Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The faith of leap

I just finished reading The Faith of Leap: Embracing A Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. I read this book quicker than most... mostly because it has long (did I say loooooong) chapters, and I probably didn't read the middle two-thirds of the book as closely as I could have.

It was a good book, but I struggled with a lot of it. To be honest, it started off great, and ended well, but the middle of the book just kind of drug on and on - with a lot of detailed info about probabilities and movies and such that just didn't really add to it, from my perspective.

I did like how they delved a little further into the ideas of communitas and liminality. Though I'm not sure I buy their assessment that this is the only book dealing with a theology of risk and adventure. But who am I to argue. I will say this, though... this book did convict me of the need to add a lot more risk and adventure to my life. I made a few strides while reading it, and I am working on some more.

So, without going into much detail, and minus my usual litany of quotes... I would maybe give this book a B+. It's probably a much better book than that for people much smarter than me, but it was a bit over my head, and I probably wouldn't recommend it for the casual reader. Of course this all deals with the 'readability' of the book. I thought the content was pretty right on (from my limited perspective). However, I've also developed a sort of irritation with Frosty. After being friends with him on Facebook he just seems like an arrogant sob. I try to not let it interfere with my reading, but it does. So... whatever. This book has been read and I am moving on.

2 comments:

Jim L said...

Ya know, per your last point...That's one of the reasons I don't "follow" anyone who's "anyone" on Twitter/FB, whatever. Partly so I don't have to let the irritations that inevitably creep in ruin my perspective (ad hominem fallacy and all that), and partly it was me cleaning out a bunch of time distractions from my day. It's also why for a long time I didn't read books (especially anything theological/religious) by anyone who hadn't been dead at least 25-50 years. That way I knew they weren't going to try and sell me a DVD series and workbooks as well as seminars. :)

Carrie said...

I recently un-followed my favorite author on Twitter for the same reason.