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    Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
    Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
    Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
    Audiobook (abridged)4 hours

    Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

    Written by Donald Miller

    Narrated by Donald Miller

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Donald Miller's fresh and original voice may change the way Christians view the "status quo" faith and build a bridge to seekers who believe that organized religion doesn't meet their spiritual needs.

    "I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarper Horizon
    Release dateJun 29, 2009
    ISBN9781418574888
    Author

    Donald Miller

    Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and Business Made Simple. He is the host of the Coach Builder YouTube Channel and is the author of several books including bestsellers Building a StoryBrand, Marketing Made Simple, and How to Grow Your Small Business. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Elizabeth and their daughter, Emmeline.  

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    Reviews for Blue Like Jazz

    4.5/5

    147 ratings77 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This one is the greatest Christian publication in the last 10 years. Miller is a 30/40ish (young) writer in Portland, and this book is a series of short vignettes about the Christian faith, in an incredibly insightful way. He got a lot of bad press from fundamentalists, but he also described the faith of a generation of folks who couldn't stomach the stuffy structures of their parents. Warning, descriptions of penguin sex :-) - Also, I've never laughed out loud more when reading anything int the Christian spirituality genre.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      So I'm the last American Christian to read this book (except my wife, as we listened to the audio together, which is also updated with a "where are they now?" afterword. Read by the author, which always makes it better) and I know I should have read it years ago. But, as usually happens with these things, it was probably more timely for me to read now as Miller works through several issues that have been heavily on my mind this year.

      Do you use love like money? I mean, do you withhold love from others in an attempt to get them to change their ways? There's an essay in this book about that, I found that convicting. Miller works through how to love people like Jesus did; namely, how to love those Christians who are different than you even if you think they're on the wrong track in their beliefs or attitudes or actions. That's what I currently am thinking about.

      I would give the first half of this book to any non-believer as a great witness and apologetic for the Gospel. Miller's adventures and conversations at Reid College are great and extremely thought-provoking. The second half of the book, starting with the part on relationships and Emily Dickinson are only so-so as they are mostly his introspection and stories of him learning to live in community. Helpful, but no moreso than just talking to a fellow believer in your Sunday school class about what they're thinking about. Miller probably didn't intend for this book to be the best-seller that it was as it's simply a compilation of his personal essays. (I now see that he blogs, too.)

      How do non-teenagers who aren't raised in the same Southern Baptist context (or someone who was not raised at all in church) that I was come to Christ? What does meeting Jesus look like to them? I find that most of my friends through life were raised in church and struggle with this question, struggle with loving those who come to Jesus differently. It's easier to think of sharing the Gospel cross-culturally in another country than it is in America. That's a problem.

      I find myself thinking of Rodney Reeves' guest sermons at my church this year. "If you think someone isn't a Christian because he smokes and cusses, you might be a pharisee." or "If you think God loves you more than someone else because you've been a Christian longer and have read the Bible more than he/she, you might be a pharisee." (Read Matthew 23:33 for why it's not good to be a pharisee).

      Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars out of 5. I need to reconcile a few of Miller's thoughts, which are logically sound, with Scripture. I also need to read Francis Chan's Crazy Love. Hopefully I won't read that book 5 years late.

