Customer Reviews

It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian

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When Samir Selmanovic's manuscript landed in my lap, I was mildly curious as to what this media-savvy, pop culture-literate, former pastor of a thriving evangelical Christian church in southern California might have to say. By the time I finished the prologue, in which a Wiccan woman offers prayer for a gathering of pastors (and asks to pray to God as Mother), I was hooked. Selmanovic's call for community among God's peoples--all of them--is compelling, lyrical at times, thoughtful. And funny.

Selmanovic demands that we look at the flaws and drawbacks of organized religion, and that we admit our failure to adhere to the core teachings we believe. The book explores finding God in the "other", but Selmanovic doesn't mean the cliché of finding God where we least expect to. He's talking about finding God--really God--where we have determined God isn't. Like in a support group for atheists. Like in a case of hemorrhoids so severe you can't get your head out of your ass. With warmth and wit, Selmanovic tells us all--Christians, Jews, Muslims and anyone else who feels God can be quantified, qualified, and packaged in one True Religion--to, well, to get our head out of our collective ass. To find unity in life, to celebrate the gift of life, to find the Kingdom of God at hand--right here.

Selmanovic keeps it lively with delightfully unfamiliar poetry from all sorts of nooks and crannies, Rumi to Bob Dylan. But the soul of this little God-book is its author's personal narrative, Selmanovic's stories from a rich and varied faith journey that begins in the former Yugoslavia, as the eldest son in a big, warm, loving, generous Muslim family where the rules are simple: "Enjoy life, and don't be a jerk."

At once poignant and funny, deeply spiritual and utterly human, personal and universal, the anecdotes and stories show unequivocally that God does indeed inhabit our world. Our whole world, not just the places we've designated.

This little book has a big heart. The stories, poetry, theology, and history exude a gentle, grace-filled, prodigal love, the kind of love I like to think God has for us, flavored with the writer's effusive personality and Croatian heritage.

If we listen, we can hear God breathing:

Another world
is not only possible, she's
on her way. Many of us won't
be here to greet her, but
on a quiet day,
if you listen carefully, you
can hear her breathing.
(Arundhati Roy, as quoted by Selmanovic)

I have been waiting for this book to hit the shelves for a long time. Even though I had heard Selmanovic speak several times and had a good idea of where this book was heading, I was overwhelmingly and pleasantly surprised when I had an opportunity to read the finished product. This book is full of powerful Good News that paints a beautifully narrated picture of what faithfulness might look like if we get out of the God management business. Ever since reading Reza Aslan's great book, No god but God, I wondered when a voice with connections to my own Christian tradition would write a book that looked to the future of faith with hope. This is that book.

Selmanovic has creatively weaved together a book that is part theology, part personal narrative, and part poetry and the result is inspiring, humbling, and challenging. His voice and tone throughout is pastoral, open, and deeply human. The reader follows along from one important moment to the next in the journey through faith and doubt and back again. It will challenge your thoughts, touch your emotions, and gently nudge you to follow the same path towards a God that is much bigger and unpredictable than we may have previously imagined.

If you have God all figured out this book is not for you. But if you are tired of hearing people of faith proclaim "gospel" messages that are just reflections of their own narrow, homogeneous way of thinking and want to hear something new give this a try.

Perhaps I am just overly pessimistic, but based on its title this book wasn't what I expected. I mean that in a good way. It's Really All About God is an overflow of love and hope for the future of religion. Whereas many interfaith dialogs seek to blur distinctions, mixing the world's religions into a monochromatic stew of ethic teachings, Samir takes an alternative route. He asks, "Can God be found in those outside of my religious tradition?". As a result, It's Really All About God provides its reader with complimentary ways of understanding and experiencing God, despite their religious background.

For many, this will be an unnerving approach. However, it need not be. Samir carefully and calculatedly constructed a theological framework that speaks unilaterally, across religious divides. His framework is one of asking deep questions about how we, as religious people, understand power, community, the nature, and knowledge of God.

