The basic premise of The One Jesus Loves by Robert Crosby is that intimacy with Jesus is a critical component of discipleship and that we need to pursue this intimacy with Christ. The author uses a model of that he has taken from scripture to measure the amount of intimacy we have with Christ. He fleshes out six different levels of intimacy that we navigate between as followers of Christ. The ultimate goal to to be like John...the one Jesus was closest with.
I love the basic premise of this book. While the author talks of what he considers to be other important components of discipleship including theology, prayer focus and morality being on the same level as intimacy, I have to say I believe that intimacy is the number one goal of discipleship. From that point, I love the model and what he has to say about each level. Unfortunately, the rest of the book falls flat for me. It sounded much like a phase of evangelicalism that has already passed and whose theology was questionable to begin with. It's hard to talk about intimacy with the Almighty and only focus on Jesus. Much of what this author talks about echos a "Father, Son and Holy Bible" theology. Without some serious mention of the Holy Spirit's role in building an intimate relationship with God, the book comes off as very inauthentic.
In this day and age, Christians can no longer treat the Holy Spirit like "Crazy Uncle Eddie" and pretend like He is only for Charismatics. While I think the premise is spectacular, the supporting information is archaic and questionable theologically. It's hard to say whether or not I recommend this book. The general idea is great information, but reading the book as a whole turned me off to what this author had to say. This book would have made a great blog post, or series of blog posts.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in return for my honest review.
I love the basic premise of this book. While the author talks of what he considers to be other important components of discipleship including theology, prayer focus and morality being on the same level as intimacy, I have to say I believe that intimacy is the number one goal of discipleship. From that point, I love the model and what he has to say about each level. Unfortunately, the rest of the book falls flat for me. It sounded much like a phase of evangelicalism that has already passed and whose theology was questionable to begin with. It's hard to talk about intimacy with the Almighty and only focus on Jesus. Much of what this author talks about echos a "Father, Son and Holy Bible" theology. Without some serious mention of the Holy Spirit's role in building an intimate relationship with God, the book comes off as very inauthentic.
In this day and age, Christians can no longer treat the Holy Spirit like "Crazy Uncle Eddie" and pretend like He is only for Charismatics. While I think the premise is spectacular, the supporting information is archaic and questionable theologically. It's hard to say whether or not I recommend this book. The general idea is great information, but reading the book as a whole turned me off to what this author had to say. This book would have made a great blog post, or series of blog posts.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in return for my honest review.
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