This one took me some time to get through - not because it was a difficult read, but because of the annoying "WikiBreaks" and conversational rather than expository nature of the writing. If you're looking for a book of solid Christian apologetics, there are far better books to be had. This book had nuggets of truth on a subtle backdrop of postmodernism. It will probably appeal to the millennial generation, but it will not make a list of my recommended books for a new or mature Christian.

I received this book in exchange for my honest review as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. ( )

What a disappointing book. I was looking forward to reading this one, but it failed to make a good impression.

On the plus side, he acknowledges that God is known by faith, and that faith should be in God, not in church or other people, since those can let you down.

The first flaw in this search to find the "organic Jesus" is the inane set up of this book; even my teens found all the little blurbs, sidetracks and suggestions to post things online distracting and not well done. If indeed people are distracted by technology, this book does nothing to help with that with its format.

The second is the very surface discussion and the failure to back up most of what he said. Douglas basically comes up with a somewhat twentieth century looking Jesus based largely on the theology hacked out in the first few centuries by the church fathers, politicians and a sometimes violent and bloody fight over whose version of the trinity and theology should dominate, which often had little to do with actual scripture and a lot to do with inculcating doctrines of other religions and, at times, adding scriptures (this is known to anyone who has done careful study of this.)

He is rather fickle on what he takes (evolution, for example, despite the fact that it is based on the philosophy of materialism and much of it on the theory of uniformitarianism and that it hasn't been fully proven, and yes it's true that that theory led theologians to investigate creationism etc in a way not done for a very, very long time, which doesn't make it a bad thing or even wrong), and what he drops (the rapture only because he can only find references to it for the past couple of hundred years, even though it's known that for centuries Roman Catholics would rout out people who disagreed with them and wipe out much or all of their theology, and really without any indepth discussion of it; whether or not it's accurate has little to do with the age of the theology). As if the reformation wasn't an ongoing process and stopped shortly after Luther et al.

But basically, it's just shallow, splashy writing that doesn't give us anything to really sink our teeth into. It's sort of a homogenized theology popular in many churches, but not all, and certainly not well documented. ( )

An interesting book but the author holds some opinion that I do not. The humor was good but a touch over the top at times. I did enjoy the interjection of social media and wikibreaks. ( )

Yes, it is witty and thought provoking if you keep from becoming diverted by the supposition that readers have short attention spans. As a result, you have an organic "lite" which makes it hard to see how much resilience in the face of "plus" versions of the Gospel the thinking #OrganicJesus offers is really necessary.

"Checking Twitter one more time?"

Scott Douglas' #OrganicJesus reminded me of "Blue Like Jazz": a witty attempt to engage those who believe and those who don't. Then again, I was reminded of "Radical" as well. Somehow the impression that the orthodoxy that built up the church is now its sickness is a strong force in contemporary writing...but I found as I read on that such a sweeping assessment for this book was largely a mistaken impression on my part. (Although, I think Douglas makes some terrible statements anyways, such as in his sections contending that the Bible is myth. His argument is a fiction.)

It seems to me that a person who believes that "faith is believing in something you cannot understand with rational thought" (25) might be better off owning the mysticism of any other Eastern religion but Christianity. This unfortunate statement is about the worst Douglas says in the entire book (beaten only by the Bible is myth statements), although a number of statements just had me shaking my head and moving on.

I am glad I did because, like Douglas, I enjoy observing and analyzing what is going on in our American culture. Douglas gives us lots to engage with, more to assimilate, and even things to memorize--if one is so inclined.

Overall, I would recommend this book. Read it by the fire, or in the coffee shop and enjoy. But, don't give it to so-called "seekers" and young believers until they have a firm foundation in their Bibliology. The Bible is a revelation that has an authoritative word from God for us. It is not a myth, but a history of redemption and the things necessary to be known and believed for salvation. ( )