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Jesus Brand Spirituality: He Wants His Religion Back

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It seems like just 15 or so years ago, the term "Christian Spirituality" would have been met with some raised eyebrows and perhaps an incredulous stare or two. That Wilson uses three often culturally confusing words in his title: Jesus, Spirituality, & Religion--- is a hint toward the kind of unpacking and clarifying that he does in the pages between the covers of this refreshing and helpful book. Refreshing, because it feels like a breath of fresh air to read a book that takes the corruption of the Jesus brand to task, yet offers gracious understanding for the messiness that it has been these past 2000 or so years since Jesus launched a movement. He says that "Jesus is a presence distinct from the religion that represents him. We are drawn to him (or not) for reasons that deny easy explanation. But being drawn to Jesus doesn't necessarily mean buying the package of faith as defined by those with the biggest bullhorn..."
Wilson writes from the perspective of a self professed non-recovering Jesus Freak from the late 1960's which makes me think that when Ken Wilson says that "Jesus brand spirituality" is the path a pilgrim might take that is earthy, mystical, and curious---I believe him. The believability of his storied life and the storied life of "brand Jesus" as they mingle together with the cultural shifts of the past 30 or so years is refreshing too. In short, it is refreshing to hear a baby boomer admit the difficulties of the American church while at the same time not willing to draw a fresh new bath of water and get a new baby, if I may stretch the metaphor a bit.
Jesus Brand Spirituality is helpful on so many levels but foremost is the helpfulness it will be to my own mother-in-law in sorting out why her postmodern son-in-law wants to pray the daily offices and work for social justice issues while still considering himself (on most days) to be in the evangelical camp. Wilson does a fine job providing an overview of the landscape, noting that American Christianity has formed in the context of four quadrants: liturgical, social justice, evangelical, & renewal. The tug toward the center, where there is a blending and a shaping of us all, is where Wilson sees the movement of God's spirit and the kind of spirituality that Jesus modeled and "branded." Wilson draws from his own experience, the life of his friends and foes, the four quadrants of the spiritual landscape, and the life of Jesus to provide a full picture of what the "identity package" for the Jesus brand really is, humbly noting that this center place where traditions get blended is the place where Jesus gets his religion back, it is "a place we cannot find but is finding us."
Lastly, It seems as though Ken Wilson has been very careful to season his words with the salt of postmodernity---which has brought out the flavor of his thesis ever more so. Ken writes with an understanding of the changes to the epistemological and sociological milleu since he came into the Jesus Movement. And, unlike many who perhaps waded through the same four decades, Wilson has emerged not fighting on the battle-ground for things like "certainty" and "absolutes," but humbled and encouraged that we do in fact see through a glass dimly, in part, and not in full. His friendship with Phyllis Tickle (who writes the foreward) and his pastoral passion are not easy to miss. Not only is this book an explanation of where things are and where they're headed---it's an invitation to jump into the swirling center and get dirty a bit, healing, and getting healed, praying and being prayed for, going some place to find that God is there--- and is there to transform us all.

Conservative or liberal, nondenominational or mainline, I think most of us have a sense that the church in North America is in a bit of an identity crisis. And it this point, the jury's still out as to how it will emerge from this time of transition.

Everyone has there opinion as to what the church needs to be and do. In the end, my prayer is that it is books like this one that shape the conversation. For one thing, even as it remains deeply committed to the path of Christ, there's a real spirit of generosity to Wilson's work. He has engaged other Christian traditions, not in attempt to prove where they're wrong, but to learn. And he's learned much.

And, like any good pastor, he demonstrates an ability to present his learning in a way that's accessible and compelling for others. The book in fact enters into heavy duty theological territory. But you hardly know it because of how engagingly and incisively Wilson navigates through it.

Just so you know. I think a great deal of this book. I think it's an extraordinary book. I've read it and reread it. And what happens is it grows. It ramifies. It means more each time I read it than the time before. I know God better after reading and rereading this book. I know better what it means to love God each time I read this book.

I underline more stuff each time I read it. I have several colors of ink in there now. I don't know what's important anymore, I have so much ink in there.

Who is God? How do we know him? How can we know her or them? What in the Sam Hill is going on with God? How does God enter in? Where is God? Can I go and visit? What exactly is her address? Do they surf, for example? Is there a surf club I could join?

I don't know about you, but I've got a lot of questions of this kind. The questions I have can fill a book. They can fill twenty good sized books. Shoot. They could fill the world, if I would let them.

