(I'm only assigning a star to the rating I give here on NetGalley as I am required to. In all other places I am reviewing this book it is not receiving a star rating or rating of any kind.)

Abandoned within the first chapter, maybe it was the introduction even. Here's why...

"I've identified twelve toxic Christian attitudes from which Jesus needs to save us and twelve antidotes that Jesus uses to save us. He's saving the world from our disingenuous posturing, our exhibitionist martyrdom, our isolationism, our disembodiment, our moral cowardice, our ideological certitude, our divisiveness, our anxious overprogramming, our moralistic meritocracy, our prejudice, our pursuit of celebrity, and our quest for uniformity."

YES. I nodded my head so hard while reading the above that it almost fell off. I agree so hard, so soundly with the above that I thought, "Okay, okay, okay. I'm going to like this book." And then the very next sentence with his list of antidotes made me grimace and abandon the book just like that, with no hesitation but with disappointment that this book that started so promising had literally turned into the same drivel evangelicals use and have been using for all of time (it feels like) to discuss the attitudes the world needs to be saved from. Morgan Guyton's antidotes?

"He's saving us by filling our hearts with genuine worship, wounding us with his mercy, emptying our spiritual clutter, breathing vitality into our bodies, awakening our sense of honor, captivating us with his poetry, letting us taste true glory, showing us the beauty of his temple, sticking up for the people who screw up, liberating us from social conventions, modeling his way of servanthood, and calling us deeper into his kingdom."

Gross. Just gross. Newsflash: those antidotes are NOT antidotes but instead feed the beast of bad behavior evangelicals live by. I'm out.

In How Jesus Saves the World from Us, Morgan Guyton says the (white, American, Evangelical) church has become the oppressor through misinterpretations and misapplications of the Bible, and this is what the world needs to be saved from.

Each chapter discusses a misinterpretation along with the correction that is needed.

The chapters on theology and social justice are the stronger ones, or at least the ones that resonated with me the most.

<b> "How Jesus Saves the World from Us" </b> explores how as Christians we may be living by the law and not under Grace. It highlights the various ways we are being toxic in a world that calls for love and understanding. While I don't necessarily agree with everything Guyton says, I will say this book is well put together, cohesive and practical.

As a Christian who is starting her walk with God, this book really does highlight the roads I am NOT to go down on and shows me ways I can become a better follower of Christ. As I said earlier, I do not agree with everything but I do take parts and apply it to my relationship with God.

Great read.

As I started to read this book, I was five pages in when I found it on Goodreads and read the reviews there. Many people did not sit well with this book. I was gearing up to toss it in the trash on my tablet when I really started to identify with the ideas Guyton was discussing.

It was a gripping read that opened my eyes to some truths while still allowed for objective perspective in regards of what Guyton believes versus what I believe.

Overall, I believe anyone looking to keep your focus on Jesus and emulate him in life should read it because it will give poetic thought to some of the beliefs that are part of the Christian faith.

When I first saw this book I was curious about the title--saving from --us--? I looked through the contents and started to skim. My attention was quickly drawn into the book, and I was reading several passages and pondering what the author was saying. I was definitely surprised by what I read, and I thought this would be a good book to recommend to my pastor. The point about Jesus using the undesired and outcasts of this world was a jolt when put in today's context of gays and current social issues. I didn't explore the subject--the author's viewpoint--in more depth, however, what I did read in this book made a deep impression on me. I looked at this book soon after I was approved for it, and now, over a month later, the impressions I had at the time are still there--the seriousness, strong scholarly statements and opinions, unique and very different perspective, deep yet understandable language, challenging ideas. Definitely a book to read and ponder, and use in a group study.

Morgan Guyton, from his writing, is a person I think I would like to befriend. Not just because he talks about playing the blues, which I think makes him cool. Not just because he is laid-back enough to calmly walk through the rain without an umbrella. Not because he lived in an artist colony once. It’s because I think being friends with this guy would be a marvelously enriching experience.

I started reading his blog a little while reading his book, and the personality is consistent in both realms. A little impetuous. A little emotional. Maybe a lot emotional. Unafraid to proclaim truth, unafraid to step on your toes. Compassionate, pursuing a version of Christianity that is more authentic than the pop culture version. think he would not mind to wound me, his book indeed does; but he would be immediately ready to help me heal from the wound.

Also, he’s bald, and I can identify with that.

Alas, he is in Louisiana and I am nowhere close.

Guyton’s book isn’t about drawing lines and calling people on either side wrong. In fact, that whole attitude is the polar opposite of the spirit of this book. It’s about living in the middle, accepting that you don’t know everything, and learning to live in community with other humans who, by virtue of being human, are exactly the same. It’s a lesson of grace and a bit of an indictment against imperialist controllers, told against a backdrop of Guyton’s own fascinating life journey and free admission of his faults. In doing this, he embodies the challenges he calls others to.

I will read it again. Maybe soon. There are pieces of wisdom in this book that I need to hold close, and I pray that they live in my mind and heart to participate in my own spiritual formation.

I'd heard so many good things about this book and yet the formatting was so difficult that I couldn't really enjoy the book.

Do you think sin is accurately defined as the failure to love?


The premise of this book is the above statement. When you take only portions of God word by your experience, you don't have the gospel. You have chaos and everything goes because it's all about the love. Don't get me wrong. Jesus commands us to love God and others. By loving God first. Take the first 3 commandments and you will be able to do the 7. But it's not that easy. That is why we need the righteousness of Christ. Our faith is based on what he has done and is doing. It is the only way we be righteous. Without the sovereignty of God, we have a God made in our own image.

Guyton does say some compelling ways that keeps us from loving others but nothing about how we keep from loving Jesus. By going our own way in the name of love.

I will always process the world as someone who grew up a moderate Southern Baptist, got saved by little girt in Mexico, learned social justice in dying mainline churches, received the gospel from an ordained lesbian Methodist minister, got my first prayer beads from an Orthodox priest, learned to fast from Thomas Merton, and started speaking in tongues at a Catholic mass, after thinking all my life that people who did were faking it. This is my journey

He claimed that God woke him up to social justice when a man using the "f" word. The word was typed completely which is the first for me reading a Christian book. God may get our attention in profound ways and maybe God is calling this guy an ass. But I don't think he would use the "f" word to do it. He doesn't need to. Because He is God and doesn't lower himself to our profanity. I don't get offended by others using profanity because that is the world we live in. But don't say God uses profanity. His example of the prosperity gospel in Bruce Wilkinson was a poor example when we have the likes of Joel Olsteen.

Don't waste your time and money on this.

A Special Thank You to Westminster John Knox Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review