Book Review: Religion Saves by Mark Driscoll
Religion Saves
by
Mark Driscoll
- ISBN-10: 1433506165
- ISBN-13: 9781433506161
Religion Saves should be a shocker for many people. Subtitled “nine other misconceptions”, Religion Saves (henceforth RS) is hard-hitting, classic Driscoll.
One can almost hear him preaching. Driscoll’s personality does not ooze through this book. It rushes through it like white water rapids. The book is blunt, to the point, funny, at times course, and very relevant.
Driscoll deals with Calvinism (he is a Calvinist), birth control, humor (he loves it and uses it well), grace (he loves it but struggles with it as most humans do), sexual sin and bondage to it (very empathetic to those who struggle, yet he stands firmly against sin), faith and works, dating, the emerging church (what is is and is not), and the regulative principle of worship.
My favorite chapters were the ones on the emerging church and the regulative principle of worship. Driscoll covered the emerging/emergent issue well. I believe he covered it fairly and with class. The regulative principle of worship is one that most people would never consider. RS certainly gives it good coverage. There’s a certain appreciation Driscoll expresses for the regulative principle, but shows that it is logically inconsistent and almost legalistic.
One thing hit my funny bone and still has me laughing: Driscoll’s balancing of kindness with firmness. “Indeed we are to be ‘kind one to another,’ which means that Christians should be kind to other Christians, but apparently if someone wants to say that we need Jesus plus something else for our justification (e.g. circumcision for the Judaizers in Galatia) then we should also mock them and ask them to cut their whole pickle off and attend Bobbit Bible Church as a sign of true varsity religious devotion.”
That being said, I think Driscoll becomes a little too plain at times. I do not think his joke about masturbation is a good one. I also think that he goes beyond the bounds of propriety with that. I also found myself feeling that he went into overkill with his information on birth control. He could have stated his case better with the same amount of information, but less detail.
In the end, the book is a good one. I shall give it four out of five stars.