Customer Reviews

The Secret of Significance

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Secret of Significance is a highly potent book for those of us who have forgotten who Christ says we are and just what we truly mean to him. It collects many of the scriptures that are far flung between the old testament and new and organizes them in a logical way. In the process, the book helps make sense of some of the despair we often feel even after coming to Christ.

This is not a book for passive, once a month Sunday Christianity. It's a book for someone, anyone, all of us longing to truly uncover our worth in Christ as He has described in the scriptures. And like all good books on the scriptures it draws me closer to the Word as I reread individual verses in there original context and it brings me closer in prayer and worship to God.

Because the book is a concentrated version of the much larger Search for Significance it does seem like the writing is condensed. However, that just makes it that much more potent. The difference between listening to C.S. Lewis vs Billy Graham...same truths one's just more immediate!

I began this nice-looking book with hopeful expectations. I had heard good things about the larger book (The Search for Significance) from which it is based, and I was hoping to read a decent book. I was sorely disappointed. I found this book to consist of little more than a spiritualized counseling session for the downtrodden. McGee speaks from the perspective that everyone is ultimately a miserable wretch with lousy self-esteem that needs to wrestle with four central theological doctrines that will transform their misery. Unfortunately, this book did not speak to me at all.

I ultimately agreed with most of his theological premises, but I found his baseline assumptions to be downright false. We are not all dependent upon the opinions of others for our self-worth. We are not all seeking approval to motivate our performance in life. The human experience is far too complex to be decompressed as McGee tries to do. Though he may experience these notions from across his sample of folks in counseling, that need not translate across the population at large.

Ultimately, I give this book two stars because I'm sure that it will be appropriate for particular readers. Ultimately, the same people that benefit from McGee's counseling insight will surely appreciate the book. But this does not generally apply across the board, and I would only recommend it to a very narrow audience. I was sufficiently disenchanted that I have no intention of investigating McGee's more substantial books.