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God Is Not…
God Is Not . . . takes on today's prevailing misconceptions about who God is by boldly stating who God is not . Rodney Clapp critiques pop culture's anthem to a slobby, ineffective "God like us," while D. Stephen Long, in "God Is Not Nice," questions our therapy-fed longing for a useful, nonthreatening deity. If God is not an American or a capitalist or "religious," as contributors Michael Baxter, Mike Budde, and William T. Cavanaugh go on to argue, then who is God? Laytham concludes with a stirring essay on who God is, calling the church to visibly demonstrate where its primary allegiance lies.
Audacious without being rude, God Is Not . . . is a lively, necessary, and intelligently reverent read.
Audacious without being rude, God Is Not . . . is a lively, necessary, and intelligently reverent read.
152 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 6, 2023
Published early in the millennium, God is not… is described by one of the contributors as “…the theological equivalent of The Jerry Springer Show.” The television show name-dropped was, for those too young to have been annoyed by the degrading broadcast, a spectacle of what Calvinists would call human depravity. Bigamists, unwed mothers, scofflaw fathers, polyamorists, serial adulterers, and more paraded their abnormal lifestyles in exaggerated confrontations. The contributor was confessing that this book of six essays, based on presentations given at a forum at North Park University in Chicago, had a sensationalist bent to it and the essays might be taking more forceful positions to spotlight the inherent problems in these modern heresies.
The introduction suggests that the book attempts to enhance one’s understanding of God through what Thomas Aquinas referred to as the via negativa (aka “What God is Not”—p. 10). Two of the essays strike at the “Buddy Jesus” idea from Kevin Smith’s Dogma without actually mentioning the once controversial film: “God is not a Stranger on a Bus” reminds us that God isn’t just a human being or projection of a human being and “God is not Nice” reminds us that creating a god in the image of our therapeutic culture is just another idolatrous means of commercializing faith as a consumer product without authentic commitment. Another essay, “God is not Religious,” offers a glimpse of the rise of the modern concept of “religion” and demonstrates how the interiorization of faith inevitably leads to a relativism (p. 109). By internalizing all religious claims, the modern state was able to move religion off the stage of everyday impact (p. 104). Now, whenever religion appears active in world affairs, it is primarily as a servant of special interests or as an attempt to deny the veracity and objective reality of God’s revelation (p. 112).
Although the book was edited in the early 2000s, the chapter entitled “God is not an American” could be culled from today’s (2023’s) headlines. Christian nationalism is a movement which takes the “God is an American” perspective to an extreme. As the essay points out, it’s pretty hard to argue for the U.S. as a “Christian nation” when “…Americans in large numbers engage in practices that run clearly counter to the Christian way of life.” (p. 68). Unfortunately, this is a relatively weak presentation because the author focused primarily on one editorial from the post 9/11 era that egregiously violated the idea of allegiance to God over allegiance to “Caesar.” It would have been much stronger with more examples than the one primary straw man.
The chapter on “God is Not a Capitalist” didn’t really break any new ground, but it offered some of the most humorous comments in the book, including the author’s proof that God has a bad business model (pp. 85-87) by demonstrating aspects of Jesus’ life and parables that are counter to “best business practices” in the modern world. It certainly speaks against the consumerization of the church and the artificial demarcation between worship and work.
God is not… has some good quotations and some useful counterpoint to the “business as usual” in many churches. The authors and editor are right that we need the via negativa as a corrective to what God isn’t so that we can start the hard work of using the via analogica (way of analogy) to increase our understanding of God so we can increase our relationship with God. My main problem was that a couple of the chapters relied too heavily on too few sources.
