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Summary: Spirituality in the real world
Review: This is really a good book, post World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings. It does not fall into wishfull thinking or flinch from the tough stuff. It gives one a basis to start from for the question "Where's God in this tragedy?". Popular American spirituality that can't comprehend anything but prosperity and safety ill prepared the church for what happened. This book might help the disillusioned to an understanding of God and that His love does indeed continue for us amidst it all.
Rating: 
Summary: I Hate To Say This, But . . .
Review: This book was very highly reccomended to me by a good friend, and I began reading it with very high expectations. As the reader will probably guess from my rating, I was awfully dissapointed. I was baffled by the incoherence and faultiness of the book's logic, and I was appalled by the absurdity of the book's ideological premises. The latter is somewhat clumsily concealed by the book's ambiguous language. The authors keep using the word 'heart' as a sort of buzzword; they never clarify exactly what it means, but as the word is used one can only conclude that it means something that is generally 'good' and anything to the contrary is generally not. As the basic thesis of the whole book, the authors argue that the fullest relationship with God is nothing short of a 'romance' and anything less is inauthentic.
As much as I hate to think it, this book seems to typefy the heavyhanded contemporary evangelical emphasis on emotion and feeling; it is not enough to know God, the book says; one must 'feel' and 'experience' God, to the extent of being emotionally guided and literally 'romantically' attached to Him. (It is also worth noting that, like most Christian books that gain relative popularity as a result of their shallow and feel-good theology, "The Sacred Romance" is being very aggressively marketed; the author- Elderige is the only one still living- seems realize that poor theology is very profitable, and this may help explain why he has come out with an extra workbook to help you enhance your own 'sacred romance'.)
In addition, the authors feign to be basing their book on great works of literature throughout the book, taking quotes of C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, T.S. Eliot, Soren Kierkegaard, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many other distinguished authors, and placing them all grossly out of context. Nobody who is at all familiar with the works of these men could possibly believe that their writings could be used to justify such slapstick theology as is put forward in "The Sacred Romance". In fact, if I may reccomend some positive alternatives to "The Sacred Romance", I would suggest that you read Lewis's "The Four Loves", Chesterton's "Orthodoxy", and other such books that are not so devoid of theological substance as "The Sacred Romance".
Rating:
Summary: Spreading the truth about God and His Love.
Review: This is one of the best books that I have ever read. I would give it ten stars if I could. It tells of Christ's great love for His people, and tells us all how much God loves us. It's a truly beautiful book, you could read again and again. I can't recommend this highly enough.
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Summary: Changed my life!
Review: This book has absolutely changed my life. It is the first Christian book I have been able to fully relate to. I have allowed the "Arrows" of my life to turn me into a skeptical, pessmistic person with the belief that God is basically the big disciplinarian in the sky. This is the first book that has said that my feelings are natural and has not dismissed them. Instead it has helped me look at the various individual threads of my past and how they have woven the current fabric of my life. But most importantly, the book has used those revelations as a starting point and outlines the path to healing and transforming my view of God to one of a loving Father and passionate bridegroom. I'm telling everyone I know about this book and the workbook. The workbook is a crucial component to getting the most out of the book. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it!
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Summary: Stop Running...
Review: We need not hide, rebel or try to jump through hoops. We need no longer strive for some invisible standard of cosmic perfection. We are longed for and pursued by the greatest lover of all time! He stalks our hearts like the most valuable and needed of prey...Get this book and be swept away in the tide of His love.
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Summary: Back to the Heart
Review: An excellent book on going back to the basics of our faith in God, intimacy with God. This book helped me tremendously in my struggle for intimacy with God and helped me realize that knowing God is the key and foundation of my faith. Well written and intense in form. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to get back to the heart of God.
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Summary: Love Affair With God
Review: I wasn't sure that I would like this book. I'm the type of person who dwells in the world of logic and "mind-truth". But Curtis and Eldridge took me on a journey through my heart and God's heart. Their thesis is that even before the creation, God, in His perfect relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, began to romance us. He created us to be His beloved. But, the "Message of the Arrows" deflected our hearts away from that romance and made us settle on the minor romances of control, performance, and escape to name a few. We are not left completely stranded because God lets us in on moments where our hearts know we are part of a greater romance than the ones we are involved in. In fact, God is pursuing His romance with us consistently. The crux of the matter is to allow God to enter into this romance with us. The book led me to a discovery. I'm not totally a "mind-truth" kind of guy, I'm a "heart-truth" kind of a guy, too.
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Summary: What story are you living?
Review: This book does not take the formulaic approach that most Christian writers employ, namely identify a problem or a goal, and then provide the answers in three easy steps. Rather, they use the idea of Gospel as story. As they state "Brent and I have taken a great risk in our use of the story motif, because in the twentieth century liberal theologians have used 'narrative' as a way of dismantling any objective interpretation of Scripture. However, we cannot escape the fact that the Scriptures are given to us in the shape of a story." This book will challenge and inspire you to live a life of adventure as you begin the "Sacred Romance" with God. Whatever you do, get a copy of this book to everyone you can.
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Summary: Some good points, but many problems
Review: This book has received much attention, and consequently deserves a little analysis. In short, while I found much that is good and helpful in this book, I also found it to contain many logical fallacies and some highly questionable theological ideas. Theologically, the authors make a precious few points where they come across as very God-centered in their doctrine. For most of the book, however, the emphasis is on man. The accompanying workbook is especially bad in this department. At one point, the workbook asks, "What might be desirable in you that God moved heaven and earth to get?" (p. 110). This question could easily be taken to be assuming that God saves us because of something He sees in us, rather than *despite* what He sees in us. While there is an important point here about God seeing us as valuable, there is also the possibility of grave theological error. This is just one example of many. Throughout the book there is careless wording such as this that could easily mislead a young Christian. While the authors clearly seem to be in the conservative evangelical camp, they manage to quote scripture out of context (for example, quoting Ephesians 1 when claiming that man is at the center of God's plans) and to rely on extrabiblical sources (literature, film, etc.) which are often treated in their analysis as if they has the same authority as scripture. They sometimes quote carefully edited passages of a paraphrased version when the original text doesn't fit their point. The authors of this book describe their experience of coming to know God's love after having taken some hard knocks during the course of thier lives. I think their book speaks well to people who have had similar experiences to their own. However, they seem, throughout the book, to generalize and to assume that everyone has the same background and experiences as they, and that everyone should have the same experiences as they. They often talk about what this world and this culture do to us and how they affects us. They speak as if their experience were true universally, which it isn't. This elementary logical fallacy, known as "hasty generalization", is just one of many, and occurs repeatedly throughout the book. I would not recommend this book. I think it has become popular because its strong man-centered approach makes people feel good about themselves. While it may be helpful to someone trying to deal with certain psychological issues similar to those dealt with by the authors, the logical and theological errors are simply too many and too serious.
Rating:
Summary: On my top five books list
Review: For believers or searchers. This is both a profound and practical book. Equivalent to a "unifying field theory" for the spiritual life in that it brings several major threads together into THE central issue in one's spiritual life--the heart. I wanted to buy this book for every family in my church (till I did the calculations...) A must read. Potential to transform one's life.
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