Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus

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Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus

4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 · rating details · 814 ratings · 160 reviews

Reading the Gospels without knowing the personality of Jesus is like watching television with the sound turned off. The result is a dry, two dimensional person doing strange, undecipherable things.

In BEAUTIFUL OUTLAW, John Eldredge removes the religious varnish to help readers discover stunning new insights into the humanity of Jesus. He was accused of breaking the law, k...more

Hardcover, 240 pages

Published October 12th 2011 by FaithWords (first published September 1st 2011)

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Dec 29, 2011 Ben De Bono rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: theology

John Eldredge has been an incredible influence on both me personally and on my ministry. Wild at Heart and Waking the Dead are two of the most powerful books I've ever read. I use both regularly in my teaching and have encouraged many other people to read them. While his others books aren't quite on the level of those two, I consider most of what he's done (while a bit repetitive at times) to be excellent and highly recommended.

In some ways Beautiful Outlaw continues that trend. There are parts...more

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Lindy Brown While the book may not seem like deep theology, it gives room for thought. This made me think about John 7:24 and how we are to look past appearances...more
17 de Ene 17:26

Ben De Bono Thanks for the comment, Lindy. I don't disagree with the gist of what you (or Eldredge for that matter) are saying. I certainly affirm that seeing Jes...more
17 de Ene 20:10

Apr 23, 2012 Alicia rated it 5 of 5 stars

As John Eldredge illustrates in his book Beautiful Outlaw, Jesus is God. And he is Man. That makes everything he did, is doing, and will do, so amazing. When he says, "there's not anything you could face that I haven't dealt with," he's not joking, or talking in some lofty God-above-it-all way. He's really been there.

Check out the rest of my review/reaction to Chapter 5: The Most Human Face of All at Tatter'd Pages

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Nov 28, 2012 Kevin Kirkpatrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I'm always on the look-out for good books. Since my teens years - where I finally woke from my stupor and started reading thereby reducing my deficit in knowledge that had really never risen since my drooling years - my reading tastes have changed. In the beginning I started out reading Science fiction and Fantasy (Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight sealed my fate as an avid reader) and gradually over time I expanded my interests into Fiction and Literature, Mystery, Thrillers, Non-Fiction and Histor...more I'm always on the look-out for good books. Since my teens years - where I finally woke from my stupor and started reading thereby reducing my deficit in knowledge that had really never risen since my drooling years - my reading tastes have changed. In the beginning I started out reading Science fiction and Fantasy (Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight sealed my fate as an avid reader) and gradually over time I expanded my interests into Fiction and Literature, Mystery, Thrillers, Non-Fiction and Historical Fiction/Non-Fiction and Dave Barry (he really should be a genre unto himself) but I never really got into Christian Fiction or Christian Living books until I discovered a copy of Left Behind quietly sitting on a shelf being rather tame; this of course was just before the series of Left Behind novels lit up like a neutron bomb. I have since been actively devouring Christian books, but always careful to make sure they adhere to Holy Scripture - at least as far as I was able to discern. There have been many that were ho-hum but quite a few that caused me many sleepless nights from turning their pages. Beautiful Outlaw was one of those.

It is an intriguing title, one that piques your interest because it hints at something scandalous. I believe that is what Mr. Eldredge is trying to achieve. I knew who the author was writing about because I am already familiar with his work. The subject of Beautiful Outlaw is Jesus - but a Jesus that most of the world is not aware of.

Beautiful Outlaw approaches the person of Jesus with new eyes. We are all well acquainted with the belief that Jesus was meek and mild and frail and almost skeletal as he hung on the cross. He is the one who gave us the Golden Rule and taught us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek and he is also the one who went to his death without one complaint forming on his lips. John Eldredge takes this overused and worn out image and wads it up and tosses it into the can. All I can say to this is, "About time!"

I have long held the belief that my Lord and Savior could not possibly be a frail, weak person to have changed the world like he has. He could not have endured the brutal punishment and torture for as long as he did without having a substantial amount of masculine might. In other words - my Lord was no wuss.

Beautiful Outlaw paints a marvelous picture of a Man's Man; someone with vast capacity to love and laugh and tease and explode in anger and shout down the establishment of his day. He was someone who didn't walk away from a fight, and in fact, he picked nearly every one.

That is a not wimp or push-over. He is someone to be reckoned with.

Another myth about Jesus that the author tackles is that because he is the Son of God, born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit, that somehow he cheated. He couldn't really be just a man and do everything that he did. Was Jesus just pretending when he showed himself to be a man? John Eldredge makes the argument that he was not pretending, or as he says in the book "like Einstein has dropped in to take the first-grade math quiz." Mr. Eldredge shows Jesus to be very much a man who did not raise his right hand while crossing the fingers of his left behind his back.

The heart of the book is the exploration of an aspect of Jesus that for centuries has been left wanting; that of his personality. If we are to accept the fact that Jesus didn't pretend but was in reality very much just a man, then we must also accept that as a man he had personality and a unique way of communicating and interacting with people that this world had never known before or since. The author leads us to think that Jesus is someone we would really want to hang out with.

I enjoyed this book immensely and it is stunningly refreshing in a world at a loss for how to take the person of Jesus. Because when you get right down to it - no one on the planet can ignore the man or how he changed everything. And since we can't ignore him, we might as well figure out who he really is and why he did the things he did. Beautiful Outlaw brings Jesus into new light and the man of Christ, is truly, beautiful to behold.(less)

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Apr 05, 2012 Abbie Riddle rated it 5 of 5 stars

This 18 part series is an excellent way to study the personality of Christ Jesus. Eldredge does this in a personal way that is very enjoyable for those involved. This would be an excellent DVD study for a small group at your church or for individuals in your home. I would recommend the book to read along with the study, though it is not required it will enhance the study as it will cause each individual to personally contemplate the chapter being studied prior to the lesson presentation.

I love t...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Robert Stump rated it 4 of 5 stars

Homo Homini Lupus
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/

What if Socrates wasn't the man that Plato portrayed him in those famous Dialogues? Would it matter at all if Socrates was the gruff, underhanded, arguing truth seeker of Attic fame? What about Diogenes, a lesser known figure, just as mythic; what if he never insulted Alexander the Great nor shook his lamp in the faces of passerbys in the Agora; would it matter at all? Let's go forward a number of years. Would it matter at all if the Borgia...more Homo Homini Lupus
http://manisawolftomen.blogspot.com/

What if Socrates wasn't the man that Plato portrayed him in those famous Dialogues? Would it matter at all if Socrates was the gruff, underhanded, arguing truth seeker of Attic fame? What about Diogenes, a lesser known figure, just as mythic; what if he never insulted Alexander the Great nor shook his lamp in the faces of passerbys in the Agora; would it matter at all? Let's go forward a number of years. Would it matter at all if the Borgia were not at all the historical caricatures that are now finding fame in popular novels and bad television? What if Lucretia were sweet and coy, Cesar magnanimous and merciful, and the old crooked Pope, a man of God; would it make the slightest difference, would it matter at all beyond butterfly effect speculation? What about George Washington? What if he didn't cut down any trees? What if Lincoln wasn't honest? Now what if your brother had a secret life, your husband a second wife, or if your father were a spy? What if all of the people around you weren't who you had been told all your life they were? Disconcerting?

What if Jesus wasn't the God you'd been told your whole life he was? More than disconcerting, upside down.

This is the basic premise of John Eldredge's Beautiful Outlaw, that the Jesus you have seen pictures of in Sunday School and been heard extolled from the pulpit is a mere shade of the reality. What if Christ was more than meek and mild, humble and compassionate, more than healing and preaching, more than fish and loaves? What if there were more to his personality than Sunday school lessons, and pictures of a white robed bearded man who never sweats or gets dirty and whom kids love? Wouldn't that reality alter the very fabric of Christendom; if Christ is not the God we've been told he is then all of the religious infrastructure needs to repent. We have been false prophets speaking honeyed words to Nebuchadnezzar and now we need Joel to cry out for the priests to rent their garments and weep for lost Israel.

This is where Eldredge begins his book at the precipice point. He gives a fleeting glance at the what if then dives off the edge and he asks the reader to come along. Eldredge argues the the Jesus of the church is two-dimensional, without any personality; soft and compassionate; and that for this reason when one who has bought into this false image reads the Gospel they miss the truth. They miss out on having Christ as their Lord, as their companion, as their Rabbi, because they have missed him completely. The outcome is much like using a Red Ryder BB gun to take down an elephant for no reason other than that I'd had that BB gun since I was a kid and didn't know any better. It's not effective or satisfying; it's just silly. The true Jesus, the Christ that Eldredge describes as cunning, fierce, and playful, when that guy is your boss, when he sends you out in his power. Imagine hunting squirrel. . . in an iron barrel. . . using a grenade launcher. It's effective, it is satisfying, and silly. Silly because no one needs that much power.

Eldredge is equal to the task that he sets before the reader in this work. He walks through each personality trait drawing samples from the Gospel accounts, snippets from the New Testament letters, and even some sage words from the Fathers and the saints. The writing is concise and clean. The narrative is playing and interspersed with a fair amount of anecdotes, from the Gospel accounts and from the author own life. Eldredge manages to clear away ages worth of rubble and whitewashing with his quick mind and deft storytelling. What it comes down to is a case study of the personality of Christ, and Eldredge has found him to be a beautiful outlaw indeed. We need more of this. Less of the other polished bourgeois buddy of hugs and potlucks.

4/5

Propter Sanguinem Agni,
RS

This book was provided to me free of charge by the publisher. They asked only for my honest opinion. Nothing weird or anything like that. I am only disclosing this information because it is illegal if I don't. I'm pretty sure that I would go to prison, probably for life, seeing how similar reviewing a product you are given for free under the guise of having purchased it yourself is very similar to murder. O laws, like whitewashed tombs! (less)

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Feb 09, 2012 Dave Anderson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very good book. Challenges Christians to live authentic Christian lives by moving away from religion and into a relationship. Eldridge encourages the reader to take a fresh look at how Jesus related to people as a part of his incarnation. He wants the believer to be rid of the stereotypical Jesus that is often depicted in so much of Christian art that tends to make him unapproachable or aloof.
Conversely, as one reads this book he must remember that Eldridge only relates the humanity of Jesus. A...more

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Dec 14, 2011 Ji Hye rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-inspiration

"Your brokenness and your sin are not things you overcome so that you can walk with God. They are the occasions for you to cry out for the life of God in you to rescue you."

A truly beautiful book, and the quote really does not do it justice. A lot of the main points were illustrated through stories and explanations; some of them too long to write down but each was impactful and powerful and awakened in me a desire to know Jesus as intimately as possible.

I didn't really agree with everything th...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Tina Simmons rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that I have always had a problem with Jesus. Historically, I read Him as being a little snippy. I preferred the Old Testament to the New. Old Testament God made sense to me. He said no, we did it anyway, we got blasted. Fair enough. Jesus, on the other hand, is much more unpredictable. I just didn't really know what to do with Him. This is not to say that I didn't read the New Testament, I just did so with a little trepidation and not as much open enjoyment. I heard John E...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars

In this newest book by John Eldredge, “Beautiful Outlaw”, he takes the life of Jesus and puts it all into context for us. He gives us who Jesus really is, more than just saying he is both God and human. Eldredge lays out that Jesus was not only human, but had real feelings, and was just like you and me.
I absolutely love how Eldredge uses the scripture and intertwines the stories and brings out the hidden treasures. He brings up a point in one chapter that when something is written, something be...more In this newest book by John Eldredge, “Beautiful Outlaw”, he takes the life of Jesus and puts it all into context for us. He gives us who Jesus really is, more than just saying he is both God and human. Eldredge lays out that Jesus was not only human, but had real feelings, and was just like you and me.
I absolutely love how Eldredge uses the scripture and intertwines the stories and brings out the hidden treasures. He brings up a point in one chapter that when something is written, something behind those written words get lost in translation. They just don’t get the same context as if you are looking at a person’s face. To actually be able to see Jesus’s playful nature in scripture was eye opening for me. I had always thought Jesus was just this straight laced guy who didn’t really joke around. Eldredge dumps that right out the window showing stories straight from the Bible that show he has quite the sense of humor!
The book goes on to show how Satan is using religion itself to poison the way we should be seeing Jesus. Do you pray “oh high and mighty God,” or do you pray “Abba, Father”? Jesus came so he could know us on a personal level. Eldredge says that most people find Jesus as they expect to experience Him. Most people set boundaries for Jesus, but Jesus wants to just be Jesus.
All we need to do is but to ask Jesus to show us who he really is. By doing so, it will be like when He turned those six stone water jars into 908 bottles of wine! Jesus came to set your heart free, to free us from the religious drapery.
This book is essential In opening your eyes and helping you to gain better insight into the stories in your Bible. Eldredge says “Jesus is not merely a figure for devotions, He is the missing essence of your existence… Whether we know it or not, we are desperate for Jesus”. He also states, “You are meant to share life with him – not just a glimpse now and then at church”. I couldn’t agree more.
To really know and understand Jesus at this level, frees you in ways that you would never think were possible. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You are meant to live in His truth. If you are struggling with who Jesus is, or with the loss of a loved one, this book is essential and will open your eyes to the healing Jesus has for you.
I urge all you who are debating on getting this book or not, to not hesitate. This book will change your outlook on Jesus, and He will change your life forever if you just let Him be Himself.
(less)

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Oct 10, 2011 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars

A wonderful, amazing glimpse into the heart of Jesus! I just finished this book last night. What an amazing reflection on the personality and heart of Jesus! I plan to reread this book many times to absorb all the wonderful, thought provoking, heart changing content. I have been challenged in my view of who Jesus is, and I have found myself falling in love with Him in new ways.

If you are a Jesus follower, this book will help you in becoming a more solid, dedicated, in-love-with-Him follower. If...more

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Sep 09, 2011 Jason Neff rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the most important books I've ever read, and possibly THE most important book. Eldredge captures the person of Jesus in a way I've never seen or heard from the church. He dispels common misconceptions about who Jesus is to us.

The book triumphs with an appeal to look at reading stories about Jesus within the context of his real personality. Otherwise we struggle to absorb a number of separated stories that cause our view of Jesus to be one of confusion. Picturing Jesus with a real...more This is one of the most important books I've ever read, and possibly THE most important book. Eldredge captures the person of Jesus in a way I've never seen or heard from the church. He dispels common misconceptions about who Jesus is to us.

The book triumphs with an appeal to look at reading stories about Jesus within the context of his real personality. Otherwise we struggle to absorb a number of separated stories that cause our view of Jesus to be one of confusion. Picturing Jesus with a real personality requires us to depart from what most of us have grasped in our Christian walk - Jesus walking along the streets with children running around him, a look of calm tranquility and peace always over his face. Jesus always passive or Jesus always severe in his dealings with people. If there are extreme attributes you've placed on Jesus that take away from his humanity and your relationship with him, they're most likely addressed here.

Imagine Jesus having a sense of humor. Can you? I admit that because my pursuits of Jesus are many times associated with needs or difficult times that humor never enters my mind. Jesus HAS humor. Eldredge shows you this here.

My primary take away from this book is that Jesus is knowable. He is a really fascinating and dynamic person, and wants to be intimate with you to a degree most of us have never thought possible. Seeing his personality makes me WANT to know him. It brings me out of this "he's up there, I'm down here" thought process that makes him feel far away and distant. I have to read this book again more slowly to fully appreciate the pictures painted about Jesus and the appeals to allow Him into your deepest places to give you life! But reading it once through was absolutely captivating. A stunning book.

Don't miss the opportunity to read this. If I could recommend one book for someone to read if they could never read another book again, this would be it. That's how amazing and influential it was.

P.S. - I caution you to read this book with the understanding that some of the notions you cling to about Jesus will be smashed. At first you may be offended at the feeling that your foundations are being attacked. I didn't have this problem because I don't center myself around Christians with extreme pop culture views of Jesus, but you may feel that way. Before you write it off as offensive, take a moment to ask God if your convictions are based in truth OR based in what you know because that's the community you live in. Have you just embraced what's been preached to you about Jesus all your life without actually stopping to think about whether or not its accurate? This book challenges that quite powerfully. I encourage you to embrace the "shake up" that you'll experience from this book. It's so true! So true. Did I mentioned I loved this book?(less)

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Oct 25, 2011 Geoffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Any Christian

Recommended to Geoffrey by: John Eldredge

I have finished Beautiful Outlaw and I am immediately rereading it. It is the best book I have ever read. That's not a line its the truth. Its like the crown being placed on the Kings head causing all the focus to be on Jesus, and at the same time makes Jesus closer and more available than ever. John Eldredge has crafted a compelling, insightful, and beautifully literate work on the personality of Jesus. I got a pre-release copy which I took on vacation. Some parts are so good that I laughed out...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Jason Cox rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian-living

Beautiful Outlaw was a wonderful book and one I highly recommend.

As a Christian, I find that I often lose sight of who Jesus really is. So much of what we see in our world today both secular and religious serves to put more distance between Christians and the One who gave His life for us. This book is John Eldredge's attempt to bring us back to a personal, intimate (close) relationship with Christ himself. And he does a great job by reminding us of who Jesus really was and is. It just makes it e...more Beautiful Outlaw was a wonderful book and one I highly recommend.

As a Christian, I find that I often lose sight of who Jesus really is. So much of what we see in our world today both secular and religious serves to put more distance between Christians and the One who gave His life for us. This book is John Eldredge's attempt to bring us back to a personal, intimate (close) relationship with Christ himself. And he does a great job by reminding us of who Jesus really was and is. It just makes it easier to love someone you know, doesn't it?

The book is really genius in that it is set up to dispel the misconceptions that we let creep into our knowledge of Jesus. Even in many (MANY!) churches, the religious attitude just creates distance because they portray Jesus as this untouchable. Perfection personified. Jesus WAS perfect, but His whole purpose of coming here was (and is!) to get close to us. To draw us to Him. While here, He was fully human and as such he had a personality! He was playful, cunning, fierce, humble and of course loving. He got mad at pious religious attitudes. In fact, that was the stuff that made Him maddest.

Beautiful Outlaw is a great exhibition of His personality through study of his words and actions in the scriptures.

This is a fairly short book, and it's broken int o17 short-ish chapters. Each chapter is focused on one aspect of Christ's character and how that affects us in our relationship with Him. How it draws us closer to him. Solidifies our relationship.

So much of society's "understanding" of Christ and Christianity is just so wrong. It's easy to see how the world looks at Christendom, just watch the news. Search for just about anything in Google and you'll find references. And let's face it, there is a fiercely negative attitude towards Christianity in society. Much, if not all, of that is really the fault of Christians. So many of "us" are so attached to the "religious structure" that we are effectively pharisees. More concerned about the appearance, but rotten to the core. How offensive is that to non-Christians? How offensive should that be to YOU? If more people just lost the "religion" and got down to the "relationship" with Christ, it would be so hard to have a hateful attitude towards Christ and all of us who are filled with His Spirit.

In the final chapters, Eldredge discuses the personal relationship we have with Christ and gives some useful guidelines to see where that relationship truly exists. It essentially comes down to the statement "You will know them by their fruit." There are good examples of how to use this which should help us not only improve our discernment about others around us, but also look into our own motivation. Are we doing it because we feel like we need to out of some religious structure, or are we doing it because of our true heart for Christ?

I'll be honest. There are a lot of Christians who may be offended by this book if they read it. Those are probably the people who are more tied to religion and ritual than an actual relationship with Christ. On the other hand, there are probably people who are not Christians who may read this book and be blown away by how wrong their understanding of Christ was. And how desirable He really is if you just let the rest go and start that relationship. That probably (sadly) goes for Christians, too.

Finally, I didn't actually read this book… I listened to the audio book through Audible. It is unabridged and is narrated by John Eldredge himself. Eldredge does a GREAT job narrating (he's been narrating his own audiobooks for years) and in the past, I've actually preferred the audio versions to the paperbook versions slightly. Just because his intonations make every joke and playful comment perfectly clear. I "get" a lot of that in reading the books, too, but maybe that's true for me because I have listened to the audiobook version of other books in the past.(less)

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May 15, 2012 Brian Robbins rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: theology

There were some good features about this book, but overall it was seriously marred by issues related to style, content and manner of argument.

On the plus side there were 3 particular areas of strength:

1) He validly challenged two widely accepted misunderstandings that can have profound affects on the possibility of developing deep relationships with God.

Firstly, the often anaemic, uninspiring & remote vision of Jesus. created by a failure to appreciate and represent the full and authentic...more

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Steve aka Sckenda Brian wrote: "Interesting point Steve. I was brought up with a very traditional Irish catholic background which stressed a highly ethereal, pious (in...more
updated 16 de May 07:22

Brian Robbins It was catholic influences which helped me initially break-through the Jesus image I grew up with, and also the negative, black & white dogmatism...more It was catholic influences which helped me initially break-through the Jesus image I grew up with, and also the negative, black & white dogmatism I also grew up with. At college in the late seventies, priests & lecturers working from the Vatican II documents & very much influenced by Rahner & Schillebeeckx opened up the richness of living faith. For me the great breakthrough was reading Schillebeeckx's "Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God".

But when I moved away from that, back into a parish in the North which was highly conservative and relatively untouched by V II (a nun of my acquaintance decribed it beautifully as a blue rinse parish - does that translate ok?) and the Catholic Hierarchy became more & more revisionist, I found I had a faith without a home, and ended up eventually through a combination of circumstances in the Methodist Church.

I act as a local preacher there, but many good Methodists might be shocked by how many RC influences are brought to bear on them. My favoured spiritual reading remains Gerard Hughes, Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, