Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

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Summary: Abba's Child
Review: A powerful and wonderful book. One of the best I have every read! A great way for people who don't know God to be able to unlike the way we learned in Church. Manning's presentation on God's grace is wonderful. His definition of a "Legalist", (those church people who put the rules above love, mercy and grace) will probably have a hard time understanding this book. For those of you who don't know God, read this book. He is not what you think. For those of you who think you know God, read this book, you may learn somethings. I certainly did.

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Summary: Draws one into the Mystery of the Gospel
Review: After years of having evangelical education crammed into my head, Abba's Child is a book which challenges what I say I know and believe. Manning's honesty about the terrible sin problem all born-again sinners are acquainted with rings true to the Apostle Paul's lament "the things I wish to do, I do not (and vice versa)". But, instead of talking us out of our bad feelings about our condition, Manning challenges us to begin the journey of intimacy with the God Paul also teaches us is named Abba. Far from the typical modern Christian books which skim the surface of the human experience, Abba's Child is a primer for those who quietly realize that the Christian faith is much more than a call to a system of belief of Absolute Truths-----and that it is a call to the most important Relationship of our lives, that with our utterly "Other" God. Evangelical friends who presently are teaching, studying and ministering at Yale and Cambridge (UK) have thanked me over and over for giving them this book, both saying they must read it over and over----a life changing book! If you are squeamish in thinking God the Father's name is "Daddy", and that he longs for you to address and know him as such, this book probably will make you uncomfortable. If you have arrived at the exhaustion of modernity in the American evangelical experience, this book will remind you that the Gospel is a relationship, not a "plan of salvation" to know, memorize and regurgitate. Great reading for worn-out evangelicals!

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Summary: Disappointment
Review: An oversimplified and unrealistic treatise on how to gain intimacy with God. I have not read any of Manning;s previous works and am not planning to having read Abba's child. The main premise of the book is in seeking solitude in order to gain intimacy with God. Manning himself escaped to a cabin in Colorado with nothing but the Bible. I, unfortunately, am not a bestselling author and cannot drop out of life so easily to contemplate the Word. A disappointment that fails to rise above other unoriginal mass market Christian self help.

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Summary: Wonderful and Mysterious.
Review: As a Mormon Christian growing in spiritual maturity, reading this book performed no minor miracle in my life. From the first chapter I identified closely as one who has been hiding his true self. After becomming aware of this reality and working to bring hidden things into light I found my relationships with family and friends growing significantly for the better. This greater intimacy is always welcome.

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Summary: We Are Beloved
Review: As I read this book I was struck time and time again by its quaint simplicity and its penetrating truth-telling. Brennan Manning is perhaps the foremost writer of ?Christian Living? books since Henri Nouwen and he shows it again in this magnificent little book. It is short enough for a quick read but deep enough to come back to over and over again as we are attacked by self-hatred. There is perhaps no bigger emotional/psychological plague during our time than self-hatred and Brennan helps us see that this disease comes from every but God. Brennan helps us see that we are God's beloved, his special creation, and that he wants what is best for us. Part of this divine desire is that we love ourselves because God asks us in his Word to love others as we love ourselves. How then can we love others if we have not love of ourselves? Brennan helps us see that we can't, at least not honestly. Reading this book helped me see that I am not alone in my battle with self-hatred. Thank you Brennan for writing it and this is a book that every single Christian should read?I would give it 10 stars if I could!

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Summary: One of the most moving books about grace...
Review: Brennan Manning is a thelogian who cuts through modern-day theologic mumbo-jumbo to the naked Truth of the Gospel...that God loves us desperately and that the knowledge of His unrelenting grace is life changing and life shattering. If someone asked me how to find God, I would hand them a copy of the New Testament and a copy of Abba's Child.

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Summary: utter crap
Review: God is about relationships and fruits of the spirit, He is not about abandoning everyone and everything to find Him. This dude is so contradictory, depressing, negative, angry etc. I just don't see how anyone can read his stuff and not vomit. If you're depressed and need to feel worse, dive right into his stuff, if you are a Christian trying to learn more about God, yourself, and the world around you in a positive, enlightening, Godly way then skip this waste of trees and find something else to read or do.

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Summary: we are children of God...most precious in His sight
Review: How silly we humans are. We are loved beyond comprehension. Still, we try to put on painful masks to hide from our lover. What nonsense! What idiocy. I have been trying to be something I am not almost every second of my life. Yet now I see that my value is not in what I pretend to be...or what I think people want me to be. No...my value is in a love that I never asked for--in a lover I never sought--in a God who calls me to recognize my "impostor" and leave it in order to enter into His love. I thank Brennan Manning for writing a book that forces me to hear my Lover's voice clearly and honestly. I hope that if you read this, you'll get a copy for yourself.

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Summary: The Deep Understanding of God's Love
Review: I am on the third reading of this book. I have given this book to many other evangelical Christians who struggle with beleiving God really loves them. The opportunity for "kingdom living" is NOW. This book helps you understand the power of God's love in your life and helps Christians lay aside many encombrances that keep them from loving others and taking our heavenly father at his word. It's top on my list next to the Bible.

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Summary: A review from a 19 year old
Review: I couldn't begin to expound on how my Jesus has touched my heart through this book. As one who struggles with seeing myself as God sees me, still struggling from co-dependence and desire to feel loved by others, I found out the main truth God has been desiring to convey to His people since the beginning of time: He wants to commune with His creation. That's it... no whistles, bangs, or bucks about it. Throw away religion, doctrine, and denominations. Every aspect of God I will ever need to know is centered around what Brennan points out: Our self worth and reason for existence is based on what Abba has to say about us! Thank you Brennan for conducting the best book I have read so far aside from the Holy Scriptures.