Customer Reviews

Recapture the Wonder

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Ravi Zacharias at his best! I have been listening to and reading Ravi's messages for close to three decades. Recapture the Wonder is a culmination of Zacharias' central themes, his heart, and the thrust of his life-long ministry of preaching. This book will edify the believer and point the unbeliever toward God. Moving the reader back into the marvel of God is an demanding task. Usually Ravi is hard-hitting on a philosophical and intellectual level--similar to his preaching style. Here, however, in Recapture the Wonder he presents his life's work in a readable, straight forward fashion making the material more accessible to the general Christian reader and their non-Christian friends. This book offers guidance back into the ultimate resource to meet the human need--to worship God and enjoy Him forever.

Very affirming and positive look at what's missing!

"The components of gratitude and truth, love and hope bring the realization of wonder. The disciplines of study, of reading and reflecting, of dialoguing in dept and praying with belief sustain the wonder. In short, wonder is captured in one word-worship." (164)

Dr. Zacharias is well known for his sophisticated and often hardball apologetics. It believe him to be one of the quickest minds alive today. He is able to balance quick and precise reasoning and express it in a very calm, friendly, and often-times humorous way that gets the point home. He would be a great asset to anyone, but I am glad that he found his niche in Christian Apologetics.

In this book, Dr. Z nurtures his more affirming side. This book does not have all the clever logic-chopping that his other books has. It feels more like a "Chicken Soup for Socrates' Soul."

He makes very good points about the need for wonder. Most people you see nowadays are stumbling and slouching their way in a fog. It is always a rare person that has that spark of light in their eyes. These people are a charm to be around.

The book discusses several virtues we need to have to energize wonder: gratitude, truth, love and hope. These arc coupled with study, thought, prayer (which is a form of thinking). Ultimately, wonder equates with worship.

This book is a great way to introduce someone to Dr. Z thinking and speaking style. I cannot say enough good things about this man.

However, I think Dr. Z makes only one mistake in the book. He talks about one of the destroyers of wonder being "anything that takes away the legitimate mystery of life and living." (p. 46) He then speaks about there being bounds to human knowledge. True, he is talking about mortals "pretend[ing] to be God and play[ing] God," (p. 47) but the illustration of knowing all of the "hind the scenes" of a play chaffs me.

I have always believed that the glory of God is intelligence. Understanding and knowledge have always helped love God and other people better. And as to plays, I am one of those that loves the Disc 2 of the DVDs, with the "behind the scenes" snippets. These, coupled with the audio commentary, make the movie more enjoyable. And knowledge makes life more enjoyable. Ignorance is not bliss, and it is not wonderful. It is impossible for man to worship God in ignorance, to be saved in ignorance, and it is also impossible to be happy in ignorance.

The Lord has truly blessed Mr. Zacharias with wisdom, intellect, and clarity that most can only dream of. Thank God for Ravi's ability to write, and share his gift with us!

In "Recapture the Wonder", Ravi paints a beautiful picture of this Wonder that is within the reach of each one of us. The way to experiencing it has never been hidden from us. We just overlook it in our busy day to day lives. Mr. Zacharias has presented nothing new in this book, but he has provided much needed clarity, which will aid many in revealing the awesome capacity for wonder that God has placed inside of all of us. The key, of course is not in us, or anything else in this world. The key to true wonder is found in God's word. And the true experience only comes by living in God's perfect will.

For so many of us, it is unattractive to think of submitting to anyone's will but our own. We too often continue in our selfish pursuits, only to go to bed each night exausted and still starving for more. But, our desires can only be fulfilled through the One who put those desires there in the first place. Through Christ alone, we can be restored to an intimate relationship with God as it was intended to be from the beginning. In Christ, we can truly experience the joy and wonder of life that God wants for each of us. Mr. Zacharias' book brilliantly points us back to this truth.

If you feel that something is missing in your life, read this book! It won't fill the hole, but it will point you exactly where you need to go.

