Book Review – Repenting of Religion March 19, 2009

.I Recently finished reading the book “Repenting of Religion” by Gregory Boyd. Had never read any of his teaching or thoughts and actually bought the book to check him out. Shane Claiborne, in Jesus for President, frequently quotes one of Boyd’s other books “The Myth of a Christian Nation”, so I was a little intrigued and was looking for a new read. I searched his name on Amazon, and was surprised by the number of books Boyd has written. Needless to say, I didn’t by “The Myth of a Christian Nation” and ended up with this other one, simply because of the title.

Quick review – My assumption was totally off. I was expecting a book pointing out all that is wrong with religion, and rather found myself confronted with the truth of all that is wrong with ME! This book brought me face to face with the reality of my judgmental nature towards others (often without realizing it – often due to my feeling better by judging someone else’s “problems”). A few specifics which cause me to recommend this book to everyone:

1) Boyd packs this read with the truth of Scripture.

2) He bases the premise of the book on the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” and how we have continued to eat of that tree to this day. (have to read the book for explanation)

3) Boyd focuses a immense amount of time on our center being found in Christ, and how everything else flows from this point.

4) He has done a thorough job showing how Christ being our center, affects our ability to love God, love ourselves, and love the world of people around us.

I could easily ramble on and on about ALL that Gregory Boyd teaches in this book as it has transformed the way I view myself and my relationship with God, but I will save the details for when you read it.