Amazing Grace [Paperback]

Amazing Grace often left me sad, though, since Norris's understanding of Christianity, Scripture, and religion are so modified by her own desires. This is an interesting book about religion, and much of it is very good, but unfortunately large parts of it are not true. Norris seems to like the idea of religion in general (leaning toward Christianity, but finding other religions more or less equally true), but she has a lot of "escape hatches." Particularly since she sees no need for Scripture to be "literally" true, but rather poetically true--apparently just a guide to religious experience--she can explain away the hard passages. But without the hard passages, the beautiful ones lose their power also. Without the beautiful ones--for example, eternity, grace, and God's absolute holiness--Christianity isn't worth the work. Because indeed Christianity is not a "pretty" religion that's always fun, with converts always getting along in perfect harmony and experiencing full joy and wonderful lives. But without hard truths like the damnation sin deserves, grace is meaningless.

It was odd to see a Buddhist quoted about his feelings about John 14:6 (Jesus' assertion that He is the only way to God, He is the truth, and He is the life). A Buddhist has by definition rejected John 14:6, and thus his feelings about its "niceness" are irrelevant. Similar "all religions have the same meaning and the same ultimate end" passages appear throughout the book. But religions are not all the same; they contradict each other on the most important points, and insisting there's no big difference between them is saying it doesn't really matter whether or not a religion is true.

Christianity isn't about calming our troubled psyches with charming music and religious gatherings; it isn't even about how we define words (although that is important). But it is about truth-and the truth is that Jesus Christ has offered us truly amazing grace, forgiveness to cancel even the greatest sins we have done. This book takes the reader only partway, and that may be a valuable service as long as the reader doesn't stop only partway but takes the next step. The next step is to read what the Bible itself says.

Start with what it says about Jesus. He's not at all the way you've pictured Him, if you've never read the Bible for yourself. (If you haven't read the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, start with one of them.) For one thing, Jesus had no sympathy for organized religion that avoided truth, failed to love people, and justified its followers' own pet sins. He got in trouble with religious leaders because He showed love and forgiveness to very sinful people (prostitutes, tax collectors who cheated innocent citizens, etc.). In fact, the religious leaders were the ones who got Him killed-which should say something about how far from a vaguely spiritual "all religions are equal" He must have been!

Kathleen states that one of the things that keeps her rooted in the Presbyterian Church is the fact that a "brilliant clergywoman is the president of one of our largest seminaries." While women can be good leaders, choosing your church based on the sex of the people in charge is hardly the sign of someone earnestly seeking the objective truth of God. You will find this underlying current of feminism throughout this book.

As a sample, Kathleen's essay on "Grace" has stunningly little to do with actual grace. Kathleen devotes less than two pages to the term "grace" and never clearly defines the term, nor mentions Jesus Christ. The true meaning of grace is 'unmerited favor from God' - it is a gift of God and cannot be earned. Yet Kathleen implies that it can be earned by our human potential for good. She meanders on about God not punishing Jacob "as he lies sleeping because He can see in him Israel, the foundation of a people." She states that God didn't pour His wrath out on Peter or Saul because "God could see the apostles they would become." She even goes so far as to state that "We praise God not to celebrate our own faith but to give thanks for the faith God has in us." What does this have to do with Grace? This is all so Biblically incorrect it is irritating.

And let's look at the true meaning of faith found in Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." God loves us, and created us. But why would God ever have faith in us? What could He be certain of that He could not see? What could He hope for when He directs our every step and knew every thing we would do before we were even born? He sees our innermost thoughts; He searches our hearts and minds. There are many scriptural facts to be found in the Bible about God's relationship with man, but I have never run across anything even remotely suggesting that God has faith in us.

Amazingly enough, this definition of faith found in the book of Hebrews isn't mentioned even under the chapter entitled "Faith." About the only truth in this atrocity is that faith is a verb - it is action. Yet Kathleen rambles on about her encounter with a Lutheran bishop who was somewhat mean and unsympathetic to her and a letter from a monk that helped her greatly. It is hard to gain any true insight into what faith really is in this misdirected personal commentary.

This is just a sampling of the Biblically unsupportable writing Kathleen has to offer under the title Amazing Grace. This is too bad, really, as the concept of this book had promise. Clearly identifying the true Biblical meaning of Christian terms would be helpful to many earnest seekers of Christian Faith.

Let me say that Kathleen does seem sincere. But it is possible to be sincere and yet mistaken. The Bible tells us to test everything to the scriptures and this book just doesn't hold up. If you are looking for the truth, I would suggest this be one of the last places you look, and preferably not at all.