Book Review of Brad Jersak's 'A More Christlike God' (available here).
I recently had the chance to do an early review of Brad Jersak’s latest book “A More Christlike God”. Brad is also the author of Her Gates Will Never Be Shut and co-editor (as well as writing a piece) of Stricken by God.
From the onset, Brad offers something different for the reader—that being, simplicity. In an age of overabundant theological statements, Brad manages to engage the reader from almost any intellectual background—offering much overlooked definitions for terms we may take for granted. Jersak begins laying out his systematic theology by describing the attributes of God. The simplest of statements manages to carry as much weight as the title of the book. “Through Christ, we can know God”. Sure the first thought is “get saved”, but that’s not what Brad is getting at here. "Through Christ” means by his works, his words, and his way—or in other words, literally the person of Christ is the full revelation of God.
Not shying away from the oft asked questions about the existence of evil, how a good God can allow suffering, Brad navigates these topics skillfully, reminding the reader that the age-old questions of pain are nothing new to man. Immediately dealing with the “go-to” questions of modern Christianity (those often thrown out about rape or murder) Brad offers in a conversational way, a peace that reassures the reader, God is not the God of atrocity. The subtle reminder that “we worship ourselves via an image of God we create out of our own temperament.”—maybe not so subtle—but oh so true. We’ve all erected an idol in our own image and called it God, be it the God of exclusion, rejection and fear, or the God of murder, rage and violence.
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