An awesome book, although that shouldn't be a surprise coming from Ravi Zachariah. I found it to be invaluable. If you're prone to approach life from the perspective of intellectual skepticism, then you're familiar with the longings that this book attempts to address. Like C.S. Lewis, Ravi carefully steps up to one of the great voids in life and tries to gently lead you along the path of finding its fulfillment. If you remember a time when life was filled with adventure and hopeful potential, but have found that overshadowed by a pessimism masquerading itself as an empty 'realism,' come with an open mind and go for it! It'll sweep you off your feet!

it's rare to find someone that conveys ideas both through linguistic skills and content depth- RaviZacharias does it! I guess growing up in Italy and attending the Univerisity of Bologna - has to do with how much I enjoyed his style of writing! ...the author talks about our spiritual quest in becoming a follower of Christ- NOT being a religious person.
from page 78- chapter 3 "passionate persuit, misdirected search" 'it is not about a ritual; it is about a relationship. It is not about the posture of the body; it is about the need of the soul. It is not about the times of the day; it is about the timelessness of His presence...'
...could we be pre-programmed to re-unite with a higher power?

This is a wonderful book. As always, Zacharias is able to cut right to the heart of the matter and do so with a deft and insightful touch. For myself, I read the book because it sounded interesting but had no idea that it would speak to me as aptly as it did. The loss of wonder and joy is something that we overlook and underestimate frequently. But as Zacharias points out, this loss can effect much more than our happiness.

A fantastic read if you are feeling jaded and a bit dog-eared by the world and it's stresses.

This book is a good, simple book on wonder. It is not intellectually loaded like Winter's _Still Bored_, and it is not a poetic masterpiece like Weight of Glory or Manalive -- it is just a good, solid, straight-shooting book talking about some problems Christians can have after a while, where life just seems to always be the same old thing with no magic or sparkle, and some ideas on how to get wonder back, viz. by being grateful, immersing oneself in Christ's love, and practicing some spiritual disciplines.

Zacharias` writing style is very good and pious, and the stories he shares exude love for Christ, which was very nice and uplifiting in an ordinary sweet sort of way. However, I was hoping for content that was a little more magical, with longing and wonder encased in poetic phrasing and literary suspense. Perhaps Zacharias' gift is more along the lines of straightforward prose -- I don't know, as this is the first Ravi book I've read. Just make sure you read this book for what it is, and enjoy it where it's good.

Thoughtfully and with a deep insight Ravi creates an interseting and life changing material that is must read for enyone keen on joy anf fullfillment in a life. Great.Recapture the Wonder

"Recapture The Wonder" by Ravi Zacharias concerns the issue of having a child-like fascination with God. Christians most likely experienced this early in their walk but have allowed life's concerns and worries rob them of that joy.

Among the topics covered include:

1. Being passionate about the pursuits that do not offer lasting contentment (sex, power, drugs, career, etc.).
2. Different religions and how they approach God.
3. Slowing down long enough to spend time thinking about God, His creation, and your relationship with Him.

Zacharias challenges the reader to consider that life's concerns are trivial compared to what God thinks and our relationship with Him.

Read, enjoy, and be encouraged and challenged.

Recommended.

Recently I finished reading "Recapture the Wonder" which was given to me by a friend. In the early part of the book he talks about obsessions with words and things and then goes on to write a very obsessed book that is all about the wonder of the wonder. Aside from the other content, it is extremely distracting. I wish I had a soft copy so I could do a word count on the number of times he actually uses the word "wonder" in his deliverance. I decided that eventually something WONDERful would jump off the page and so I painfully crawled through this book. It never happened. The best part of the book was in a quote at the very end and not to spoil anything, but I was so happy to be done I have already forgotten what it was. And note, it was quoted.

Indeed he recaptured the word, "wonder" and buried it in my mind not as a positive or negative thing, but simply as a literary piece. Ravi seems overly confident in the power of that word and I hope others got more out of it than I did. I live my life in a way where I don't need to read on how to recapture such a simple thing. To think that others have lost it and would need to read on how to get it back is a bit saddening. Ravi, I hope your days of wondering about wonder are wonderfully over with.

John Coyle
Orangeburg, SC