The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to God: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know about the Almighty

by Eric E Hall, Tripp Fuller (Editor)

Is God the First Cause? The Unmoved Mover? Mr. Miyagi? In this latest installment of the Homebrewed Christianity series, edited by Tripp Fuller, Eric E. Hall approaches the question of God from various perspectives, including philosophy, personal revelation, Christian tradition, and other religions. The classical conception of God is like the famously stoic-yet-lethal character in the Karate Kid . Competing versions of God include Your Hippie Aunt, St. Joan of Arc, and even the muscle-headed goons from Jersey Shore . Hall uses each of these analogies to elucidate a version of God that has held sway at one point or another. For each, he shows strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. After proposing this nouveau-pantheon, Hall takes on atheism, religion versus science, and popular images of Jesus. At the end of this romp through history and pop culture, Hall argues that the God you need may be the very God you rejected years ago.

Genres: Religion

190 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2016

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great attempt to help us think through the classical theistic conception of god as the ground of being, religious pluralism, the good questions of atheism, and the how Jesus helps us relate our being to that ground of being. The second half of the book on religious pluralism, atheism, and especially the discussion of how the history of Israel and Jesus can be understood as a narration of God's interaction with the world was quite good. Overall I came away with a fuller understanding of the classical concept of god and a lot of fodder for further thought.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, easy-to-read overview of the most popular philosophical-religious attempts to understand the question of "God." (Who is God? How do we know what God is like? What are the different options available to us in our traditions?) The author doesn't try to avoid any sense of bias (thankfully) but is humbly clear about what he finds helpful and less-than-helpful about various traditions. At no point, however, is he condescending.

This is an extremely funny, approachable book, with memorable metaphors (I predict using the bourbon/barrel analogy in many talks/sermons moving forward....) that will help any reader begin to wrap their mind around the biggest philosophical/theological topic ever. I recommend it.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great intro to the many crossroads of philosophy and religion. Funny (especially the asides from acolyte/elder/deacon/bishop) and clear in most spots, with a few really thought provoking sections. Grew tired of the need to have a pop culture analogy for every theme...many of which were stretched way too far and ended up being more distracting than helpful.

[Edmund Baird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good layman's introduction to different concepts of God. At the end he presents an inteteresting attempt to splice several of the more helpful together.

[Junessa Gray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overly complicating and unnecessarily made to be funny when it is clearly a theological debate.