Rating: 
Summary: This book FINALLY tells the bottom line of Christianity
Review: I can't tell you how long I have worked and prayed and tried to express the exact thoughts Mr. Eldredge is able to put into actual words in this GREAT book, Waking the Dead. Mostly I have not toiled to show these things to non-believers, but to those who profess a personal relationship with Yahshua (Jesus) Christ. They have no eyes to see or ears to hear, because they are guarding their hearts against the unknown and unseen, and simply going through the motions until their death. If we could all apply what Mr. Eldredge is pointing out to us, we could make the most phenomenal changes in the human race!!Pages 30-31 summarize it for us... "Christianity isn't a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers, being nice, holding car washes, sending our secondhand clothes off to Mexico - as good as those things might be. This is a world at WAR! (emphasis mine) Something large and immensely dangerous is unfolding all around us, we are caught up in it, and above all we doubt we have been given a key role to play." Read this book! Meditate on it. Check it out with the Scriptures and examine it's truth. Once you have accepted it's concepts, you will have a changed life.
Rating: 
Summary: Our Heart & the World at War
Review: I decided to write a review after reading the others on here who didn't like this book. This book will be somewhat polarizing - you'll probably either love it or hate it! A few of us brothers have been meeting for fellowship & prayer one night a week, and having dinner, for some time now. A couple weeks back several of them recommended I read this book. While at first the mythological stories the author relates, didn't quite take with me, I began to realize something. In church meetings, and in various gatherings, I have often gotten the deep sense that we are a band of noble warriors. Meeting with the brothers, I often got the sense of something like the Knights of the Round Table - with our King, Jesus. I've expressed this a few times, but others didn't always connect with what I was saying. This book connects with that sense deep within me - that we have been given a good & amazingly noble heart. My heart has been oppressed for a couple years, after I shared the gospel with some friends who didn't receive it (at least not yet). I see a little now how much the enemy hated that sharing of Christ, and has thrown everything at me to get me off focus. Saints, we are at war, like this book details. The author talks a lot about epic movies like the Matrix. I don't know about you, but that movie astounded me, in how it is just like reality - people are asleep in a world that is designed to suck out their very life! So many stories & fables down throught he ages reflect how we are in a conflict with an subtile & vile enemy that must be overcome for us to live. This book reveals this often shrouded aspect of human living very well I think, and how Christ wants to fully restore our hearts. I do have questions, which I am praying about & plan on discussing this week with my brothers group. The main questions center around these topics:
1. Do we really have a new & good heart already?
2. Resting in Christ vs. fighting the good fight.
3. Having our heart's desire vs. being crucified in Christ. I'm already getting some answers to 2 & 3. I beleive John Eldredge's (the author) heart is in a very good place as he conveys the thoughts & experiences in this book to us. To me the acid test is if it brings me closer to Jesus and fellowship. The answer to that is yes! We all have the annointing which is true, so go & read the book with an open heart, praying the Lord will reveal what He has for you. One last thing. If you are questioning getting the book, go to the 3 page prayer in the appendix on page 223 and read it. To me, it would be hard not to write a prayer like that outside of intimate fellowship with Christ. See what you think. UPDATE: Yes we have a "new heart" in Christ! We are a new creation. Read the book, look at the references & pray for His clarity! 5+ stars & I will reread!
Rating:
Summary: Life altering
Review: I dislike self-help books. I dislike Christian self-help books a little bit more. I had a chip on my shoulder about a mile high when a friend suggested I read "Waking the Dead," but I have to admit that it changed my life at a point when I thought I'd pretty much gotten done with big epiphanies. One of the most important and surprising things I got from it is a way to take my lifelong habit of seeing the world from a psychological perspective and integrate it with a new conviction about the nature of good and evil. Check it out, this guy has something to say to all of us.
Rating: 
Summary: provocative, engaging but highly problematic in places
Review: I had some real concerns with Eldredge's last book "Wild at Heart" which deals with being real men before God. (see the various reviews of that work along with the review at pcanews.com). His current work is geared for both genders and is centered around the notion of the heart and its importance as we live as ones "fully alive" "from the heart".
It contains lively, interesting prose, but some of his concepts raise a few serious red flags to this Christian, seminary-trained reader. He repeats like a mantra that as a Christian "your heart is good". The evidence he offers is a bit dubious and tenuous at best. He often makes categorical, assumed statements offering no Scriptural proof for his position. To me, it often has the ring of a humanistic, motivational speaker with Christian verbage.
