Rating: 
Summary: An outstanding achievment
Review: From the moment you open Brennan Manning "Ragamuffin Gospel" you are entranced. The late Rich Mullins wrote the forward, with a story that touches any heart-- how Manning changed his life. Right away, you know this book will change you. Manning brings new life to a old subject--understanding how God loved us enough to die for us. We are all "ragamuffins," degenerates, sinners, not worthy of the love of God, right? No! We are sinners and ragamuffins, but because of the blood of Jesus, God sees us as perfect and beautiful. Manning illustrates that in his gentle ability to tell a story, stories that we see ourselves in. And those stories help us understand the unconditional love of God. Manning has an impressive ability to draw you in. The concept of God's grace is sometimes hard for Christians to confront, because it brings forth every weakness and fault we have. And the author has been there. As a former alchoholic, he understands rejection and failure with the best of them. As we read about Manning weakness and the candor with which he speaks of them, our own weaknesses don't seen so difficult to overcome. Manning teaches us how the blood of Jesus covers those weaknesses and God doesn't even see them once He has forgiven us. What a feeling that is! And the author is a master at bringing us to that feeling, a master at drawing you inside yourself to learn more about what is there. For all those that wonder where God is, they will find Him in the pages of this book. And as a ragamuffin myself, I saw a glimpse of who God is.
Rating:
Summary: Inspriational and Extraordinary book.
Review: This book is an exceptional read for anyone who wants to draw nearer to God. Although I have read some criticisms of The Ragamuffin Gospel that seem to insist Manning is not hard enough on sinners, perhaps Jesus was not hard enough on sinners, either.
I take back that perhaps.. I know Jesus was not hard enough on sinners. I think the message Manning is trying to get across is that we are all sinners. None of us, in all our self-righteous fury, can say that we walk even a day without sin. Yet God sent His son to die for us- not just die, but suffer agonizingly, brutally beaten, shamed, tortured, and mocked- for us.
As Manning poetically points out, Jesus was aware of our sinful natures, aware of our present sins and even our future sins, when he undertook this labor of love for us.
Matthew 9:9-13 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. but go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'* For I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners."**
*Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
*Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
**Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
**1 Timothy 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-of whom I am the worst.
I am a person who struggles daily that shame and guilt over my sins, negativity and unacceptance of self-righteous, holier-than-thou Christians, make stumbling on my walk with God easier. The Ragamuffin Gospel has drawn me nearer to God and to the realization that Jesus does offer forgiveness for even me.
Rating: 
Summary: utter crap
Review: If you read this book and take it to heart you are doing yourself a huge dis-service. This book helped destroy my marriage, sank my wife into a bigger depression, is very damaging, depressive, negative, etc. As Children of the Most Holy, we are not Ragamuffins in the least. This book makes you feel like crap for believing in God, (even calls Him "kooky")makes you think you're free to do whatever you want without consequence or anything. According to this book I'm free to sin and live in sin no matter what as God is "kooky" and not looking for repentance, but just desperately needing "friends". Sure it's a very trendy view of things right now, this book is filled with a lot of "modern" thinking/psychology etc., but the Bible has been around for a pretty long time, and it still works. If you're looking for enlightenment, a positive message, if you're looking for answers to questions/problems, skip this dude and just pray, read scripture, read something else besides this relationship killing, soul crushing, piece of excrement. I promise you'll be much better off in the long run.
Rating:
Summary: One more time with feeling.
Review: As both a minister and staff on a well known parachurch group for over thirty years, I believe I have run the gamut of both doctrine and emotions regarding grace and legalism. Recognizing that I may come across as eletist, naive, or a practitioner of the tired cliché of "cheap grace" (which, in itself, is an oxymoron), I would like to give a "two thumbs way up" for The Ragamuffin Gospel.
Having been a legalist and a doctrine Nazi for years (I could smell bad and liberal doctrine a mile away) I have come to embrace the richness of God's love in Christ that Paul exhorts us to in Ephesians 3. Manning (and God) do not wink at sin. Knowing that satan is "the accuser of the brethren" I have rarely found a true believer who has not struggled with endless shame and guilt. Manning's approach to grace does not circumvent true repentance. Quite the opposite. It is "God's kindness that leads us to repentance." As I have hesitantly tasted the riches of Christ's love I find that, like a lover seeking to please their mate, I seek to please God through genuine obedience and not man made manipulation. The accuser reminds me daily of my fallen state. I don't need a refresher course in conviction of sin.
Manning's books have opened my eyes and heart to a side of God I have really never grasped or understood. Kudos to the man!
Rating:
Summary: Grandfather God
Review: It is true that some Christians still envision God as the Mrs. Grundy of the cosmos, constantly watching us for slip-ups and judging us harshly for every one of them (especially those that bring us great pleasure). But that is not every Christian's understanding of God. It may not even be the predominant Christian view of God today. But Manning writes as if it is a view that must be supplanted by a view of God as something like a doting grandfather. God loves you (he preaches), no matter what you do (agreed, so far); and so (here is where the trouble begins) there is no need to mend your ways, no need to repent of your sins, no need to seek His forgiveness.
This is Manning's message, with now and then a "sop for Cerberus" to silence his critics. But the reader who is a Manning fan will pass over these concessions with no more than a slight wince, then on again to bask in the Waikiki of God's love. Surely it must be comforting for the embezzler, the child molester, the dope dealer, to be told that God is pleased with his waywardness--that all is forgiven beforehand in a kind of medieval Catholic indulgence without the clink of a coin. But of course if God has no standards for human behavior and sincerity, there is no such thing as sin, and therefore no need for forgiveness. To take Manning's thesis to its inevitable conclusion, God is not exactly dead; He is merely a victim of Alzheimer's disease, eternally smiling the smile of demented benevolence.
