A Conversation With God was a book I initially grabbed with great fervor, then prior to reading, but after a negative review of the book, cooled my heals before reading it. Honestly, it fell somewhere in-between either of these extremes I felt/encountered. Just like the title says, questions are posed and “God” answers them. We also have little tidbits of information from mainly well known Bible figures. For example, Jonah “spoke” in one section.
The positives: It was grammatically well written. It was clear in its statements as a whole and wasn’t verbose. It also answered some current cultural questions as well as questions people have been asking God for a long time. I could give this to a friend who was curious about some of the questions of them misunderstanding what the book says or making sure they major in theology beforehand. Especially useful for someone coming from another faith I believe.
The negatives: Because the book was not wordy it sacrificed some of the deep thinking that many of the questions warranted; also suffering from dumbing down the subject matter to accommodate this succinctness. This was continuously prevalent in the answers from “God”. Also, since the book was written as a conversation with God I feel that handicapped the book from giving scriptural answers and instead simply giving “good” answers, but not allowing the believer to cross check the scriptures or even make sure things were Biblically based simply because “God” was talking. Lastly, in the back of the book there was a chapter index along with the scriptures they used in each chapter—however it was worthless to me when reading. Frequently I wanted to read the source they were coming from but having to flip all the way to the back of the book and find the chapter I was reading and then pinning down the scripture reference was too bulky and discouraged deeper looking.
In conclusion. I would give this to someone coming from another faith or very new to Christianity, but this is not a hard thinking book for a mature believer.
Received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
3 comments:
Thanks for the review. I was going to pick this one from Booksneeze, but I think I'll make another choice. Your review was what I would expect to hear from my pastor who encourages us to "look a little deeper". Good review.
Thank you Ginger! I'm so glad the review was helpful for someone. Good luck on picking a book! Last night after reviewing A Conversation with God, I requested The Fight of Our Lives. I anticipate an interesting read there. Maybe you should check it out!
Thanks for the comment,
Millard
Good review. :)
Post a Comment