I think some of the ideas he is trying to communicate are good but his means of getting there are a bit spurious with respect to biblical and philosophical proof. His quote from Irenaeus is powerful but I wish he would've just once completed it to give us a fully picture of the church father as well as the biblical worldview. He says "the glory of God is man fully alive" as he says but he leaves out what Irenaeus goes on to say "the vision of God is man".
We are always "coram deo" (under the gaze of God). That puts the passions of our "hearts" in proper perspective when our affections get distorted or misplaced as they so often do even as believers in Christ Jesus. We should seek to "delight ourselves in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart"
Eldredge does seek to base his premise of the goodness of our hearts on the new covenant promise of a new heart. This reveals a partial truth. As believers, we are a new creation and given new hearts, but to truly have "good hearts" we await the parousia (the Lord's return in glory) to completely restore our fallen hearts to be completely good. Now, I'm not saying Eldredge is explicitly teaching perfectionism but he steers too close to that edge; at the least he seems to deny the biblical truth that "our hearts are deceitful and wicked" often even as believers. We must not trust our own hearts but the revealed Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit to illumine that Word to our weak, often fallible hearts and minds. We need to always have our hearts and minds renewed (Romans 12:2). Once again, I appreciate John Eldredge and his heart to help others live "full" lives. However, I wish he would base more of what he says on clear Biblical exegesis or at least get some quality scholars to review his material and give some much needed critical input. Also, is it just me, ut can we please stop having these books without at least some proper citations and footnotes? It fits with the general "dumbing down" so prevalent in our mass culture.
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: This book is definately inspired!
Review: I have never read a book that spoke so closely to my heart. It has affected the way that I look at myself, and the enemy that is so prevalent around us. I believe that truely God has used John to present His word and the deeper meaning of what a relationship in Christ truely means. I have drawn so much out of it and the Lord has also given me opportunities to share the concepts of this book to others in order to "set the captives free". If you are looking for the missing pieces of the puzzle this book will definately help you find them. I found it totally biblical and refreshing. I have been a born again Christian for the greater part of my life and through this book regained so much of the true life that is waiting in Christ Jesus if we would only look to our hearts.
Rating:
Summary: Get this book!
Review: I love the honesty with which John Eldredge writes -- life really is hard and it really is very confusing. I can relate to that. Christians need to acknowledge this fact. But my heart is gripped by the idea that "things are not what they seem" as all good stories teach us, and that I am more than who I feel like I am. John Eldredge's plea to hear what "mythic" stories (written or on film) are trying to teach us about reality captures my imagination and gives me hope. Reading how Eldredge uses these stories to illustrate what is really happening in the world makes my faith in Christ seem so much more fresh and new and alive. Whereas "The Sacred Romance" introduced us to the fact that there is a great story happening here, and "Wild at Heart" showed us that we have an important place in that story, "Waking The Dead" helps us to see what the story is a little more clearly and what must happen for us to truly take our places in this grand drama. Perhaps the most revolutionary part of this book is that we must wake up to the fact that we are caught in the middle of a spiritual war and we must live like people at war. Without that understanding much of life makes no sense. Without reservation, I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking, necessary reading
Review: I purchased this with some uneasiness but was very pleasently surprised. This book has just enough detail to make it credible but is filled with thought provoking, honest to goodness heart. It's right on with our problems in the area of organized religion and out world. Must read if you care.
Rating:
Summary: Serve man or serve God?
Review: I spent much of my teenage years in the "Armstrong" (Radio Church of God) church and found it very legalistic. Now after a 35+ year gap am a member of a reformed church which is a breath of fresh air in comparision. Johns book however points out the possible danger of all man goverened religions.Do I follow the customs, rules and traditions man has put into place or follow Gods commands? Sure singing in a chour or attending bible study or serving on a commity is fine but God requires none of them for salvation, so don't let a church guilt you into believing that it is. Follow God first and then decied if any of mans traditions are for you.
Rating:
Summary: FREEDOM!
Review: I suggest reading John Eldredge's The Sacred Romance and The Journey of Desire, as well. It took me a year to prayerfully work through these three books and their companion workbooks; it was well worth that time. Upon finishing Waking The Dead, I feel more free than I have felt in three decades. Read this book. See how the Lord can mightily break you free from the shackles of the deepest wounds in your life!
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