Eyes on Miller

Since this is in response to remarks made two weeks ago, thought it would be good to post this as a new thread rather than a comment.

Eyes wrote: "In a way, Miller is a salesman. He caters to our weakness and taylors his message so as not to be overly challenging to the dominant ideology."

What evidence do you have to support your assertion that Miller consciously seeks not to "push the envelope" too much -- in your words, not to "challenge the dominant ideology" too much?

More Eyes: "God's frightening power, his fearsom rod of correction, and the aggressively reactionary nature of the gospel message is largely ignored."

I would tend to agree that this biblical theme is not loudly spoken of in Miller's book. By the way, what do you mean by the "aggressively reactionary nature of the gospel?" Please elaborate.

Eyes again: "Miller's tendency to make startling deferences to American postmodernism deserves our attention. Chapters 5,6,7 are so much about "me", so much less about "us" and even less still about "Him" that I feel unsettled."

Are you equating postmodernism with self-centeredness? I think a handful of us in this community consider ourselves postmoderns (myself included), but I should hope not to be thought of as self-centered for that reason -- I'm perfectly self-centered all by myself, thank you very much; I hardly need any help from any particular world view.

On the whole, I disagree that "Blue Like Jazz" is not about Him, although I admit I don't have the particular content of chs. 5-7 in view when I say this. I find the material challenging to me on a personal level. In particular, I resonate with the kind of thinking that led Miller to describe his perception of the world as a story about him in which other people play minor roles. I want to become a more considerate, thoughtful, loving person, and I think the Lord is using this book to achieve this in me.

We want to hear from you

Last Sunday we filled out evaluation forms for the class. (Doing it at this early date means we have a chance to fix things before the class ends.) Here were the questions:

1. What are some good things that have happened in this class? What aspects of the class are working for you?
2. What bad things have happened? What aspects of the class aren't working for you?
3. What would you like to get out of this class / this community?
4. What would you like this community to look like?
5. What would you like to do after we finish "Blue Like Jazz"?

Please consider answering these questions in the comments below. (Or if you prefer, email them to James, Suvia, or John. Using comments here lets you remain anonymous; and it lets others read and respond to what you write.)

Links

Last Sunday we discussed Chapters 11 and 12 of Blue Like Jazz (skipping Ch.13 for lack of time). I promised to provide some online links:

In Ch. 12 D.M. talks about his church, Imago Dei, and its pastor, Rick McKinley (seen at right). (He also refers to "Mark the cussing pastor" in Seattle -- almost certainly Mark Driscoll (left).)

In our discussion I singled out the word "missional" (found on p. 135). You can read more on this approach here, here, and elsewhere. (Surprisingly, I can't recommend Wikipedia's article.)

Don Miller will be speaking at a conference near us, May 3-4 at McLean Bible Church. The Friday eve. / Sat. am program is only $20-25! Here are the full details, and one person's view of how it went in Florida last month.

But wait! More links:
- An in-depth interview with Don Miller (left) about BLJ and related things.
- "Tony the Beat Poet" (right) is now a mortgage broker.

For next Sunday: read Chapters 14 and 15.