      This is my last book review for 2010. I still have at least a dozen physical, paper books on my bookshelf that I bought either long ago or last Christmas that need to be "read and released." So, I'll be getting to work on those starting tomorrow.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Interesting book. Really challenges hypocrisy and legalism in the institutional church. It is a cynical reflection on life growing up in conservative American church culture and his struggle to fit in and be accepted. He also contrasts these with the life stories of people he has met along the way and discusses peoples objections and reluctance to 'the church'. It challenged me to get to know Jesus better for myself. I read this shortly before reading Phillip Yancey's "The Jesus I Never Knew", and thought they went well together.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Awesome book. Highly recommended!
    • 3/5
      Blue Like Jazz is a simple read. Don Miller is an insightful guy. He is mindful of the presence of God in the world around him. I appreciate that he challenges the political conservatism of American Christianity and puts a new face on Christian Literature. I enjoyed the read but I can't, for the life of me, figure out how Donald Miller's name has come to be spoken in the same breath as Anne Lamott or Leonard Sweet. Don Miller is a good writer but he lacks the eloquence and depth of Lamott and Sweet. I recommend this book if you are beginning to feel disillusioned with Christianity in America and its celebrated voices. Don Miller will make you stop and think about some things. If you have been working through your disillusionment for some time, you may read this, as I did, and say to yourself, "And...?"
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book, and will make you think very carefully about how you look at others.
    • 4/5
      This one's for you Tom Bombadil. And for anyone else who cares about this sort of thing as much as I do. Or even if you don't. Tom has been recommending a certain book by a certain "Christian" author to me for quite some time now and I have been telling him for quite some time now that I would get it to it. Well, I finally got to it. The book is Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I devoured this little 250 page or so book in about 5 or 6 hours, almost at one sitting. It was just so refreshing to finally see a "thinking" Christian, someone who has wrestled with the same issues that I have been wrestling with for so long. If more Christians were like Don, I truly believe there would be more Christians in the world. Donald Miller is basically not your Grandma's Christian. My own mother would probably call him a heretic. For you see he loves Jesus, but he drinks beer and smokes cigarettes, cigars and pipes. He even attended what he termed the most liberal college in all of America, while auditing a few courses, Reed University in Portland, Oregon. To me, Donald Miller's version of Christianity is MUCH closer to that originally envisioned and taught by Jesus Christ himself. I can't really put it all into words, Don did such a fine job of it himself. But... not to rain on the parade, there were still some problems with all that he had to say, things I didn't quite agree with. For one, he says at one point, that the story of the Fall of man, whether viewed allegorically or as actual historical fact, is the ONLY explanation for why man is the way he is, why mankind is so selfish, mean, etc. Hold on a minute, Don. Is it REALLY the ONLY explanation around? I think not. Maybe the only explanation he has ever heard of but certainly not the only one. Maybe the only one that makes sense to him, but certainly not the only one. Evolutionary biological theory explains it all pretty well if you ask me. As does the Buddhist way of looking at the concept of suffering. Even IF the Fall of man in the garden of Eden WERE the only explanation around, where does that leave us? All 3 Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity AND Islam believe this same story. But they each have very different views on the way to salvation, only one of which believes Jesus is the one and only way. So even if I concede that the story of the Fall of Man IS the only explanation around, great, now we have narrowed the field down to 3 different religions, each of whom believes the other two are going to hell. We still haven't progressed much past ground zero, have we? Also, he says that it doesn't really matter if the story is taken allegorically or as fact, it is still the only explanation. But... it DOES matter if the story is allegory or not, doesn't it? Truth matters, does it not? Are we merely subscribing our beliefs to what makes us feel good? If the story is not really true but just an allegory, just myth, then it explains nothing. Some cultures have stories about how the earth is suspended on the back of a giant tortoise and when you ask them what holds the tortoise up, the answer is another tortoise, ad infinitum. This story explains things, does it not? But it's not the truth. There are lots of theories around the world relating to creation, they all explain what is observable, but they can't all be the truth. Another minor point of contention, is that Don at times, resorts to old Christian cliches. You can readily tell that he was raised in a more conservative Christian surroundings. When he was in the mountains at one point in the book, he is staring up at the stars and all of a suddent has an epiphany. He says that God holds the stars and the heavens static in the sky. Apparently, he didn't audit any basic astronomy courses at Reed or else he would have known that nothing in the universe is static, not even the stars which appear to be static. God does not hold anything in the heavens static, everything is in