God is love, yes. But God is also holy and expects us to move toward that holiness in our lives. There is a vital need to maintain this balance in our view of God. If there are too many people on the starboard side and the boat is tilting that way, it does not help to send everyone to the port side. We only drown in the opposite direction.
Rating: 
Summary: Long On Subject - Short On Application
Review: I seem to fall somewhere in the middle between the follower and the naysayer in regards to the Ragamuffin Gospel. I would not say that the book changed my life, but I will say the grace of which Manning writes has so I never mind reading more reflections on it. I have read accusations of universalism and mysticism in his writing, but cannot see clear distinctions of either in Ragamuffin.
A novel angle (or rather new to me) that I took away from reading Ragamuffin is in relation to the concept of being "seized by the power of a great affection." At this point in the Christian world it seems I meet people who are either silly with emotion or passionlessly stoic. Learning more about Christ, the Gospel, and grace should fill us with great motivating passion. True understanding of these concepts removes despair despite our failure to achieve right living but it doesn't remove the desire to achieve it! If we are truly "seized" by the grace (great affection) of Christ it is by that "power" that our life is based and gets its meaning.
Galatians 2:20 says "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Clearly the gospel is for living in the here as well as in eternity. We are not "saved by grace" only to be "perfected by works".
Jerry Bridges has written..."So sanctification involves hard work and dependence
on Christ; what I call dependent effort. And it will always mean we are dissatisfied with our performance. For a growing Christian, desire will always outstrip performance or, at least, perceived performance. What is it then that will keep us going in the face of this tension between desire and performance? The answer is the gospel. It is the assurance in the gospel that we have indeed died to the guilt of sin and that there is no condemnation for us in Christ Jesus that will motivate us and keep us going even in the face of this tension"
I did not get a feel for this tension in Ragamuffin.
Rating:
Summary: All Christians should read this book.
Review: My dad recommended that I read his copy of this book after I went through a very tough time during my junior year of high school. Brennan Manning writes in a way that you can totally relate to him. Even though he is a famous author and speaker, he is a normal human being. Even though he is a Christian, he makes mistakes.
In this wonderful book, Manning describes a ragamuffin--someone who knows that they've done wrong and knows that they can never be good enough for God, but accepts that they don't have to be perfect; God loves us anyway. Manning does a great job writing about God's love for us, and stresses His love throughout the book.
When I was done reading this book, I contemplated for about 15 minutes all that I had read, and I began crying. It's almost unbelievable to think that God loves all of us, no matter what we do, say, or think. He wants all of us to come to Him and accept His gift of grace.
This book is for anyone, even high-schoolers like me, that need reminding of God's love for us.
Rating:
Summary: Redeemed by God's Grace Alone
Review: The Ragamuffin Gospel is the first Christian book to hit right where my heart needed it... For the majority of my life, I considered myself right in God's Grace without overwhelming shortcomings. Never truly facing unbearable challenges, I could not relate to those who had found God in the depths of despair. Well, that quickly changed when I graduated from college and entered the professional world. I faced challenges in both my job and personal life that threw me into a tailspin, and I felt distanced from God. I felt guilty, overburdened by my own "failings," and consumed by darkness. Wherever I found legalism, it was no longer a camp to join (because I was so "righteous") but what reeked of ignorance about God's Grace. Then a friend recommended this book. I read it with intent and realized, for the first time in three years, that the God I accepted as a child is the God who loves me no matter how far I fall. No, this is not an excuse to keep sinning. Yes, this is an invitation back to the Lord, who loves so unconditionally that we, finite humans, cannot fully grasp it until we reach Glory. As Brennan Manning's book helped lift me from the "ashes," I realize there are others who "beat themselves up" and feel that God is so displeased that His love cannot reach them. Not so with our Glorious Lord. He loves you with NO END! That, my friends, makes me want to fall down at His knees. His love does not waiver with my rights and wrongs; He invites me to His love and grace without reservation. >>Lord, I come back to you, running and with open arms.<< Thank you, Brennan Manning. There is NOTHING I can do to "earn" God's favor. He is smiling because I sense His love, once again. He was always there, even when I didn't feel like He was there. P.S. For all those who over-emphasize a person's "fruit" without the Glorious context of God's Grace, please do consider "walking two moons" in that person's mocassins. Only God knows our hearts, through and through. I'm blessed because He does. There's nothing He doesn't know, yet He loves me unconditionally, forever and ever.
Rating:
Summary: Read this review
Review: Dear readers,
I was browing the web looking for a page of brenning manning and his works, so I came to amazon hoping to find a link. I started reading the reviews and most agreed with me that this is a great book. But I am going to say it is only a book. Manning is not presenting any deep theological message. He is not explaining away the worlds problems. He doesn't suggest that he knows all there is to know about God. What he does is present the gospel to those who need to hear it. He is real because he has been there.
I myself do not claim to know much. I would not be able to argue with you about the ins and outs of modern christianity. I do not know debates or answers to a lot of questions. But what I do know is the love of God.
Mannings book, if you read it just for the knowledge in the book, you will probably miss it. You must be in the shoes of Manning. You have to had been at the bottom, not just a one who doesn't know Christ, but one who has. We are ragamuffins. I know that is made clear in the bible. But grace is so amazing because while we were still these ragamuffins Christ died for us. You could argue all day about who Christ died for and how I don't know anything, but all I need to know is the love of God.
Why do I write this review? Honestly I do not remember everything that was said in Mannings book. But God was convincing me of his love for me at the same time I picked up this book. It was a source of encouragement to know that i was not the only one who felt this way. I ask you just to be real with yourself and God and allow him to convince you of his love. Not from a book or a sermon or anything else. I promise if you seek for that you will find it. Thank you.
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