Flipped - Book Review

Flip – “a reconsideration of what was always assumed to be true.”

My gradual transformation, spiritually, over the last year has been full of flips.  Flips can certainly make one dizzy, but can give a shift in perspective, enabling to see things differently, perhaps even more fully.

So when I saw Doug Pagitt’s new book, Flipped: The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know about God, I was intrigued, especially with an endorsement from Brian McLaren on the cover about flipping conventional understanding.  I had not heard of Doug Pagitt before this book, but he is a pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis and has authored several other books. 

Doug Pagitt states that the purpose of this book is to see that the heart of Jesus’ message is the changing of your mind while engaging new ideas and drawing new conclusions.  He challenges the reader to see beyond familiar patterns and routine ways of thinking.  I loved this concept as the book’s intent, but the book really ended up being about his own spiritual flip and trying to persuade the reader to see and embrace his flip.

Pagitt’s flip is about changing the way of thinking of seeing God in us to that of how we live and exist in God.  This changed the way he listened to God, and he insists that it was also the primary understanding of Jesus, Paul, and others.  He comes across in this book as a really likeable guy, someone I’d like to sit and chat with over a cup of coffee, especially over this flip because it really did not strike me the way it did him.

Further endorsements inside the cover include Rob Bell, Phyllis Tickle, and Shane Claiborne.  If you are a fan of their writings or of the emergent church, you may enjoy this book.  If you believe that these authors have biblically missed the mark, then you will likely feel the same about Doug Pagitt’s book.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Convergent Books in exchange for my honest review.