constant flux. Lastly, it all just appears to me as if, not only him but his many friends who were once skeptics but become Christian, do so as a sort of intellectual giving up, so to speak. It's as if they have just given up. The questions were just too difficult for them to bear, and the society in which we live tells us that Christianity is the answer, so after much internal wrangling and fighting, they just gave up and defaulted back to the religion of their youth. His friend Penny had some major issues with Christianity, as far as I can tell from the book, none of them were answered, she just called him one day to say, "Hey, I love Jesus now too." Having said all of that, if I was to become a Christian again one day, this would be the kind of Christian I would be. Don seems like a really cool guy, a really smart guy who loves the arts and is not afraid of intellectualism. I really loved the fact that he once fell in love with Emily Dickinson. Here is a man that understands that just because one loves Jesus does not mean they have to be a monk. There is still much beauty in this world to behold, much to enjoy, and that includes reading, the arts, a good beer, and even watching South Park. I am not saying that this book totally convinced me, as I said, there were some issues that I had with it, but it's come closer than anything in a really long time to showing me that it's ok to be a Christian and that the Christianity I grew up is not necessarily all there is to Christendom. I understand what he means when he says that believing in Jesus is not something he can intellectually explain to someone, but it is just something he feels in his gut. I can understand that. I can respect that. I can relate to that. Even as I have run away from the Church, I have still always found myself believing in God, I have NEVER been able to make the leap to Atheism and I have always admired and revered Jesus Christ, even if I haven't always admired and revered the Church that sprang up after his death.
    • 4/5
      Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligous Thoughts on Christian Sprituality makes some very valid criticisms about the Christian community. First, that sometimes Christians are obsessed with outward appearance rather than the condition of a person’s heart. I fully agree with this. I don’t think God cares one hoot what we look like–whether it’s tattoos, piercings, the color of our hair, whatever. He is concerned with where our heart is toward him. That’s all.Secondly, that Christians don’t love “sinners” because all they see is the sin and not the person. I wholeheartedly agree with this as well. Some may be more apt to “look down their noses” at a “sinner” rather than just reach out in love. This is obviously not what God wants Christians to do.Thirdly, that many Christians support right wing causes to the absolute exclusion of any left of center concerns. Guilty again. We do need to give to the poor and take care of the needy, particularly widows and orphans. Jesus taught that as well.I do have some concerns with some of his philosophy, however. He seems to advocate a grace and “acceptance” that go a little too far. I’m not talking here about non-Christians at all. I’m talking about people who claim to be followers of Christ. He lifts up Christians who appear to be following God in one or more areas, but yet are still engaging in practices not pleasing to God. He implies we shouldn’t judge and just accept. Of course God is the ultimate judge of all of us. Yet, the Bible clearly states that we ARE to point out to Christians (NOT non-Christians) areas that are not God-pleasing. Donald Miller himself has actually done that very well in his book!My point is this. Once we are a follower of Christ, God loves us unconditionally and forgives us everything we do. That I believe. His grace does go far–really far! But, just as he forgave David for being a murderer and an adulterer, he also pointed out that there would be consequences to David’s acts. These consequences were the natural result of David’s sin. Yes, we are forgiven, but we still have to face the consequences. So why not try to obey God so as to receive our reward in heaven? I’d rather not just barely “escape through the flames” and be a toilet-scrubber in heaven. Of course, that’s just a figure of speech. What? You say you’ve tried and just can’t live up to what God wants? NONE of us can. Not without his help. That’s the whole point of Christianity. We couldn’t do it ourselves, so God took care of it for us. If you have the desire to please God, all you have to do is ask for his help to do it.In conclusion, I think the Church would do well to examine some of Donald Miller’s points. But we can’t say that it doesn’t matter what we do because God loves us unconditionally and his grace covers all–EVEN THOUGH THAT’S TRUE!!! Because honestly, I wouldn’t want to live with the consequences of my actions if I just did what I wanted all the time. And even aside from the consequences, Christians should love God and WANT to please him.
    • 1/5
      I tried. I wanted to like Blue Like Jazz. I've heard great things about it. But I just found Donald Miller whiny and preachy. I was uninspired and didn't connect with Miller at all, even though I agree with him at points. And, to top it off, I felt like the writing was done by a blogger who needed some editing. Stories felt disconnected, Miller repeated himself, and I never knew where we were in Miller's life. Definitely a disappointing read.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I picked it up from recommendations here on LibraryThing, for which I thank my fellow Thingamabrarians. Miller provides a stunning example of the strength of communicating the realities of faith in Christ by describing the impact of those realities on a life. The transparent honesty of the self description adds significant weight to the testimony to the transforming power of Jesus in this life. Along the way Miller manages to cover significant elements of Christian doctrine, ethics, consistent Christian living, and church stuff in accessible and relevant ways, never pulling any punches but always challenging the reader to take responsibility for their own reaction to what is written. Read the book, take responsibility, and your life may very well change.
    • 5/5
      Not be best edited book, therefore it is at times a little difficult to follow.When reading the book there were times I thought...I can actually articulate that? You know...those thoughts about life and faith that you felt weird about saying.I liked the book and would consider it a must read.Also...I think the chapter "penguin sex" is based on the movie "march of the penguins".
    • 5/5
      Surprisingly true to life, and the real struggles that every Christian faces at one point or another. A beautiful honest look into someone who wasn't afraid to voice their doubts in the faith they devoted their life to, amazing read.
    • 1/5
      i do have opnions on this book and his thoughts on "christian spirituality". I was troubled because it's an extremely popular book and highly recommended. anyway, that said, i was really taken aback by the selfish version of "christianity" that I read in the pages. I'm not saying that he's not a christian or that he needs to follow Christ just like me. but i am saying that his take on the Bible, on "fundamental Christians" and on the spiritual disciplines left me concerned about the message he was giving to these who were searching, who were new believers etc. He emphasizes finding something that fits YOUR taste, YOUR interest, YOUR style. He emphasizes that you just be yourself - smoking pipes, not studying Scripture, drinking, smoking and cussing - without even considering whether that honors the Lord or not - in fact, he makes it amusing in the case of these cussing, smoking pastors and he puts down the 'fundamental' christians who are 'trying' to live holy lives. He doesn't hide his hostility and criticism of 'fundamental christians". Btw, he characterizes these christians as those who "behave as if they loved light and not 'behave' as if they loved the darkness." He said he was one once - and he said he was absolutely ashamed to admit it now. His quote "We would fast all the time, pray together twice each day, memorize Scripture, pat each other on the back....we read a great deal of Scripture and hadn't gotten anybody pregnant." anyway, it's hard for me to explain why i think this book is misleading and yes, even dangerous. His style is readable, entertaining, humorous, pensive and even inviting. But his search is for a religion that suits his hippy, cool, 'beautiful dude', political activist style of 'spirituality' that doesn't have a whole lot of Scriptural truth to it - he has his epiphanies and aha moments but they don't seem much more than philosophical eye-openers. oh, i could go on. i do pray the Lord uses this book to draw many to Himself - but I wouldn't ever recommend it and you will do well to stay away from this fluff. (ok, was that too harsh? i usually am not so critical of books! but this drew something out in me very strongly). hope i didn't offend anyone who LOVED this book. it just didn't cut it for me.
    • 3/5
      Incredible. He tells stories and talks about life and makes you think.
    • 5/5
      This is hands-down, one of the most life-changing books I've ever read. His refreshing honesty regarding the daily battle with the beast in the mirror made me see myself for what I am...selfish...But I was left feeling a renewed sense of humility. My discovery of my selfishness gave me the deep desire to change, to be a better person. His open and honest style of writing allowed me to received the deep and undeniable truth of his message, without feeling defensive, probably because he spent the entire work searching his own heart, instead of point daggers at others! The feelings of defensiveness that often accompanies the reading of religious works, never reared its ugly head! I was able to accept that I am human, flawed and full of imperfections, but full of potential, too. After taking what would be the deepest look inside my heart ever, I emerged feeling both humbled and desperate to change. Desperate to change myself...because only then would I ever be able to change others...and not change them so that they see things my way (as had always been my motivation before), but change others' hearts and minds in hopes that they will begin to see themselves the way that God sees them. Just as Donald Miller has helped me to better view myself the way God sees me.
    • 4/5
      Not your typical Christian book. Rather a non-linear collection of essays that are linked together for the "non-pretty" Christians who don't seem to fit into the mainline church or, more likely, don't want to fit in. A good book for all.
    • 5/5
      I love this book. I haven't read anything from Don Miller before, and I disagree with him on some issues (I won't go into that here. I actually like Bush.) I respect Miller for having his views and that is all. I think his writing is real and I have had many of the same thoughts and concerns about my own faith as he writes about. This book has impacted my life in a very positive way. I am going to actually try to be a nicer, more honestly loving christian.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely LOVED this book. The depth, the insight, how it made me consider my faith in a whole new light. I am going to send this book to a few of my friends who have walked away from their faith because they have had terrible experiences with the church...
    • 4/5
