Books

Musings that Swirl

Searching for God Knows What: Stimulating ideas about the Christian life.

Searching forGod KnowsWhat Donald Miller Thomas Nelson, 256 pp., $13.99

Like a shaken snow globe, Donald Miller’s newest collection of essays creates a swirl of ideas about the Christian life that eventually crystallize into a lovely landscape.

Miller (Blue Like Jazz) writes of his disillusionment with “the old God of easy answers, the God who was always wanting me to be rich or wanting my country to be better than other countries,” and his embrace of a God who is “so incredibly other.”

His sometimes-acid observations range from the church to Santa Claus, and along the way he makes his case for the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet as Christian allegory. He also writes movingly about war, makes offbeat observations on Jesus’ personal traits (he was ugly, he was kind, he was God), and expresses a concern that faith in America has been “hijacked” by the issues of abortion and gay marriage.

Miller is one of the evangelical book market’s most creative writers. Readers tend to have strong reactions to Miller’s writing (for and against) and this stimulating book is sure to provoke discussion.

Cindy Crosby is the author of By Willoway Brook: Exploring the Landscape of Prayer (Paraclete, 2003).

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

An excerpt from Searching for God Knows What is also posted today.

Searching for God Knows What is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More information is available from the publisher.

More about Donald Miller, his books, and a short music video is available from his website.

A review of his earlier book, Blue Like Jazz, as well as a Dick Staub interview with Miller is posted on our website.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

The Emergent Mystique

Opportunity Denied

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Defending Our Neighbor

Emergent Evangelism

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Editorial

Fill an Empty Cradle

A Christianity Today Editorial

Editorial

For Whom Would Jesus Vote?

A Christianity Today Editorial

Hope for Abraham's Sons

Journalism for Jesus

David Karanja in Nairobi

Mutual Mayhem

Craig Keener

Dangerous Meditations

Douglas Groothuis

Parsing Pop Lyrics

Reviewed by Cindy Crosby

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Quotation Marks

The Way of Salvation

Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman

The Chinese Church's Delicate Dance

Why I Apologized to Planned Parenthood

Jemila Monroe

Winking at Corruption No More

Tony Carnes

Security Gaffes

Bob Smietana

Praying for Terrorists

Dawn Herzog Jewell

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Passages

By CT Staff

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<em>Christianity Today</em> News Briefs

By CT staff

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Go Figure

Wire Story

TBN Under the Microscope

Religion News Service, staff reports

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Good News from the Doctor

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Q & A: Bobby Welch

Rubber Sharks and Real Kids

The Politics of Stem Cells

Interview with C. Christopher Hook

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Hurt by Success

By Rob Moll

Silencing Rights Talk

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Back to the Basics

Obed Minchakpu in Jos

Bad Believers, Non-Believers

Breaking Covenant

Kenneth D. MacHarg in San José, Costa Rica

Can This Institution Be Saved?

Tim Stafford

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