Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Hmmm. I really struggled with this book. A friend of mine has been talking about it for some time now; she recently mentioned it again, so I decide... (show more)

Hmmm. I really struggled with this book. A friend of mine has been talking about it for some time now; she recently mentioned it again, so I decided to give it a go.
I think I struggled with the book not because I was expecting an Augustine's "Confessions", or a Merton's "Seven Storey Mountain", but something more akin to Lamott's "Traveling Mercies" or Norris' "Dakota"...and it was nowhere near these books.
How so? In terms of breadth. Having come out of an evangelical Christian background some years ago, I was struck by the narrowness of Miller's vision. I'm not sure if this was his original intention, or if it was a later editorial concern; the book is obviously meant for an evangelical audience, and an American one at that. The vocabulary and theological underpinnings make that very clear, not to mention the constant thread of references to the "anti-"s of what Miller refers to as the "church" and "Christianity": anti-liberal and anti-democrat. Many members of American mainline protestantism and Catholicism would likely take issue with such characterizations. Not to mention Christians outside of the United States, where the extreme polarization of political parties isn't as much of an issue.
And then there's Miller's self-absorption. I understand that these are memoirs (of a sort) and so represent a certain amount of self-absorption by definition. And yet, while decrying self-absorption and narcissism throughout the whole book, I was left with the impression that not only had he made little progress in his journey away from this egoism, but he was actually striving to make it central to his "Christian Spirituality". For example, one of his tips for "how not to get angry at church" is: "Pray that God will show you a church filled with people who share your interests and values."
Still he does make some good points in his book; the evangelical obsession with demonizing traditionally liberal causes as social justice and environmentalism is wrong and patently anti-Christian. Followers of Jesus do need to be real lovers of others.
But, all-in-all, I still "don't get it". The book lacks an awareness of the richness of Christianity outside of the evangelical and emergent church movements (again, whether by original intent or editorial design is not clear). And Miller's seeming invention of "Christian Spirituality" (another presumption on his part; my wife has a Ph.D. in the study of Christian Spirituality) only adds to my feeling that the book is really the book he says he wanted to write about "a fashionable Christian". Miller is that pipe-smoking poet. And he wants to make Christianity "cool". But what does he end up, if not just--like many other American adaptations of religious traditions--a vapid new religion created in his own image? (show less)