Searching for God Knows What | a review

{full disclosure: To comply with federal regulations, I want to state that I received this book in return for my review. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.}

Don Miller brings back his most theological work in a re-release/update. Searching For God Knows What was originally Don Miller’s followup to Blue Like Jazz, which has been ever popular. I thoroughly enjoyed the book the first time I read it, with this re-release I was interested to see how I would still like it.

{Spoiler Alert} The basic premise of the book is that Christianity is (and always has been) simply about relationship with God, about finding our worth & validation in that relationship above all others. In the process of establishing this, he takes time to pull away a lot of man created edifices of religion. Things like theology have been, post reformation, elevated to a place higher than it ought. He points out how we have mistakenly understood Christianity and being a set of beliefs instead of being a relationship between us and God restored through Christ.

He uses much imagery to convey these thoughts. One of the central metaphors of the book is that of the life book. Unredeemed life is like being on a life boat. There are too many people in the boat so it is a fight to prove why we shouldn’t be the one thrown overboard. He describes how much of what we do is an attempt to justify ourselves to others around us. Instead of finding our worth in God, we want to be justified by others through our good works, our success, our good looks…

He concludes the book with a chapter where he draws the spiritual nature of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It is a beautiful picture which is worth looking at. Donald Miller in this chapter is writing from a different voice than you would normally associate with his work. It substantive writing and really gives a much fuller glimpse into Don Miller as a writer.

I wasn’t captivated by every page this time around like I was the first time, though his metaphor of the life boat was still very engaging for me. Don Miller has said {somewhere, I know not where} that this is the book he has been most proud of—I can understand why, it is a well written journey through what our modern religion needs to be about.

One definite thing I would say is I liked the original cover a lot more than the revised copy’s. Here’s the old cover design: