Waking the Dead

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read
Review: Apart from the Bible, this is the best book I've ever read. It was far more helpful to me than Eldredge's other books (which were awesome!) and has called me to be whom God made me to be. After reading it God called me to start a men's group based on this book, and within the first few weeks of men's group I could see dramatic changes in the lives of these men. I'm a big reader, but this is probably the only book (other than the Bible) that I recommend that EVERY Christian read.

Rating:
Summary: create a clean heart, renew a steadfast spirit
Review: Count on John Eldredge to stir up controversy. With countless references to The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Gladiator, The Wizard of Oz, Braveheart, even Amadeus and The Lion King, it is fair to say that Eldredge likes to use contemporary analogies to back up scripture.

If you aren't completely familiar with all those books and movies, or if you are the kind of person who takes offense when Dorothy and Toto are used to illustrate scripture, you may have a hard time warming up to Waking the Dead. Even if you are open to these areas, this isn't exactly an easy message for all to grasp.

One of the main points that Eldredge covers is that our hearts are good by nature, and that we have bought into the lies of the Enemy if we believe otherwise. He argues that the flesh is the culprit rather than the heart, and that we need to distinguish between the two. By acknowledging that our hearts are good, we are liberated from the discouragement of the enemy that tries to convince us that we are weak and unworthy.

By acknowledging the goodness of our heart and opening ourselves up to Jesus' offering of life through Discipleship, Counseling, Healing and Warfare, we are able to wake up from our slumber and shine with the light of Christ. The path is narrow and uncomfortable, but the reward is eternal.

Larry Hehn, author of Get the Prize: Nine Keys for a Life of Victory

Rating:
Summary: Misleading the Living...
Review: Eldridge argues that there is glory hidden in each Christian's heart, and the goal is to capture and maintain a sense of liberation through a realization of human glory.

As in his other books, John Eldridge conveys some great stories. Here he relates emotionally engaging accounts from The Perfect Storm, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz. However, the other parts of the book (theology and conclusions) have prompted me to rate this book at two stars. Let me tell you why.

Eldridge's book ultimately focuses on the realization of human glory. I suggest this stands in stark contrast to the New Testament. However, before I critique his conclusion, let me first convey his approach.

Here is a summary of the book:
1.God wants us to be happy. (Starting and presumed premise)
2.However, we are not always happy. (Provides real-life examples)
3.Therefore, we are either blowing it or God is. (Eldridge's words)
4.The fault cannot be God's therefore it must be ours. (Assumed conclusion)
5.God's glory is 'man fully alive'. (Read 'fully alive' as 'fully happy')
6.'God's happiness and my happiness are tied together'. (A direct quote from the book)
7.Therefore, 'God's committed to my happiness'. (Another quote)
8.In fact, 'my happiness is the purpose of Christianity'. (An abbreviated quote)
9.Final conclusion: I need to live for myself (Summary)

I promise you, promise, promise, promise, I'm not pulling your leg. This is all directly from the first chapter! If you want page numbers and more details, feel free to e-mail me. The first chapter is really the substance of the book as the rest of the book becomes footnotes to this primary chapter.

Ok, the outline above stands in direct contrast to the words of Jesus, Peter, Paul, John, James, and ultimately - God the Father.

Here's a summary of the New Testament:
1.God wants us to be holy (Matt. 5:48)
2.Because of this God is far more concerned with our character than He is with our comfort/happiness. (Romans 5:3-5!)
3.This is because our happiness is fleeting and our character remains for eternity. (James 4:14)
4.We will have trials, troubles, and tribulation in this world. (Acts 5:41)
5.Take heart, for God has over-come the world through Christ. (John 16:33)
6.Jesus will be our source of strength and peace through this difficult life. (John 15)
7.I need to live for Him. He is the source of real joy despite life-circumstances. (Luke 9:23&24)

As a result, I am disappointed in the book - not because I didn't 'like' it, but because I'm convinced that it misrepresents scripture - including Christ's person and work. Far from waking the dead, I believe this book ends up misleading the living.

Rating:
Summary: God's glory is man's heart fully alive
Review: I can't even understand the quote "God's glory is man's heart fully alive." How can I come to grips with this? Why should God care about whether or not I am "fully alive?" I thought his love for us was something altruistic but according to John Eldrige, it is much deeper than that. God wants our hearts. He wants me and values me as a child of God. I now know that I have value (in his eyes) and I will never give that up. Many of Eldriges critiques do not believe that man's heart is good but I do now. What John is saying that a resurrected heart is good. I was evil and my heart was too, but I have been raised with him in order that I might have a relationship with him. It's time I start living in Christ's resurrection instead of his death. This book is truly revolutionary.

