For years, I’ve been trying to think of a way to help people find the essential Jesus of faith.  To strip away all the extra, accumulated stuff of Christianity so that they can focus on the core of the faith. Asking questions, finding what is essential to the faith. And in the end, to decide on what’s essential to them.

Scott Douglas has found that hook.

In his book #OrganicJesus, Douglas compares his own search, like mine, to organic food. Stripped of additives and stimulants. To find “an unprocessed gmo-free christianity”.

While my pursuit comes from an institutional church with its canon laws and deep-rooted systems, Douglas comes from the evangelical world with its own dogma and deep-rooted systems.

At times, this difference caused some frictions for me as I read. But there is an overwhelming sense from the book that over and over, he is finding something like “the middle”. What we Anglicans call the via media.

And what we find, when we strip out the extra, is something a bit more natural. Like choosing that natural Breyers ice cream with its 5 ingredients (rather than 25). It’s good. And it still tastes like ice cream.

In fact, there is nothing truly radical in Douglas’s Organic Jesus. He is traditional, evangelical, and moderate. This Organic Jesus of his could fit in nearly any time or place, denomination or religious community. He is still a troublemaker for the culture and a comforter for the afflicted.

You picture this Jesus and you say “yep, still Jesus.”

An imperfect picture.

No book can capture the real Jesus. And Douglas knows it. He addresses this idea in his description of Trinitarian theology. In that chapter, he highlights the mystery and challenge of understanding trinitarian theology.

And he challenges Christians to stop using crappy models to explain it. In trying to help people understand the mysterious, we obscure it. It’s not only a fool’s errand, it sends us off track.

Whether it’s the Trinity, Creation, or worship music and prayer, Douglas informs us with context. He summarizes the history, the debate, and carefully characterizes the confusions. But then he strips it all away. And gets to his essential question in the middle of his swirling confusion around Jesus.

And because it’s his confusion, he can inject his own thoughts and questions; theology and hermeneutic.

This may be disconcerting to some readers.

Or his questions may not be your questions. But his process gives us a process to ask our own questions. To get to the root of what matters to us.

As an Episcopalian with a much higher approach to church and theology, there are plenty of places in which I come to different conclusions.  And there are also places where his conclusions feel almost too traditional. Places where I’d love to see Douglas dig a little deeper.

And yet I had a constant sense that he was in the via media, getting it from one side about saying something. And from another for not saying something different. The further into the book, the more I was aware of his stretching beyond the bounds of his origin story.

A kind of stretching often criticized. Criticized for the details of presuppositional faith.

But instead of sticking to the minutia, Douglas goes to the base. And he does so with a different approach. He doesn’t reverse-engineer an ice cream, deciding which ingredients to remove. Instead, we start with “what makes ice cream?” Cream. Sugar. Flavor. Churn it and freeze it.

A social book.

Douglas’ book is full of social media opportunities. He peppers it with social media references and closes each chapter with calls to action based on different social networks. While it may play to some as gimmicky or a banal attempt to either appeal “to the kids” or as a stealth advertising campaign, Douglas’ intentions are far more attractive.

The underspoken current of the book, after we strip it down to look for the Organic Jesus is to actually see who Jesus is and what he’s about. And at a fundamental level, Jesus is about following and being social. About devotion to the cause and being intimate with your friends. About loving GOD and loving our neighbor.

So Doulas uses social media to teach these two concepts.

1. Personal Devotion
2. Evangelism/Community Building

My instincts were to skip over this stuff. In other books, authors or editors use social media to crossover into other media environments. But this expectation eroded as I saw how Douglas doesn’t add these on after the fact. This is our homework. It’s our practice so we can master the concepts.

Concepts which are two things essential to the Organic Jesus.

And while I didn’t take advantage of most of them, I thought about them every time. There are several of them I will actually go back to.

[And if you’ve read the book and are wondering, I’m a Ruth.]

Finding the Organic Jesus.

One of the places which resonated with me the most was Douglas’ chapter on prayer. This is an example of the writer at his most orthodox, but least traditional. He describes different forms of prayer and discusses the giving of the Lord’s prayer. He talks about the different names for GOD and what it is we’re doing when we pray.

But he says prayer, at its essence, is a conversation with GOD. And a conversation influenced by listening to his grandmother pray. Listen to that example. It’s about relationship: to GOD and to neighbor. The listening, the conversing, the learning, the loving.

“When you cry out to God, whose name do you use? Abba, Father? God? I am? Jesus? Christ? God has many names he will answer to. He’s not going to say, “I didn’t answer your prayer because you had the wrong name on speed dial.” But using the right name in the right circumstance helps you start to understand the different roles God wants to play in your life.”

(#OrganicJesus, p. 193)

Do I recommend #OrganicJesus?

I absolutely do. It’s a good, slim book for those searching for a way through the chaos of faith.

I’d also recommend it for those looking to enter/re-enter faith from a time away. This Organic Jesus is far more attractive, accessible, and compassionate than the Jesus of our civic religion. And he is far more engaged and loving than we get from much of evangelical witness.

My own pursuit of stripping the faith down to the essentials has been more deconstruction than “organic”. And yet I find Douglas’ approach helpful. Plus it has the added benefit of sounding more positive than its alternatives.

And while the organic concept takes a moment to figure out, it is ultimately a rewarding model for seeing the essential. And isn’t burdened by the weight and restriction of such a word as essential. It carries a positive, light, and natural character.

Like organic farming, this pursuit is healthy and normal. The thing humans have been doing for thousands of years, not just the last 5.

Despite what some of those modernist preachers say, people have been approaching Jesus this way for a long time.

And unlike the prepackaged Jesus, this one has more than 5 pre-programmed responses.

 

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.

To find out more about #Organic Jesus or to read the blog, visit organicjesus.com.