miller said that he was freed to write whatever he felt because he really didn’t think the book would be published. I for one am glad he has and that it has been. I hope you will be too.   hide

I was very disappointed in this book. Miller's writing is often crude and difficult to follow, and he has a tendency to ramble. He also comes across as selfish, insecure, and immature, though at least he is honest about his character. He never directly condemns the porn and pot-smoking he mentions, and seems to encourage smoking and swearing as part of freedom in Christ. Also, it is ironic...more

I was very disappointed in this book. Miller's writing is often crude and difficult to follow, and he has a tendency to ramble. He also comes across as selfish, insecure, and immature, though at least he is honest about his character. He never directly condemns the porn and pot-smoking he mentions, and seems to encourage smoking and swearing as part of freedom in Christ. Also, it is ironic that condemns the judgemental attitude of many Christians, then turns around and portrays traditional, conservative Christians in the most negative light possible. Worse, the theology behind this book is twisted. There is not enough emphasis on sin and repentance, and Miller says on page 238 that there is something in us that makes God love us. He has almost no appreciation for traditional theology; everything is based on personal experience. This is unfortunate, because Christianity has always emphasized both faith and reason. There were a few positives to this book. Miller is refreshingly honest, and very passionate about social justice issues that are too often overlooked by American Christians. It also reminded me that conservative, traditional Christians such as myself aren't the only passionate believers. However, I fear that the vague theology and ambivalence toward sin could give both Christians and non-Christians false ideas about the Christian faith.   hide

I think you're either going to be primed for this book, or you won't be. I thought I was primed for it, but maybe it turned out that I wasn't. Parts of it spoke to me, and parts of it really missed the mark. Also, the author turned out to be a bit too much of a "guy's guy" for me. That's obviously going to be a personal preference issue. I was hoping to respond to...more

I think you're either going to be primed for this book, or you won't be. I thought I was primed for it, but maybe it turned out that I wasn't. Parts of it spoke to me, and parts of it really missed the mark. Also, the author turned out to be a bit too much of a "guy's guy" for me. That's obviously going to be a personal preference issue. I was hoping to respond to it more along the lines of how I've responded to Anne Lamott, but I absolutely did not. That may have been an issue of personal preference, too. I also wonder if where you are in your "spectrum of faith" matters. If you're pretty far from being a church-going Christian but not "anti-Jesus" (that would be me), are you going to respond more tepidly to this book/this author than someone who is a more fervent believer? I don't know. That said, I don't want to dissuade a seeker from giving it a read. As an aside, if I were in Portland, OR, I'd be curious to try out his Imago-Dei church.   hide

My respect to the guy for having a "fresh" take on modern Christian "spirituality," but ultimately I felt like I was reading the diary of my younger, more narcissistic and pseudo-intellectual self. I mean, the dude smokes a pipe, has a friend named "Tony the beat poet" and seems to think apologizing for the Crusades is the cutting edge of living the faith. He seems to have a great many opinions...more

My respect to the guy for having a "fresh" take on modern Christian "spirituality," but ultimately I felt like I was reading the diary of my younger, more narcissistic and pseudo-intellectual self. I mean, the dude smokes a pipe, has a friend named "Tony the beat poet" and seems to think apologizing for the Crusades is the cutting edge of living the faith. He seems to have a great many opinions on who is and who is not living for the principles of Christ, but by the end of the book I had a far greater sense of how Don Miller perceives himself than of what those principles might be. This really strikes me as a case of style and form over function. Those who feel envigorated by his general leanings, however, should probably check out a similar author who actually has something to SAY. No free plugs here, but the emergent church movement would be a good place to start.   hide

20 years ago, I would have read this book and shouted "right-on Don!" all the way through. Today, though I still think, many of his thoughts are right-on; his thoughts of the “church” and of “Christians” are misconceived. The church is what it is, people are what they are and the two can never be reconciled. The inconsistencies and hypocrisies he experienced...more

20 years ago, I would have read this book and shouted "right-on Don!" all the way through. Today, though I still think, many of his thoughts are right-on; his thoughts of the “church” and of “Christians” are misconceived. The church is what it is, people are what they are and the two can never be reconciled. The inconsistencies and hypocrisies he experienced in church have nothing to do with the church but with the attitudes of man within or outside the church. These unfortunate impressions shared by many of us in this postmodern generation are the result of man’s sinful nature and flawed view of himself. The church is perfect by divine design. The spectrum between Christian fundamentalism and Christian liberalism is so extreme and even within the extremes the spectrum is broad. In the midst of this spectrum is the church as intended. In this postmodern time, we are witnessing the pendulum swing from traditionalism as defined by any given denomination to emergent as defined by secular worldview, both missing foundational truths within God’s infallible word. Yes, it is all about love and relationships. Love should be unconditional, but relationships are costly. We are to love unconditionally, but our relationships we are to closely guard. When we enter into a relationship, we must evaluate the merit of that relationship from both perspectives. If we determine the relationship to be unhealthy, regardless the reason, that does not free us of our responsibility to love that individual. God has given us a standard by which to live. We must strive within ourselves to meet that standard. We are only responsible to spread the Good News to the lost and to encourage one another in Christ. This is a daily endeavor. It is my opinion that in discovering Christian love through relationships and community he now depicts church, unless emergent, as irrelevant. Church and THE CHURCH are not one and the same, though they should be. The church is about relationships and community, a church is defined by it parishioners. If the church holds fast to legalism and fails in expressing love it falls short of its purpose. If a church expresses love through relationship and community but compromises on morality it too falls short of its purpose. Blue Like Jazz is certainly a postmodern classic that reads much like a script from a Seinfeld episode, especially the chapter subtitled Penguin Sex.   hide