Rating:
Summary: powerful
Review: I have been living this book out for the last year and the proof is in the fruit, my life has been so changed. I have read some of the critics and they don't get it, they are so caught up in their theology that they are afraid to look at their hearts and live. When you understand John's paradigm the scriptures leap to life and God becomes your close friend and master. God wants our love and this book inspires it like nothing else I've read other than the Bible. It isn't meant to be an exigeses but rather an inspiration, don't give up the Bible,John Eldridge doesn't want that any more than God does

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I think this book was an excellent book that challenged us to dig deeper into God and truly trust in His promises. Eldredge challenges readers to live with their heart fully devoted to God and how THROUGH CHRIST, we are a new creation and thus should live under THAT promise and no longer under the condemnation of the enemy. He stresses the grace of God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice and how through that we can live life to the fullest (John 10:10) living for God and His kingdom. I encourage you to check it out to dig deeper into your relationship with God and as always with any book check the credentials to ensure yourself that they align with the Bible.

Rating:
Summary: Seemed Shallow
Review: I was amazed by how anthropocentric this book is. I guess I mean, I wasn't expecting the book to be so self-help oriented by way of telling the reader how great he/she is. Eldridge strokes his readers by pointing how their inherent value and worth. That is, he refers to the glory found in the human spirit and uses that to expand the reader's view of themself.

What's wrong with that? Well, from a Christian worldview as the goodness of the individual goes up the necessity for a savior goes down. What I mean is, if people are so good and if God is essentially a loving God then we're OK, I'm OK, you're OK. Sin? What's that? God as Judge? Why? That would be mean-spirited and we all know God is merely loving. Jesus dieing for the sins of the world? Get out. That's not for today's Christians. We want passion, adventure, and following our own hearts. I want what my heart wants, because the heart is central. I'm on the throne and it's my glory I'm primarily concerned with.

Eldridge's message shows how living from the heart can energize people to love themselves in a way they've never experienced, revealing to them life's purpose: fighting for the passions of their hearts.

But, that's not all! Eldredge fans will find that he has not departed much from the formula that made Wild at Heart so successful; he culls examples from popular culture (The Perfect Storm, The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz) and tells vivid stories from his own experience. With that said, there's really not much scripture in the book - and the scripture he does use seems to be proof-texting his positions on the inherent goodness of the human soul.

If you're looking for the classic doctrines of the Christian church like redemption, atonement, justification and a better understanding of the Cross of Jesus Christ -- I'd recommend other books. However, if you want to feel better about your desires and wants and how those desires are good and should not be questioned -- let me highly recommend Waking the Dead.

Rating:
Summary: Encouraging Christians into a deeper relationship with God
Review: I would recommend this book unreservedly to those Christians seeking a deeper relationship with God and a greater understanding and desire to love God and their neighbour to the maximum of their God-given ability.

Many Christian books advocate living robotically moralistic lives - and indeed, the Scriptures place a great deal of emphasis on our morality. However, when morality in and of itself becomes the end goal the result is generally a plethora of very disfunctional, unhappy people. One only has to compare some of the Joyous, Bible-believing Christians one finds on the African continent, with the judgemental, dour and 'moralistic miseries' of the fundamentalist right wing churches of the 'Bible belt' to see what I mean.

One of the leading Christian, Biblical scholars in the U.K. fluent in Biblical Greek and Hebrew, Aramaic and a smattering of Arabic, maintains that one's faith should be etched in stone, but our theology written in pencil. This is too much for some of our modern day Pharisees. Anyway, on to Eldredge:

The crux, I believe, of this book is that if one awakens one's heart, a heart which has been stomped on by this world, the devil and our 'flesh', to the full potential that God allows us whilst here on earth, we will become much closer to God and much more complete as 'friends'/'children' of God. It is the Joy and Love of God in our hearts that attracts the unbeliever to God through us, not the moralising miseries so common in many of today's churches.

