raabjerg

The Barbarian Way

november 12th, 2007

To my recently discovered crowd of cheering fans, I hereby command you… Okay, I probably cannot command you, but I encourage you to do the following:

Go to this link and pick up ‘The Barbarian Way’ by Erwin McManus. (if you live in the EU and possibly Norway, there is no shipping charge and no customs fees)

In this work, McManus takes on institutionalized Christianity, trying to convey to what it really means to be a follower of Christ. His points are very much brought home by illustrations and story-telling, and so the book is an easy read, although very, very giving. If you are looking for a book with all the particulars (lists of action-plans, unified systematic theology and the like), don’t pick up this title, but if you’re into the more postmodern, semi-mystical (in the best sense of the word), experience-oriented, this book contains a lot of pearls. Do not let this lead you to the assumption that the book doesn’t contain the real deep spiritual stuff – it does. In fact, I believe it is the best spiritual book I’ve read for a long time.

One of the things that touched me about this book, was Erwin’s ability to describe what discipleship should be all about. And just to make sure you don’t get the wrong idea, allow me to quote a short passage – ahm, this is where I would be quoting a short passage, if I hadn’t just discovered that I forgot the book while visiting my brother a couple of weeks ago Good for him – bad for my blog-post. Anyways, he says something along the lines that being a follower of Jesus does not give us the most trouble-free life, but we will end up with the most fulfilling life. There will be times when it all seems hard, and he quotes as an example the story we find in Matthew 11:2-6, where John doubts whether or not Jesus is the Messiah, even after having experienced events like the baptism of Jesus.

I must admit, I feel I may need to read this book again. I encourage you to give it a shot (by the way, if you’re not into the whole Jesus-thing, this book isn’t bad to get an insight either…)

Entry Filed under: Books