Recently my father gave me a copy of Wm. Paul Young's Lies We Believe About God. He thought I'd enjoy it since my own book Smudged Pages: Letting Go of the Lies and Letting God Write Your Story touches on some of the same lies Young addresses in his book. This is the same Young, by the way, whose homespun novel The Shack rocked the world and catapulted to the New York Time's best-seller list where it stayed for over a year.
Young's unorthodox theology, which shocked and offended many in the Christian establishment, is woven throughout The Shack, but it is hidden in layers of story. Lies We Believe About God is a non-fiction collection of Young's theological beliefs clearly spelled out. And though its contents will undoubtedly shock and offend just as many or more than his novel did, others will find it stimulating, invigorating long stale belief systems. Whether you end up agreeing with him or not, the book will surely cause you to re-examine your own beliefs which is, in my opinion, always a good thing.
For myself, this book upended my own Christian beliefs. In short, easy-to-read chapters, Young confronts head-on long-held assumptions about God, faith, and Christianity. Too often people equate God with Christianity and Christianity with the Western world's construct of religion when, in fact, these three are NOT the Trinity.
Though I didn't agree with everything he had to say, I did appreciate that he gave me another lens through which to view my faith and God. This is a book I could give my relative, neighbor, or co-worker, who has become disillusioned with God and/or left the faith. Young makes it possible for a greater number of people to believe again.
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