Eldredge seeks to bring out the best in us, our true potential as Christians through his writings. He quotes the Scriptures as well as many renowned authors such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis in his effort to persuade us that God wants people who are truly alive, and alive and joyous because they are fully aware of the amazing thing that God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Alive and Joyous because they are filled with God's Spirit and walking closely with Him.

One of the most successful evangelists I ever came across was a young Spanish Catholic man who was a member of Opus Dei. His incredible love of God and absolute joy in God was incredibly infectious and he was one of the few Christians whom the non-Christians in our college respected. My Protestant friends with their church evangelism agendas were invariably denied the time of day. Indeed, in my experience, it is those filled with unfettered Joy in God who are best at persuading unbelievers of the Gospel and its Wonder. Eldredge seeks to help us to get into a relationship of such closeness and intensity with God, a relationship desired by God, that we will emanate this Love and Joy that the Bible speaks about so often.

It is by freeing our hearts from the lies and contstraints of this world that we can get to that place where God desires us to be. We need to become the kind of people that we want to spend eternity with. People who adore God and their fellow man - people like the Spanish Guy from Opus Dei, and the zestful, non-materialistic people from some of the African churches - these people have extremely high biblical morals - but they're also exceedingly joyful and interesting people - and they don't spend their lives judging everyone around them, because they're too busy loving everyone around them, even if their theology isn't quite what the fundamentalists would demand.

Some critcs below have completely misinterpreted Eldredge. Eldredge doesn't deny that we will face trials and tribulations, indeed the death of his closest friend must have been incredibly traumatic, both for him and for the family of his friend. This is not a book indulging in denial, and neither is it a book filled with 'New Age Philosophy,' as "a reader" from the mid-West would have us believe.

John Zxerce (below) also misses the point. He says, "Eldridge's book ultimately focuses on the realization of human glory...Eldridge argues that there is glory hidden in each Christian's heart, and the goal is to capture and maintain a sense of liberation through a realization of human glory..."

I didn't get this from Eldredge's book at all. Reading this book brought me closer to God, filled me with a desire to spend more time reading His Word and more time in prayer, and to devote much more energy to serving my fellow man. It did this by convincing me that I mattered to God and that I wasn't a bit of lowlife pondscum that God had 'saved' on a whim. It helped me to see that God had created me to be in relationship with Him and that I matter deeply to Him. It is through our knowledge of His character that we begin to see our character in relation to Him (as we read in Proverbs and Calvin's Institutes).

In conclusion, Eldredge is no threat to a belief and life based on the infallability of the Bible and the Gospel of Christ. He may be a threat to some imprisoning theologies and church practices of our times - and hence the bleating from the cheap seats, but this book, and indeed his other publications, will only serve to bring you closer to being the child that our Great God desires you to be, and to bring you closer into a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ.

Rating:
Summary: Most important book you could ever read
Review: I've just finished reading not only the best Christian book I've ever read, but the most important Christian book I've ever read. John Eldredge's, Waking the Dead, confronts the goodness of our hearts with images and words that will make you hug yourself in relief.
Also, he takes on spiritual warfare better than anyone I've read in 30 years. I've read good books on this subject, but John clarifies extraordinaire. Listen to this from John: ". . . the enemy knows you are trying to walk with God and tune into your heart - he'll play the ventriloquist and try to deceive you there. Any word or suggestion that brings discouragement, condemnation, accusation - that is not from God. Satan's accusation kills our hearts. There is a gravitational field the enemy creates around a person that pulls everyone in her life to do to her what he is doing to her. Remember the enemy fears you - fears your heart coming alive and full and free."
John talks much of what it means to fight for your heart and the glory of your heart. I think you could be flabbergasted in how you are not fighting for your heart and to realize you cannot really fight for the heart of others when you cannot or will not do the same for yourself. John enabled me to comprehend some relationships in my life where I let the enemy deceive me into not believing the goodness of their hearts. So much so that I felt much oozing from my heart in forgiveness for those who have caused me harm.

Rating:
Summary: Best Christian Book on the market
Review: Since buying this book, I've discovered it is the best Christian book on the market. I can't imagine Epic being any better. Some of Epic's topics are even talked about in Waking the Dead. As a matter of fact, I think Waking the Dead might be a good requirement for anyone that wants to get into reading books (fiction and non-fiction) as it gives a foundation to other reading.

I bought this book with a copy of my own book A Nation Under God (by Ken Clifton), as well, which gives testimony from all the Presidents and States of the USA. Both have great impact anyone's faith in God.