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Summary: Find your misconceptions about God in this book...
Review: ...then keep reading to move towards a better understanding of him.In church school classes, in Bible studies, even in pulpits, I constantly encounter people who have a neatly categorized, labeled and filed-away God. The most common thing I see is people who reject a particular doctrine, Scriptural passage, or the like, because they know "God wouldn't do that". And how do they know? Because THEY wouldn't do that if THEY were God. Yes, their God is too small; and probably so is yours and mine. Reading this book will help us realize how great he is.
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Summary: Classic
Review: An oldie but a goodie. If taken literally, it can seem quite dated and out of touch, but if one takes Phillips' questions and discusses them with contemporary examples, the book can still be vibrantly relevent.
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Summary: Wrestle with your conception of God
Review: Do you struggle to understand why God didn't answer your prayer?
Are you convinced that He will like you more if you do the right things?
Or do you think God is a lovable papa bear in the sky who only wants you to be happy? Reading Phillips' classic may disturb you into a proper understanding of the real and living God, a mystery whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are unfathomable. In this pocket-sixed book, Phillips deals with incorrect ideas about the God of the Bible. He's not a cosmic policeman or a divine grandfather. Neither is He a bellhop, a tottering old man, nor a fire-breathing despot. He is a God who loves the world for His own glory and calls everyone to repentance for their sins against Him. Does that fit your understanding of God? If not, you may be deceived. Don't let yourself exist with a God too small for your life.
Read this book. Come to know the infinite Almighty.
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Summary: This Book Saved My Life!
Review: I first read this book fifteen years ago as a utterly miserable fundamentalist Christian. I was caught in a terrible dilemma: wanting to walk away from my rigid, dysfunctional beliefs, but unwilling to trust anyone who wasn't a believer to show me the way. Along comes J.B. Phillips, well-known Christian author, and expresses things I was terrified even to think! The first half of this book is devoted to demolishing destructive views of God. Phillips can be as unsparing at this as Nietzsche or Feuerbach. Especially shocking is his section entitled "Pale Galilean." The second half of the book attempts to rehabilitate the Biblical view of Jesus and to make his sayings palatable to modern readers. It's a heroic effort, but not a successful one, I think, because it fails to take account of modern Biblical criticism. In spite of its faults, this book freed me from fear and set me on the road to exploring the truth, a road that I walk to this day.
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Summary: Read this book and help our religions grow up
Review: I first read this book in the mid-70s after a few semesters at Bob Jones University and it confirmed the rightness of my decision to move on from fundamentalist and conventional Christianity, including the parochial Catholicism I grew up with. This, and Robinson's Honest To God, helped me in the personal journey from Sunday school and catechism piety to an authentic adult spirituality. Adults everywhere have been making the same move over the past thirty years and it is helping our religions to grow up as well. Read this book and join the movement from the pious pablum of traditional religion to the savory sustenance of adult spirituality.
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Summary: Carefully Controlled Apostasy
Review: I have listened to a lot of sermons in my life, often from people who would not want to spend that much time listening to me, who, of course, thought that I needed to be saved, or who thought that none of us could possibly understand a bigger picture than our own self-interest, and I have also listened to people who spoke out of a desire to proclaim whatever they considered godly. This small book is a great summary of the real ploys which may work for or against any of these views in a particular situation. Count me among the people who have had more trouble with doctrine than with poetry, but who might be more open to considering questions about God than about the meaning of life sometimes. The big transition, near the middle of this book, jumps from "Unreal Gods" to "An Adequate God." Trying to give up the common modern substitutes in order to worship precisely what everyone else is supposed to be worshipping only works when those people who think they should have your real devotion aren't paying attention.
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Summary: Find your misconceptions about God in this book...
Review: I picked up an early edition of this book at a used book sale recently. I had heard of Phillips, but had not read any of his writings. Unlike an earlier reviewer, I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first. I am a C.S. Lewis fan, so I am already quite familiar with the "destructive" views of God which are briefly examined in the first half of this book. But, the second part of the book in which the "constructive" view/feel for God is explored is, in my estimation, good and original stuff. [I liked that Phillips used the word "stuff" so I thought I'd add it here.] Like Lewis, and unlike so many of the more modern Christian writers, Phillips can certainly "turn a phrase". He writes so well that it makes his constructive vision of God, in the person of Jesus, come alive and convince. Christians should share/mention the book when evangelizing; non-Christians should read it to see that God is big enough to handle their questio ns and criticisms.
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Summary: The Second Half is Better
Review: I picked up an early edition of this book at a used book sale recently. I had heard of Phillips, but had not read any of his writings. Unlike an earlier reviewer, I enjoyed the second half of the book much more than the first. I am a C.S. Lewis fan, so I am already quite familiar with the "destructive" views of God which are briefly examined in the first half of this book. But, the second part of the book in which the "constructive" view/feel for God is explored is, in my estimation, good and original stuff. [I liked that Phillips used the word "stuff" so I thought I'd add it here.] Like Lewis, and unlike so many of the more modern Christian writers, Phillips can certainly "turn a phrase". He writes so well that it makes his constructive vision of God, in the person of Jesus, come alive and convince. Christians should share/mention the book when evangelizing; non-Christians should read it to see that God is big enough to handle their questio ns and criticisms.
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Summary: Simple yet profound
Review: In this 40-year-old short Christian classic, Phillips does a masterful job showing just who God isn't...and is. There are certain false images that we may have of God, but Philips tackles these in the first half of the book. I believe much of the views today's America has about God come from the media and their stereotypical nonsense--this is the kind of thinking Phillips seeks to destroy. The second half is dedicated to the constructive view of the authentic God who, it should be pointed out, is much greater than the limited box many stick Him in.
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Summary: Towards a Greater Picture of God
Review: In this small book, Phillips strikes at a vital issue in today's church: the multiplicity of false conceptions of God. The false conceptions of God that we hold are damaging to the faith and Christianity as a whole. Phillips brings many of these inadequate conceptions of God to light in the first half of the book, which I thought was some of the most poignant writing in the book. Too often we limit God, especially so that we can have our "God-in-a-box", which is essentially a shrunken-down God that fits OUR notions of what God is like and where He is. This along with many other false conceptions of God which Phillips gives name, create a pseudo-god that we ourselves hardly respect, and neither do those outside the church. And more importantly they do not reflect the true nature of God as revealed in the Bible. I was slightly disappointed in the second portion of the book where Phillips tries to open up a more full image of God. Most of it was very well written, and I especially liked the way he pointed to Jesus Christ as the "focused" God that came to be among us and die for our sins. However, scattered things in the latter portion of the book I disagreed with, for example, the way Phillips seemed to downplay sin somewhat. The true ugliness and despair of OUR OWN SIN is what nailed Christ to the Cross and was the punishment Jesus bore IN OUR STEAD! This makes the resurrection of Christ all the more joyful for sin-wearied souls, as we have the promise of forgiveness and eternal life WITH OUR SAVIOR!!! It is important that we recognize our own sinfulness and are repentant that we may receive this great gift. Altogether "Your God is Too Small" is a good little book for all Christians to read.
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