Review of "Are You A HEREDEWOSO?" by Matthew A Jackson (Pt 1)

Matt Jackson is a friend of mine. We served together in Christian ministry back in the 70s and 80s, touring the United States with a traveling musical theater group. We've stayed in touch since then as best we can living in different cities (sometimes different countries).

I just learned about Matt's 2008 book subtitled "Five Issues Evangelicals Should Re-Think." That subtitle shows why the book is difficult to categorize—but does not excuse the unusual title, which does nothing to help a potential reader decide if the book would be worth her time. And the back-cover copy is even more cryptic—perhaps fearing that disclosure of the five issues would give away too much. Well, I don't work for the marketing department at Xulon Press, so I'll spill the beans here and now. The fives issues are:


1) Head and Heart; 2) Religion and Relationship; 3) The Misnomer of "Non-Denomination;" 4) Worship; 5) "Soon."


So now you see Matt's problem: he is a layman with a grab-bag of topics he wants to address, but didn't have time to write five books. The good news is that it's a quick read— just 130 pages from the Introduction through the last chapter. Today's post will cover chapters 1 and 2. 


1 - HEAD AND HEART. Matt's premise is that many evangelicals are driven too much by their feelings and emotions, not enough by their understanding. He recognizes that true Christianity is a matter of the heart, but goes on to demonstrate that scripture teaches us to use our heads as well as our hearts. I'm a soft touch for any argument that includes Philippians 4:8, so when Matt reminds us that we are to "think on these things", he's gettin' two thumbs way up from me. But he's on softer ground when asserting that the Fruit-of-the-Spirit called self-control "is completely a [mental] commitment and application."


As one who has worked in the Christian publishing industry through many decades, I can say that almost every Christian non-fiction book is "head" oriented. Here's a sample of titles I've recently read: Dr. John MacArthur's Slave, Andy Stanley's The Grace of God, Pete Wilson's Plan B, Timothy Keller's The Reason for God and David Chilton's Productive Christians in age of Guilt Manipulators. Somebody is reading all those books, though clearly none of them has sold 105 million copies—the estimated number of evangelicals in America. I suspect that Matt and I may differ on how many American evangelicals live an un-thinking Christian life. But for any who are trapped in a see-saw existence of emotion-based Christianity, Matt's reminder is a helpful tonic.


2 - RELIGION AND RELATIONSHIP. This chapter goes a long way to make a short point: Christianity is a religion. Matt takes exception to the cliche' born during the Jesus Movement of the 1970s that Christianity isn't a religion, rather it's a relationship. His argument can be boiled down to this: if the cliche' added a qualifier like "just" or "only" or "merely" in front of the words "a religion", all would be sunshine and roses. He says it's both: that Christianity is a religion promising a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ. Matt chides those who want to pretend it isn't a religion. He lays out the four classic components of religion from Webster's dictionary (belief system; public/community aspect; divine being; codes of conduct & ritual) and concludes that Christianity meets all of them. Case closed.


I will post my review of chapters 3, 4 and 5 "soon". (Get it?)

Are You A HEREDEWOSO? Five Issues Evangelicals Should Re-Think

Matthew A. Jackson

$14.99 U.S.

Paperback, 148 pages

ISBN-10: 1604775564

Xulon Press

Published February 9, 2008