Do we only participate in conversations we can control? Must we have the last word? Is a singular belief necessary for Spirit-filled community? Are our religions equitable to the presence of God? If not, how does that change how we look at religion?

Samir is interested in deepening our faith and opening our communities, rather than proselytizing a particular faith or ideology. Taking the role of a prophet, Samir is careful to limit the answers he provides. He merely confronts the reader with tough questions and allows the discomfort and silence of unanswered questions. His hope is that, through the subsequent silence, God will make Godself heard and known.

However, this book is not just for theists. Taking a road far less traveled, Samir also dedicates much of this book to discussing how non-theists may participate in and contribute to the conversation about God. He argues that non-theists have valuable critiques to offer those of us within religious communities. Moreover, he also argues that non-theist (or "atheistic") faiths are fellow sojourners, rather than adversarial opponents. Samir carefully offers a theological framework that allows each tradition to develop and grow through dialog, even traditions generally considered outside the religious conversations.

Though far from flawless, I applaud Samir for It's Really All about God. Many authors have attempted to facilitate inter-religious dialog, but few have done it with the pastoral care and artisanship of Selmanovic. This book is a window into his life, his family, his struggles, and ultimately his trans-religious experiences of God. Many may fault Samir for this transparency and for publicly confessing how God has spoken through religions besides his own. I, however, have been deeply moved by this book and find myself both challenged and transformed.

I highly recommend this book.

Samir Selmanovic introduces his book by explaining that he considers himself a Christian but because of his background feels that "Muslim Atheist Jewish" is an adjective describing his Christianity. Confusing, I know. So I spent the first half of the book just trying to find out why he would describe himself that way, somewhat distracted from any point he was trying to make. Somewhere just after the hemorrhoid episode I finally realized that he really is well-versed in Christianity, but is just trying to open the doors of his mind to other faiths.

Selmanovic spends the majority of his time pointing out the downfalls of cultural Christianity while quoting and praising other faiths. So I assume this book is intended for Christians, although the cover makes it hard to tell who is the intended audience.

Selmanovic does have some thought-provoking ideas. Chapters 1-5 contained subject matter that I have encountered before in my own readings of C.S. Lewis and Dallas Willard, but Selmanovic took these ideas to extremes that I'm quite sure Lewis and Willard never intended; I have studied both extensively, and they do believe that Jesus is the Way, while Selmanovic reduces the cross to a "fetish"--that is what he called it. In Chapter 6, entitled "Your God is Too Big," Samir finally offers some reasonable basis for his ideas, quoting Bible stories about God being in the gentle breeze, the still small voice, and coming to Earth as an infant. So in other words he feels that if God did not bowl people over with himself, why do we feel we need to tout our big Christian God? In the next chapter he explains that Atheists ask good questions of Christians, and we should therefore treasure them. Fair enough. In the final chapter he concludes that God is love, and God's whole aim for us is not that we should boost His ego but that we should love one another, but again he takes it to an unusual extent saying that Muslims and Buddhists etc are "one of us."

Overall this book was thought-provoking and offered some good, challenging questions. I tend to agree with everything he said in practice (meaning as far as how we treat other people), but at the heart of the matter is the question of how we get to God, or how He gets to us. Judaism had sacrifices (past tense), Islam still has sacrifices (although they are not atoning sacrifices, but rather penance), but Christianity has a bridge/mediator between God and humans. While it is true, as Samir says, that God is involved with all humankind, and it is possible for each person to have some insight into who God is, it would have been reassuring if Selmanovic had recognized the fact that humanity is a mess and really does need some sort of way to get right with God. Instead, I got the feeling that Selmanovic simply opened his doors to other religions and gave up on his own, which really doesn't give me much desire to do likewise.

Samir's writing style is clear and poetic. He has found intriguing quotes from all sorts of sources. He often talks from his own experience, which is fun to read, but at times he takes it too far and makes his own experience a gospel truth, such as when God showed him not to shop at Christian book stores, and then the truth of that revelation was confirmed when the bookstores in his town went out of business because according to him they failed to meet the needs of society (um, actually I think the internet had alot to do with that).

I am glad I read this book. It has refined some of my ideas. I do wish Christianity in general would lean a little more in this direction, but I think this author has seen some trouble in cultural Christianity and has rushed too far to the other side of the ship. Some balance, please.

A friend of mine divides the beliefs of Christians into two types: messy theology and clean theology. "It's Really All About God" by Samir Selmanovic is a clear example of messy theology in all its glory. And for those of us who have a messy theology, who deal with uncertainty and doubt, who revel in the complex mystery that we call God, this book will be a breath of fresh air.

Samir's book is part auto-biography and part theological treatise. It is firmly based on a life experience that is rich in its variety. Samir grew up in a family of Muslim heritage; he became an atheist, and then converted to Christianity during his year of military service. He uses different aspects of his life to illustrate each point. One of my favorite stories is told near the beginning. At one point in his pastoral career he became friends with a woman who was Wiccan. He invites her to pray at a religious conference that his church is hosting. It is a charming story of the "other" giving encouragement to a discouraged Christianity.

In his book, he talks about how Jews, Christians, and Muslims teach that we are created in God's image. God is not confined to one belief system and we cannot control him (or even our own body at times.) In fact it is much too easy to domesticate God and create an idol out of our religion. Therefore we cannot exclude the "other," those who are not from our religion. For one, God may have called them to share His truth for us. Yes, God can use even an atheist (or a Wiccan) to call us into the Kingdom of God and away from the idolatry of our religion. It has radical implications to how we share our beliefs. Instead of attempting to convert others we dialog with them.

Samir has strong words of warning for religion if it is not able to embrace the other. We are in danger of losing our rich cultural heritage that religion provides. Religion is in danger of dying. On the other hand he is able to see hope in that new life coming from death is a common Biblical metaphor.

Although I enjoyed reading the book, there were times when feelings of guilt would creep in. Any many ways this is a prophetic book that calls those who follow God to a higher standard. There have been so many times that I have been a failure when it comes to communicating and interacting with others and so many times that I have not acted in love to those created in the image of God. And there have been times when for me, it wasn't really about God.

A while back I had a chance to hear Samir Selmanovic speak on the topic of "Finding God in the Other." It was a paradigm-shifting riff on the idea that unless we are willing to listen, we have no right to preach. And that God's truth is available and present in all His children. How we love each other is how we learn about and love God. Or that's what I came away with. I was shaken. It upset my tidy views of Truth and mission.

I made an effort to connect with Samir and we exchanged ideas and shared some time together. In the process I recently received a reader's proof of his new book.

Upon reading and rereading it, I was moved to tears and startled by his remarkable personal journey and his willingness to put himself on the line in sharing it. A Muslim background and a brush with Christianity (and everything in-between) have given him an epiphany of sorts. This well-educated (degrees in engineering and theology I think) spiritual pilgrim shares his insights in a kind of extended essay. In some places it is sublimely poetic. But at its core it's more a manifesto of why faith matters at all. And a plea for open conversation where we not only share our differences, but actually celebrate them! That only in honest communication can we learn from our collective experiences, even with our radical points of view.

Before we wipe each other out and/or destroy the planet, maybe it's time to -- just for once -- try and love each other. Or maybe just listen to each other. Samir Selmanovic implies that Jesus was a humanist, that he died for something greater than himself. That he was an agnostic, perhaps even atheist, in that he lost sight of God's presence ("Why have you forsaken me"). I see in the same way, Jesus was a good Buddhist, in that he emptied himself. And of course, he was a very good Jew. Jesus was us. All of us. But make no mistake that this book is just for Christians. It is not.

Samir Selmanovic's book may not reflect a systematic theology that fundamentalists embrace, but it most assuredly reflects a systematic theology of the soul. It offers a way for us to go from "my religion is better than yours, let me enlighten you" to "let's get to know each other as equal humans without all the answers."

This book challenges the glib dismissal of religion by some as being of no import. (It would be great to hear a conversation with Dawkins, Harris and Selmanovic. Or maybe one with Jon Stewart!) On the other hand, it faces squarely the growing and real-life horror of fundamentalists of all creeds destroying civilization as we know it -- the God Wars that we all recognize but don't speak of openly -- yet.

For me, the implied challenge of Samir Selmanovic's book is to recognize that there is no single volume or person (insert your favorite Christian, Jewish or Islamic scripture and leader here) that has an exclusive monopoly on the truth of God. It is when we fetishize our sacred texts that we take the first step toward extremism that sanctions killing our fellow man because he believes differently. We can justifiably say, "See, right here, God says so." "

Rambling, poetic, "It's Really All About GOD" reminds that God's wisdom does reside in our collective stories and our shared search for and celebration of transcendence, worship and sacred ritual. In talks, Salmanovic says that " the universe is a Love story" -- if we will but surrender to it and release the compassion innate in all of us.

This book deserves to make waves and be a flash point of discussion for believers of all faiths -- as well as the faithless! In fact, that's the point. This remarkable book offers more than hope. It's a way out of the lethal, dead-end, dilemma towards which we race. Samir Selmanovic's essay is a map, a detour, to the Kingdom of God that shimmers around us even now. We would do well to take heed.

Are we at a point where it is no longer safe to be quiet? Even worse, is our silence an act of cowardice? Make no mistake, a wave of change is coming and unless we can speak to each other about the things that matter most, our core belief systems -- yes, fears and doubts -- those things that are not acceptable to debate in public -- we are doomed.

After all, like Noah, we are one family and we are all in the same boat -- this time our planet is our Ark. We are all God's children and we all have a story to share. God speaks to -- and through -- us. All of us. He is us.

Perhaps we are in fact made in His image. Are we the fragments of God coming together as He explores his own nature? If so, our task is, as Samir says, "...to learn to love well." What else is there, if not that?

Read this naive pilgrim's memoir. It is a beautiful and dangerous book. Embrace your heresy. Ubi dubium, ibi linertas.

Stories are powerful and have the potential to heal, reveal, unite, and inspire. I love listening to (and reading about) the experiences gathered from personal "journeys" through the (human) conditions that engender our collective brokenness. In his book, It's Really All About God: Reflections of Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian, Samir Selmanovic shares profound insights and wisdom that he has gathered during his expansive journeys in life. I enjoyed Samir's use of amusing, often self-deprecating stories (e.g., his "theology of hemorrhoids") as a conduit for deeper insights into complex and illusive ideas. His keen eye for the "thin-places" that exist in everyday life offered me an opportunity to reflect upon and look more closely for the sacred within the ordinary of my own life.

Overall, I found the book to be a thoughtful, personal synthesis of positions traditionally considered to be dialectally opposed (e.g., atheist & theist); positions that Samir has struggled with in his search for a more authentic and meaningful life. Contemporary culture and social norms encourage us to follow the "path of least resistance" by cutting this tension and becoming ideologically wed to one. Samir, on the other hand, gives deference and validity to each position, while dreaming and pursuing a world of possibilities that is more loving, forgiving, peaceful and ultimately more sustainable. An example of this is Samir's challenge for Christians (his own religious belief system) to give up their perceived direct and exclusive access to "God" (i.e., power and superiority) in order to embrace the humble, life-engendering, and loving truth of Christ. In essence, the challenge is to be followers of Christ, in the sense that Christ was willing to give his life for something greater than him (i.e., for the "Kingdom of God"). Many followers say that they are willing to "die for their beliefs," but how many are willing to "live (i.e., to embrace an ethic of love and life) their beliefs?" This challenge is certainly relevant for all religious and non-religious groups.

My only criticism of the book is that, like many first books, the author seems pressured to cram every idea, analysis, story, sage advice, etc. into the limited pages provided by the publisher. I think Samir addresses some big and complicated ideas and does not have the luxury of space to really take the reader to the depth that he is both capable and willing to go. With this said, I hope that he has more opportunities via more books and other writings. I think Samir has a lot more to write and I hope that I will have more opportunities to read those ideas.

