Rienstra's So Much More

Rienstra prefaces her book by describing the need for a guide and friend upon entering a new place. The phonebooks, maps, and details are overwhelming and she needs someone to help her soft out the basics from the giant mass of information. As a librarian, I can identify well with the problem of information overload and the need to provide better basic and well-sorted information. Rienstra largely accomplishes her goal of guiding the reader through Christian thought and spirituality. Although one can find a systematic theology lurking beneath, she is successful in imitating a guidebook to the Christian faith. Some quotes/points:

p8 "...indefinite beliefs about the transcendent avoid the troubles of a God with personality. The minute you move from a life force to a personal God, you are dealing with an other who could potentially make demands on you that you would rather not conform to..."

p25 "[Prophecies] are not simply predictions but patterns of how God views the world and chooses to make himself known in it."

p31 "Christians pray to the Spirit when they seek understanding (especially of scripture), inspiration, a change of heart, or renewed understanding."

p56 "Our human dignity depends on retaining our status as responsible creatures..."

p59 "As long as you think you are good enough right now or could be soon, you limit yourself at best to a dim shadow of goodness in this life."

p96 "God permits human freed and the workings of a fallen creation to cause pain and sorrow. However, God is also active in weaving that pain and sorrow into his larger purposes..."

p154 "God expects us to exercise some responsibility and figure it [the most trying questions of our age] out... I do believe we have to keep putting the whole Bible in front of us as a Christian community"

p178 "If my sermon is lousy, at least people have Communion" quoting Debra's pastor

p180 "But instant transformation is not the typical pattern. What with our own obtuseness and tendency to suffer from bad worship and all, most of us require years of churchgoing before showing improvements."

p214 "...good works do not earn salvation but are a sign of salvation."

Miller - Blue Like Jazz

Miller's life seems to confirm both the randomness and God's direction to the universe. Jazz is an appropriate metaphor in that we see some forms, some phrases that repeat, a conversational arc but also life and reflections that strain our ability to anticipate his motivations and where he might head next. Miller is very much someone in search of "authentic" faith and his searching leads to some interesting encounters and observations. One of the tensions in his book is that his "search" for the authentic is an almost individualistic search while he seems to find what is most authentic in the midst of community. Some quotes/points worth noting:

p77 "the things we want most will kill us." Miller reflects about the innate and overwhelming "love of darkness" and finds it impossible to love the right things without God's help.

p79 "I believed if word got out about grace, the whole church was going to turn into a brothel."

p86 "The ability to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return...God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love.

p130 "There was room at the table for me, but I wasn't in the family."

p182 "No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are characters in my play. There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction."

p215 "The problem with Christian community was that we had ethics, we had rules and laws and principles to judge each other against."