When I read Christian literature. And when I talk to people who call themselves Christians. I'm sorry. Often, I get a lot of nothing. Or I get a lot of. Well. Let's just call it refuse.

This book. Jesus Brand Spirituality. Where it takes you is this: The place you always wanted to go when you had questions about God. And about the people of God.

I don't know about you, but the people who call themselves people of God sometimes get on my nerves. They sometimes make me feel like. Well. God doesn't know them and they are hallucinating when they talk about God. I wonder sometimes whether they have actually read the Bible. The New Testament portion of the Bible. The Gospels in particular. Some of them. Or have read God in the world. Where he exists, if we are to believe Jesus. Happy as a clam. Happy as the wind. At large. In the world.

What I get from this book is that this guy has not only read the Bible. He has actually lived in the same house with Jesus. Jesus has lived in a room down the hall. And this guy has had the pleasure and the terror of that. Has had actual meals and conversations with God. Has had his character tested somewhat by that.... Well.... Let's call it an experience, for lack of a better term.

So should you read this book? Oh, I don't know. If you are an angry Christian, this will probably make you angrier. If you are a non-Christian, this might make you curiouser. If you are a confused Christian, this book might help you to find a way forward. Whatever that may possibly mean.

I never write reviews, ever. And that's pretty terrible because I'm an author myself.

Ken Wilson knocks the ball out of the park with this book. Heck, I'd even say it flew out of the parking lot and shattered the window in the church across the street from the ballpark. At least we can only hope so much.

A wonderful mix of Church, personal and social responsibility, Ken inspired me to broaden my lens of faith and open my hands wide -- to both receive and give the grace that Jesus walked this earth for.

This is an original presentation of the Jesus path by a pastor who does his own thinking, often in pictures and near poetry:

"the world is a mystical playground where life seemed to blossom wherever [Jesus] went" . . . "something as deep as the ocean seems to be awakened within us" . . . "heaven is what happens when all our connections here on earth light up with love" . . . "open your eyes and your heart toward the wonder that the world is an expression of" . . . "what is the fire in the equation by which the universe came into being?"

But it's not all pictures and poetry. There is solid content for deep thinking, as in his exploration of how we know what we know, and his probing the different biblical views of the atonement, especially the substitutionary one.

Orthodox in belief, Wilson arrives at his conclusions in his own original and thoughtful ways. He reclaims and continues his own fresh journey begun in the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and 70s, distinguishing it from more dogmatic approaches to the right and left. He is a centrist who, similar to Richard Foster in Streams of Living Water, maps current Christianity in several great traditions and sees the Spirit moving separated believers toward the center where all the treasures blend and wonderful things happen. Jesus is the great treasure buried in the messy field of religion. We are not to worry about the destiny of people of other faiths who will never hear of Jesus. We have heard, and our task as pilgrim believers is to take one step closer to knowing him.

Writing with an evangelist's heart, Wilson deplores mean-spiritedness in religion and anything else that puts people off from moving toward Jesus. "We should bristle less and listen more." There is ultimate respect for the reader: "you decide" is a frequent refrain.

Like most believers over the centuries, Wilson trusts the portrait of Jesus in the four canonical gospels. He clearly distinguishes that portrait from the one in the Gnostic gospels. And without saying so, he distances himself from the Jesus Seminar approach. His approach is very much in line with recent centrist scholarship, as in Richard Bauckham's Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (2006).

He explores Jesus brand spirituality under four headings--active, contemplative, biblical and communal. Wonderful stories abound. Care for creation and openness to good science permeate the book. Each section ends with study questions for individual or group use.

This book is sure to provoke thought, discussion, growth, and some reaction.

A great read. This book describes the complexity of finding the path to Christ. It looks at all of the human constructs related to christianity and uncovers the person Jesus was. The author carefully avoids being liberal or conservative (or other tags for that matter) and points to where Christ would be. His take on Christianity comes across as fresh. Easy answers aren't offered in this book. However the complexities of following Jesus Brand Spirituality aren't overwhelming. They make sense.

Length:: 0:54 Mins

Ken Wilson, Senior Pastor of the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, Michigan has written a very readable account of how he sees a 21st century spirituality based on the way of Christ. I don't think anyone could sum up the experience of reading quite like Phyllis Tickle did in the Foreword: "This is not a beautiful book (though it is hardly an ugly one). This, instead, is a book that contains niches and corridors and apses of beauty that catch my thorax and make me feel the salt and burn of beauty rising."