One of the great philosophical and religious thinkers, Nietzsche, wrote that philosophy is always a biographical revelation of the philosopher. Samir reveals his own personal(autobiographical)experiences to elucidate a philosophical and theological approach to life, which can be distilled into the maxim: "learning to love well." This ethic of life and love is one that can be embraced by all people, regardless of the ideologies that seemingly separate us and ultimately contribute to our brokenness.

In short, I give this book my highest recommendation.

In our increasingly pluralistic societies, one of the most urgent questions facing Christianity is how we relate to those who believe differently. Too often, the traditional approach seems to have been to dismiss these others--anyone and everyone who does not believe as we do. But our increasing interaction with those of other faiths forces us to re-examine these assumptions. Life is often not as black-and-white as we might like it to be.
Samir Selmanovic is one voice who can help Christians wrestle with these issues. In his introduction to It's Really All About God, Selmanovic is careful to emphasise the Christian foundation for this project. He acknowledges that some of his friends claim they are able to embrace four faiths--Muslim, atheist, Jewish and Christian--simultaneously but expresses his doubts that this is either possible or sustainable. Instead, he acknowledges that he "would not have become or stayed Christian without the blessings of Islam, atheism, and Judaism."
Yet, at the same time, Selmanovic maintains that it is his Christian faith that inspires him to seek good in and for other believers. It is precisely because he seeks to follow Jesus that he reaches out to others and has something of value and beauty to share with them. Applying such basic Christian tenets as the Golden Rule, he urges that we use these principles to guide us toward treating other religions as we would like them to treat ours--listening with respect, learning from their wisdom, standing up for their freedoms and serving their needs. Rather than watering down Christianity, Selmanovic seeks a more radical, costly and sometimes difficult engagement with our faith and each other.
Selmanovic has sought to model this approach to those of other faiths in the form of Faith House Manhattan, a multi-faith ministry project he founded in New York City. Described as "an experiment in the kingdom of God," Faith House seeks to create a space in which believers from the world's three major monotheistic religions can worship together, learn from each other's traditions and serve together in the world.
As someone who has spent portions of his life in a number of these faith traditions, Selmanovic is not merely a philosopher or theologian. He grew up in a nominally Muslim family in then-Communist Yugoslavia. When he became a Christian and Seventh-day Adventist while completing compulsory military service, Selmanovic was expelled from his family for a number of years. He eventually completed doctoral studies at Andrews University before pastoring on both coasts of the United States, including ministering in New York City at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
It's Really All About God takes its narrative direction from this story, with Selmanovic's own realisation of God, growth in faith, slowly repairing relationship with his family and life experience escorting readers through a similar journey. As such, the book is part spiritual memoir but with added depth of reflection and engagement with other religious traditions and literature. Appropriately, the narrative climax of the book is perhaps a seemingly small moment bringing together Selmanovic's family and church family, reading of which is rendered more poignant in light his father's recent death.
It's Really All About God is both deeply philosophical and profoundly pragmatic. One of the book's recurring statements is "Life wins," meaning that our beliefs or theories about life and God must have practical applications and benefits, or risk fading into irrelevance.
Although it's easy to be distracted, It's Really All About God is really a book about God--as the title suggests. Any authentic discussion about religion must ultimately be about the God we are seeking to worship and serve, and what He is like. And that is the book's greatest achievement.
Through his sometimes funny, sometimes moving and sometimes poetic reflections, Selmanovic points us back to a God Who embraces, Who stoops to serve, Who pursues us relentlessly but lovingly, Who weeps at the tragedies, heartaches, fear and brokenness of our world, and Who is truly "our Father" to all His children. This is the God Who calls us to join with Him in serving our world, to value each other and to participate now in the wonderful and mysterious kingdom He offers to us all.

Years ago a U C Berkeley Professor Houston Smith wrote of how he had studies the world religions and come to the choice where he would take all the positives from each and apply them to his own life. This book has elements of these views, but the author is remarkable, because he converted from a the Muslim faith having grown up in Croatia.