The introduction suggests that the book attempts to enhance one’s understanding of God through what Thomas Aquinas referred to as the via negativa (aka “What God is Not”—p. 10). Two of the essays strike at the “Buddy Jesus” idea from Kevin Smith’s Dogma without actually mentioning the once controversial film: “God is not a Stranger on a Bus” reminds us that God isn’t just a human being or projection of a human being and “God is not Nice” reminds us that creating a god in the image of our therapeutic culture is just another idolatrous means of commercializing faith as a consumer product without authentic commitment. Another essay, “God is not Religious,” offers a glimpse of the rise of the modern concept of “religion” and demonstrates how the interiorization of faith inevitably leads to a relativism (p. 109). By internalizing all religious claims, the modern state was able to move religion off the stage of everyday impact (p. 104). Now, whenever religion appears active in world affairs, it is primarily as a servant of special interests or as an attempt to deny the veracity and objective reality of God’s revelation (p. 112).
Although the book was edited in the early 2000s, the chapter entitled “God is not an American” could be culled from today’s (2023’s) headlines. Christian nationalism is a movement which takes the “God is an American” perspective to an extreme. As the essay points out, it’s pretty hard to argue for the U.S. as a “Christian nation” when “…Americans in large numbers engage in practices that run clearly counter to the Christian way of life.” (p. 68). Unfortunately, this is a relatively weak presentation because the author focused primarily on one editorial from the post 9/11 era that egregiously violated the idea of allegiance to God over allegiance to “Caesar.” It would have been much stronger with more examples than the one primary straw man.
The chapter on “God is Not a Capitalist” didn’t really break any new ground, but it offered some of the most humorous comments in the book, including the author’s proof that God has a bad business model (pp. 85-87) by demonstrating aspects of Jesus’ life and parables that are counter to “best business practices” in the modern world. It certainly speaks against the consumerization of the church and the artificial demarcation between worship and work.
God is not… has some good quotations and some useful counterpoint to the “business as usual” in many churches. The authors and editor are right that we need the via negativa as a corrective to what God isn’t so that we can start the hard work of using the via analogica (way of analogy) to increase our understanding of God so we can increase our relationship with God. My main problem was that a couple of the chapters relied too heavily on too few sources.
May 29, 2008
An excellent variety pack of essays from the Ekklesia Project. "God is Not Nice" by Stephen Long was most challenging to my upbringing..."God is Not American" was especially helpful to me, not because its premise is anything new but because I have Rofters (Readers of First Things) in my immediate family.
November 14, 2025
Nice short read. Pretty dated at this point, but good reminders. I found some of it quite helpful, particularly the article by William Cavanaugh on the development of the terminology around religion. But the articles on capitalism and America, while both completely true (i.e., God is neither American nor capitalist), are arguments against turn of the millennia straw men. Seemingly a reaction against the American conservative evangelicals wholehearted support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they contribute little or nothing to the argument.
August 20, 2020
A friend of mine who is in the clergy recommended this to me when we were talking about America and religion. These essays will make you think and are well written.
March 5, 2011
My recommendation to friends and acquaintances who could be characterized as sentimental, fundamentalist, ignorant, misguided, etc. in "christian" thinking. God is not . . . contains essays that challenge notions of connecting the Triune God with e.g., capitalism or the ill-anthropomorphic sense that America is tightly woven into the nature of God--read this and you may never pledge allegiance to the American flag again--beware! This text is straight forward while conveying theological ethics in a way that says If God is not . . . What? The authors of these essays are fore-runners and individuals who have their heads out the sand for some time and able to convey well radical discipleship via a polemic against the modern notions who God is not and thus assist the church/individual to move closer to living the reality of "Only Yahweh--none of the above" which goes with "Jesus is Lord."
March 10, 2010
This collection of very readable essays cuts the issues in so many correct ways. It's full of neat surprises and insights. It's a great, largely simple introduction to many Hauerwasian themes. It would work very well for a college book discussion group.
August 31, 2010
God is not embodied, God is not material, God is not contained within the world.
“You are not your own.”
Religion is human intent seeking divine rationale.
Cuius regio eius religio.
“You are not your own.”
Religion is human intent seeking divine rationale.
Cuius regio eius religio.
March 29, 2013
Important...quotable and counter-cultural, my copy is heavily underlined and I have used it often in sermons.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews