“I’m
not religious, but I am a Christ follower.” I hear this in my circle of friends and guilty of saying it myself. It seems no one wants to admit to being "religious", because religion is rules, dogma, and rituals. Following Jesus isn’t about those things,
even though it does involve disciplines and doctrines and walking in Truth.
Dwight
Longenecker raises the question, though, of what “religious” actually means,
when he looks at the origin of the word as one who has reverence for the
sacred. Christianity as a religion should
not be boring or bland. It’s not about
being good. Following Jesus is a valiant
quest, a battle with darkness, and the discovery of something to die for, which
gives us something to live for – the reality of the truth and beauty in Jesus
and His work on the cross.
Dwight
Longenecker’s book The Romance of
Religion: Fighting for Goodness, Truth, and Beauty is not about romance in
the sense of lovers, but rather, the love of beauty and truth in the quest for
understanding. The religious romantic
questions everything because he wishes to understand. He is on a quest for the hidden treasure for
truth and has a map to find it.
God
gives us the greatest story ever – one that is actually true. Wielding his
linguistic sword, Longenecker appeals to myths, tales, literature, and movies
to show the longing in our hearts for goodness, truth, beauty, and justice
because they are God given desires. These ultimately point to the greatest truest
story of all, displaying the beauty of the gospel – the birth, death, and
resurrection of Jesus. He paints a picture showing the cross to be enchanting,
delightful, real, and worth fighting for.
Dwight
Longenecker is a Catholic priest, but the differences between Protestant and Catholic
theologies are not vividly detectable.
His explicit understanding of the Gospel shines through toward the
latter portion of the book. He presents a defense for the truth of the
resurrection and the truth of God’s Word with elegant rationale combined with a
passion that moves the reader to take a courageous stand.
I
loved this book because it helped me to look at the Bible from a different
angle and see just how wild and beautiful God’s story is. He gave me permission to go ahead and love
fairy tales and fantasy stories and to see how they point toward the True Story
and the adventure of following Jesus.
This
book will not appeal to everyone. If you
are artistic or a romantic at heart, in love with stories and imagination, or
if you wish you were, this book might appeal to you and open your eyes to a new
way of seeing the adventurous and crazy journey of following Jesus.
I received a complimentary copy of this
book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.
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