I found the book to be along the same lines as those written by Brian McLaren, although as much as I am deeply indebted to McLaren's works, I find Wilson's prose to carry me along far more readily. I feel as though this book deserves a second reading, given the depth and heart contained within. On first reading two things struck me as core.

One was the confessions of an awkward pastor, who describes stumbling along in his faith when praying for healing. I could so readily identify and feel his struggle, and was thankful that he has a wife who has the gift of faith so much more than he does! As the Apostle Paul wrote, we are all gifted in different ways.

The second insight was surrounding prayer, especially liturgical prayer. Ken doesn't tell you how to pray, but rather looks at the why of prayer. Rather than a burden, prayer is presented as good for the mind and soul, amongst other things.

There are some radical thoughts in this book. Many will find his views on evolution and the atonement troubling. But these thoughts are not new, and bringing them into the public sphere is helping the church to receive Jesus afresh, questioning centuries old dogma that with time has become a burden to the understanding of scripture in this era.

The church of today needs courageous writers like Ken and Brian in the quest for bringing Jesus back into our midst, rather than up in the clouds. Highly recommended.

Two important caveats, that may draw you in or cause you to skip this review: The Wilson is a self-professed "Jesus freak" and I am an atheist. That being said, I was still curious because of the refreshing messages that Wilson's church, Vineyard, had on their website. I have spiritual people in my life and in my family, and I am always happy to direct them toward something that I find to be intelligent as well as appealing to their religious sensibilities. This is such a book.

Not the entire book, but passages and the last few chapters were dense with raised questions and suggestions for approaches to those questions; mainly that we each need to find our own answers, while knowing that we will never be 100% right, and realizing that we are, in fact, part of communities in which we are invested (social capital).

A few interesting passages then my own experience.

"The closer you get to knowing..., the less you feel that you actually know." Wilson - spends a few pages on this, making notable philosophical observations on this apparently clear statement. If you believe it, you will agree, and if you don't, you may be convinced.

"God is love, properly understood." Wilson - he explains this in a lot of detail, and in a thoughtful way.

" 'The one who fears is not made perfect in love.' " 1 John 4:16 - Wilson makes a few possible interpretations, then warns of the dangers in assuming that our interpretation is the correct one, when there is no way to say so definitively.

No, I was not converted, nor had a spiritual experience; but I found myself applying his questions to my own beliefs, and noting that for some important ones that I should put more thought into why I think certain things. I imagined having a conversation with Wilson, and what questions we would ask each other.

Be aware, much of the first half of the book is Jesus-centric. That in no way detracted from the interesting points he made later on. I can see how anyone with an interest in spirituality in general would feel satisfied with this book as something friendly and embracing, from a tongue-in-cheek "Jesus freak" pastor.

Can you judge a book by its cover? In this case, the cover tells a lot. Start with the telltale little "TM" tucked next to "Jesus Brand." You see, "Jesus Brand" IS a brand! This will protect the revenue stream when the author pumps out sequels like "Building a Jesus Brand Church" and "Becoming a Jesus Brand Christian" and the inevitable "Jesus Brand Study Bible."

Next there's the slogan, "He wants his religion back" - it's slick and snarky, but nothing like the picture of Jesus as the patient husband ministering to his far-from-perfect church in Ephesians 5.

So what's inside that cover? Generous helpings of the author's hip, breezy opinions - each one packaged as "Jesus Brand spirituality" - about current issues such as evolutionary teaching and the environment. Snide and unfair caricatures of Christians who happen to be more traditional than the author. And weak-as-water glosses of deep passages of Scripture. For example, the best the author can do with John's gorgeously mysterious "God is love" passage is to sloganize it with the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." (I'm not making this up.) After a few random stabs at unpacking John's words, he admits, "I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this passage, am I?" Um, no, you're not.

Likewise, the author's meandering, multicultural discourses on prayer, mysticism and the necessity of Christ's atoning death for our sins seem to equate confusion with profundity. Statements such as "Jesus had a rather scattershot approach to teaching us about prayer" are typical of the book's smug and ultimately vapid intellectual level.

The guy is a good writer with a flair for stories and turns of phrase that keep the eye moving down the page. But I'll never forget taking a Japanese friend to a touristy sushi place. He said at once, "Please, no, there's better." Please, no, there's better than this book. Read Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Read John Stott. Read Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Read James Houston. Read Eugene Peterson. And thus be truly challenged, changed and inspired to kneel and worship before the God of Israel, the Father of our Lord and Savior jesus Christ.