As a Christian minister with strong ecumenical leanings he believes in building bridges and not walls. No doubt devout Christians who are afraid to think outside the box, may not like the book. But as a Christian I am strong enough in my beliefs to not be threatened by what other believe. In fact like the author I find great value in the lessons others can teach me.

The author writes so well as on page 242 he writes 'That's why evangelism in Christianity sharing the good news can nowadays only be done my a mature soul, one that knows how to receive in humility. Sharing the good news is first and foremost a process of receiving the good news not as a once in a lifetime event but as a way of life. We are to approach others by saying 'What I don't know about God, goodness, and grace, this person might'.

I have gradually and cautiously come to the conclusion that in spite of the claims made by some Christian theologians, God is indeed much bigger than the boundaries we create to contain Him. I mention that I came to this conclusion cautiously; not because I disagreed with it, but simply because I'd been taught one thing for years, and felt that I was somehow betraying my faith by rejecting a theological claim. I am a lifelong believer, but only came to take my faith seriously at the age of 47, and in that time I've never been satisfied with what I see as very narrow interpretations of the Gospels and Pauline epistles. The nature of God revealed in the New Testament is a God for everyone, and Christ is revealed as the human incarnation of that God, sent to put everything in perspective for us. This is good news indeed, but also the beginning of the problem for many, and it leads to triumphal claims of exclusivity and rejection of those who don't follow the letter of the law laid down by Christianity.

It's at this point that Samir Selmanovic asks a question that should be asked over and over again, and in the loudest voice possible: Why do Christians often seem afraid of discovering God outside of their faith? Why would they not want to experience something so wonderful?

The answer, quite simply, is that many cannot deal with the questions it would raise. If God can be discovered and experienced outside of the Christian faith, then some of what they've been taught would appear to be false, or at best, a flawed interpretation of God's will as revealed in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. But Selmanovic broadens this point by asking anyone of any faith why they might be uncomfortable with others discovering God outside of their faith.

I will confess that I try to be eternally vigilant about succumbing to vague spiritual relativism, no matter how attractive it may appear. Yet, although I'm a Christian, I often feel stifled by the structured, formal doctrines of my faith, and feel that no matter how well-intentioned, it fails to completely express the real nature of God and how we experience Him. Selmanovic describes people of all religions finding and experiencing God in what he calls our "thin places," those moments and experiences where the veil between the physical and the spiritual is lifted and the two realms, for all-too-brief moments, become one beautiful whole. People of all faiths experience these "thin places," and come to know God in the process. While Christians often try to claim that the "real" God can only be experienced within the Christian faith, God, it would seem, rejects that claim and makes Himself known to anyone truly seeking Him.

On page 76, Selmanovic writes: "Jesus repeatedly said `The Kingdom of God is here. Enter it.' He never said `Christianity is here. Join it.' The two are not the same, and can in fact, at times, be at odds. Christianity and the Kingdom of God do have a relationship, and for any relationship to exist, a differentiation has to be made. Christianity is a religion. The Kingdom of God was, is, and will always be more."

In that simple paragraph resides the entire purpose of this wonderful book, which arrives at a time when we need a message like this more than ever. For those still unimpressed, and reluctant to consider that God may be found elsewhere, in other religions and faith traditions, I hope they would take the time to read this book before writing off the idea altogether. Selmanovic has taken an idea that has always existed on the fringe of every religion, and nearly always treated as a heresy by the more doctrinally conservative within those religions. It's understandable when people balk at the idea presented by this book, but it's an idea worthy of considerable thought, and Selmanovic asks us not to sell it short without some serious consideration.

Selmanovic is a Christian, and in being one, still believes that Christ is the gatekeeper to the Kingdom, but with this wonderful book he also helps us all open our hearts and minds to the idea that God is a patient parent who will make Himself known to any of us when we seek Him with all of our heart and soul and mind, regardless of the religion we use as our starting point. Religions are the containers we build for God, but this book seeks to remind us that God will not be contained by human constraints. It's not about us...it's really all about God, and this book provides a wonderful starting point for an exciting new journey of the heart.