      My first experience with Miller. BLJ is a classic already. Not much needs to be said about this book. It's great, it's an easy read, it's entertaining, and it's thought provoking.
    • 4/5
      Loved this book. Donald is so easy to read. I gave this to my husband to read, who is not much of a reader, cause I thought he would enjoy reading this. I love his sense of humor and use of it to keep your attention and keep things light when discussing not so light subjects.
    • 4/5
      Blue Like Jazz, weaves great and genuine stories that leave the reader thinking about what they believe and why. Miller's narrative is well constructed and moved along at a good pace. If you are looking for a book to affirm your beliefs then this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a book to gain better understanding about the christian faith I am not sure if this is the book for you. If you want to think about faith and stretch yourself a little this is a great book. You may not fully agree with the author, I did not, but I enjoyed the dialogue.
    • 5/5
      Finally - a Christian book I can read and r e l a t e with... No frills, honest, original. He knew a bunch of conservative Christians would read this. Tries a bit too hard to sway them to the left. Other than that, best read in a while. Ha ha. Thomas Nelson publishers. Surprised they stamped their "goodness" on this work.
    • 3/5
      Very pleasantly surprised. Not highly intellectual, engaging, never dragging, and while I violently disagreed with some of his assertions, I found myself fervently agreeing much more often. I made it about half way through the book, completely absorbed, before I absolutely had to grab a pencil and start scribbling all over the pages; the text calls for thought and interaction.I feel every Christian should read this book, while scribbling all over it themselves, if not to shed light on their own thoughts, to shed light on those of their brothers.
    • 5/5
      I couldn't put this down!
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this read. The story basically follows Don Miller's exploits as a Christian throughout his college years at Reed College in Oregon. My favorite part of the story was the confession booth setup by Miller and his friends on the campus of Reed College during the Ren Fayre festival. It wasn't a confession booth for non-believers to come and confess their sins, it was a booth for non-believers to come and listen to the confessions of these humbled Christians asking forgiveness for their wrongs of the past and the present misgivings associated with today's Christianity.Miller writes like a masterful storyteller, with a lot of wit and charm. I appreciate Miller's transparency as he shares with us his struggles with shyness, women, love, money, and integrating into community. He shares with us how today's evangelical Christian has hopped on to the conservative Republican bandwagon and essentially scared away anyone who does not share these same socio-political ideologies. How true this is. It took me many years to see this myself as a one-time staunch Republican.I highly recommend this book to both Christian and non-Christian alike. Specifically for those who are seeking and in their college-aged years.
    • 5/5
      Miller's writing style takes a little getting used to. It's not unlike stream-of-consciousness. Once you get used to it, though, what he has to say can cut like a knife. I could really relate to a lot of what he had to say about the Christian church today as well as what his experiences were as a single guy. He described many of the feelings of those years in my life like I was never able to.
    • 5/5
      A profound book written for the average joe. It allows you to feel real in your own struggles of faith and yet pushes to dig deeper.
    • 5/5
      What a great read! I love Miller's style of writing. You feel like you sitting in a cafe talking over a cup of coffee. He's authentic, real, and honest. Very refreshing. And he has an authentic, real, and honest faith. Very inspiring.
    • 4/5
      I bought this book on a whim. I liked the title. I liked the cover. I liked the description of the author (in one of the blurbs) as "Anne Lamott with testosterone." And I loved the author's note:"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened."This book is a bit uneven in quality. Some of these autobiographical essays were less than impressive to me. But others stopped me in my tracks. This is a book with which many Conservative Christians might be uncomfortable. Miller has his complaints about the church, and about the way many Christians view faith and interact with those around them -- especially those who are different from them. He has no use for empty ritual (though its clear that not all ritual is empty to him), or being judgmental of others, or of the kind of morality that is almost obsessed with sexual behavior.He does acknowledge the reality of what traditional theology calls "original sin" -- the fact that all people, and the world, are broken and need fixing (the need for salvation). He zeroes in on the sins of self-righteousness and self-centeredness, and the primacy of the commandment to LOVE. In this, I believe he is a faithful follower of Jesus.He has problems with religion, with Christianity (as an institution), with "religious people," but loves and has faith in Jesus and invites the reader to love Him, too. He does all this with an honesty about his own failings and shortcomings that is refreshing. He gave me some things to think about, so I consider the time spent in reading this book worthwhile.
    • 5/5
      Loved the depth and the honesty in this book. Listening to Don read this book himself made me feel like I was sitting in a coffee shop listening to an old friend share a story. I was disappointed to see that it was abridged. I want to know what I missed!