Review of book: Reaching for the Invisible God

I’ve enjoyed Philip Yancey’s books. I found What’s so Amazing About Grace to be his best work. Reaching for the Invisible God poorly compares - impacted of its poor presentation and editing.

The use of poor grammar, poor word choice and poor illustration and poor analogy make Reaching for the Invisible God difficult to read. The gist is understandable by the reader, yet thoughtful editing would enhance the reader’s experience.

I have recorded some examples of poor word choice, poor grammar, poor illustration and poor analogy. For the ease of a reader’s reference, I found that I could draw all my concerns from a single chapter, Chapter Two. I've also included some other comments on the book:

Grammar/poor illustration/poor analogy (Chapter 2)

1.Poor link to subject

In the opening sentence of Chapter Two, the subject of the sentence is the author’s visit to Russia. The sentence then introduces a second subject; an Orthodox church service. One is then left pondering whether the latter part of the sentence is to the first subject, or the second subject :

“On a visit to Russia in 1991 I attended my first Orthodox church service, which is designed to express sensually the mystery and majesty of worship.”

The sentence is best re-written as two sentences:

On a visit to Russia in 1991 I attended my first Orthodox church service. Such services are designed to express sensually the mystery and majesty of worship.

2.Poor word choice

A mystic is a person who claims to have gained spirituality by some means other than through a religious path. The word mystic is therefore poorly chosen in:

“Every encounter is unique and individual, just like any meeting between two persons, so a fifth-century mystic or an illiterate immigrant may have a deeper knowledge of God than a twentieth-century theologian”.

If the reader takes the choice of the word mystic literally then this sentence serves a different purpose than the author intended. By such reading the sentence suggests that the twentieth-century theologian may have an impoverished knowledge of God. Presumably, that impoverished knowledge of God comes from improper or incompetent application of religious teaching.

From amazon.com.au

3.Poor illustration

A quote from Carl Sagan is compared to an illustration selected from Sagan's novel Contact. The comparison falls flat in that Sagan’s quote is to matters other than matters covered within the illustration. The quote is to that which is within the creation, whereas the illustration is to that which is creation.

Firstly, the quote from Sagan: it is offered by Yancey to the context of indicating that Sagan reckons that there is no God: “The cosmos is all there is and all there ever will be”.

Secondly, the illustration from the novel Contact: the discovery by the novel’s protagonist of extra-terrestrial life.

The protagonist’s discovery is intra-cosmos, whereas God is extra-cosmos. The illustration falls flat in that the discovery within the novel is incomparable to a discovery of God.

4.Poor analogy

In Chapter Two, the Turing test is described. In discussion of a worldly novel series; Conversation with God, Yancey suggests that “God would never pass the Turing test.” This is flappable as the Turing test’s binary selection of protagonist; a person or a machine, is fair removed from placing God into such a test as either a person or a machine. It is unfathomable to consider God – who is incomparable to both person and machine - as a protagonist in such a test.

Yancey in making the analogy has confused his subjects. Of God and the worldly-written Conversation with God, it is Conversation with God, not God, that would never pass the Turing test.

Other comments

5."Disadvantages" of Incarnation

While I respect Yancey for giving 'disadvantages' air quotes, I cannot welcome the notion that there are any disadvantages of the Incarnation. Yancey simply does not make the case (Chapter 11). Ironically, Yancey is dismissive of the most powerful aspect of the Incarnation - that of God interceding into the world in the flesh. That which the section indicates is powerlessness is powerful. It was frustrating to see the suggestion that Jesus "risked going unrecognized" when his mission cleverly crafted the moment to best reveal himself.

The frustration continues with this statement (comparing Christ to God in the Old Testament):

"Jesus orchestrated no lightning displays and no cloud of smoke 

surrounded him when he addressed the crowd"

Yet, Christ fulfilled prophesies of his mission perfectly (e.g. raised the dead, walked on water, multiplied food). It was the blindness of the people that caused them to look for "lightning displays and no cloud of smoke" when fulfilment of prophesy was on offer. See, for instance Jesus' response to John's disciples (John 7:22)

6.Mis-charactering C.S.Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

Screwtape is not "devil" but instead "Senior demon".

It is not a "mischievous fantasy" but a "Christian apologetic novel" (Chapter 15)

7.No, just no, absolutely not

I don't care to read: "Jesus himself had a loose reputation" (Chapter 17)

8.Factual error

No-on "rounded up witnesses to try to convince a once-blind man that he could not possibly see" (a reference to John 9 in Chapter 17). Instead, the evidence gathering was towards understanding how the man came to see. Indeed, the once-blind man is the one who does the convincing (see in particular John 9:27b)

This links from my Goodreads review of the book. 

Shalom,

Ozhamada

 

Note 1: Yancey bothers his reader in respect to Contact in that Yancey shares from both Sagan's book and the 1997 movie Contact  staring Jodie Foster. The discussion of the movie adds nothing to Reaching for the Invisible God.

 

Note 2: Nit-picky is an observation that Yancey has Turing writing his paper on the Turing test in 1950. The fairer comment is that Turing published the paper in 1950.