I bought this in the Greatest Hits book. I must admit, when I first picked the Blue Like Jazz book (and the Jazz Notes abridged version) I was curious what such a book was doing in the Christian section of the bookstore. As a jazz musician, I was completely intrigued. So I sat down and started reading it. I read half of the Jazz Notes sitting there. So I bought the Greatest Hits and...more

I bought this in the Greatest Hits book. I must admit, when I first picked the Blue Like Jazz book (and the Jazz Notes abridged version) I was curious what such a book was doing in the Christian section of the bookstore. As a jazz musician, I was completely intrigued. So I sat down and started reading it. I read half of the Jazz Notes sitting there. So I bought the Greatest Hits and read Blue Like Jazz. I so enjoyed the perspective and what it means to serve God and how serving religion is not really what God wants us to do. He is exactly right in that jazz music can be written down, but it is difficult to do so. And in many ways, it is "not the same" once it is written down. I hear a lot of jazz musicians who play very academically. They seems much like those who subscribe to religion -very formulaic in their playing. I'd rather subscribe to the essence of what it really is - whether you're speaking of jazz or Jesus. It's not the notes you play, but it's how you play them.   hide

This morning at about 1:30AM I finished Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz”. I had been reading the book for a couple of months but finally got “into” the book enough to read it through in just a couple nights. I like reading again. The book is amazing. By amazing, I mean that it is totally different than any other book I’ve ever read. It’s almost...more

This morning at about 1:30AM I finished Donald Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz”. I had been reading the book for a couple of months but finally got “into” the book enough to read it through in just a couple nights. I like reading again. The book is amazing. By amazing, I mean that it is totally different than any other book I’ve ever read. It’s almost like you’re reading a book by a person who decided to write every single word that came to his mind as he sipped on a latte at his local coffeeshop. Donal Miller is a Christ-follower - his words met my heart over these last few nights with the kind of “meeting” that says - “hello, I’ve felt that way before”. There isn’t a lot I DISAGREE with in this book, except maybe the fact that I don’t know how many beers Donald had to drink while he was writing. It still amazes me how “anti-drinking” I am at this stage of my life - I guess I’m just a Wesleyan through-and-through.. Anyways - the book carries the subtitle: “Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality” - and that is exactly what it is. Don Miller talks like a preacher’s kid - with his insight to the “Christian subculture” and his outrage with it. It’s an exciting book for me to read and it will take another reading to even scratch the surface of what great stuff this book is made of.   hide

This is a great book for anyone struggling with Christian faith, and even non-Christians can get an insight or too from Don Miller's spirituality. The writing flows like jazz music, tending to wander from topic to topic and exploring ideas. What takes a star off for me is some of the high-handed means Mr. Miller presents his musings. For all that he complains of churches who are very...more

This is a great book for anyone struggling with Christian faith, and even non-Christians can get an insight or too from Don Miller's spirituality. The writing flows like jazz music, tending to wander from topic to topic and exploring ideas. What takes a star off for me is some of the high-handed means Mr. Miller presents his musings. For all that he complains of churches who are very political and imperialistic, he often does the same thing with his own brand of religion. Also, except for Jesus, he doesn't talk a lot about things that are specifically "Christian" in origin. Having taken more than a few religion classes in college, Miller's so-called "Christian spirituality" would be better off named a "spirituality of brotherhood," which applies to a lot more than just those religions labeled as Christian.   hide

Though I don't agree on everything Miller says he makes you think. He makes you go past your natural judgemental nature to realize he has something worth while to say. It impressed me how much I thought like him and at the same time how much I found myself wanting to judge him but couldn't. Miller speaks on politics all through his book which also makes you think. Jesus was neither...more

Though I don't agree on everything Miller says he makes you think. He makes you go past your natural judgemental nature to realize he has something worth while to say. It impressed me how much I thought like him and at the same time how much I found myself wanting to judge him but couldn't. Miller speaks on politics all through his book which also makes you think. Jesus was neither "democratic" nor "republican," He is on a totally different scale than that. Whether we like it or not though I think Miller has the right idea with who he hangs out with and loves on. If Jesus were here today and we were speaking in purely political terms He would be friends with the liberals. The people that the religious look down on.I truely think that if you can't get passed your judgementalness to bring something good out of Miller's book than you have missed the entire point of the book.   hide