One of the books I read recently as an Ooze Select Blogger was titled, Oh Shit! It’s Jesus!, written by a guy named Steve Hughes. It is a short self-published book that is basically Hughes explanation of the faith.
As you can tell from the title Hughes attempts to take a rather ‘radical’ and shocking approach to presenting his perspective on following Jesus. The chapter titles also lean this direction: What the Hell?, What the Hell, and I don’t Want to Be a Christian, to name a few. Hughes retells stories from the gospels in paraphrased story and more modern day contexts.
What I liked up Steve’s book is it’s the kind of thing I think every person should sit down and write some point about their belief system (Christian and otherwise). It’s basically an insightful perspective of his belief system that would be great for him to pass on to friends. And it’s not necessarily personal story either, so if others feel it’s worthwhile they could pass it on as well. Writings have the ability to articulate thoughts and ideas that don’t often come up in common conversation, and could be a great reference point for further conversation. In that way, for the author and others he knows I think this book can have great value. However, the book on a whole didn’t strike me as being all that radical. I remember being told in my college writing class by my writing professor that I set readers up for a seven course meal with my intro and then I only gave them dessert. Meaning my actual writing didn’t live up to the expectations the intro gave. It was hard words to hear, but there was some truth to it, and I wonder if that might be the case for this book as well. The title and chapter headings made me expect a more radical perspective on Jesus then I read. It sort of felt like it was the same thing I’ve been heard before, simply repackaged.
It was a decent read and I liked Hughes honest approach at a fresh perspective. He definitely had a specific audience in mind, one fed up with church and christians, and he did a good job being intentional in trying to answer their (hypothetical) questions. It’s hard work to write a book and he sat down and did it, for that I applaud him.
