Saturday, February 03, 2007

Has Woody Allen been reincarnated?


Reading Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz for the second time (got to the end first time round and decided i just had to go back and highlight all the 'cool' things he says!) he is like a Christian Woody Allen - all angst and introspection - but not just about girls, about most things in life, especially his Christian faith. Some seriously funny bits, so be warned. he is a new breed of Christian writers, like Rob Bell, who are sort of re-defining the Christian Faith for this generation. So much of what they say resonates with me. It is not so much that they deconstruct the previous Christian worldview, which is fairly obvious and easy for anyone, it is that they write from their own experiences and from their own hearts about why that worldview (or perhaps churchview) does not work for them. They then paint a picture of what the way of Jesus looks like to them.
Miller writes from the experiences of his friendships, and disarmingly passes on his friends wisdom, as if he hasn't got his own views. But he has, and they are 'beautiful' as he would say. Oh, and he doesn't want to talk about 'Christianity' anymore 'because what does that mean anyway?' he wants to talk about 'Christian Spirituality' - Whatever term he uses, let him, he does it so charmingly in a way you want to go with him, even if he is a bit 'flaky and all'.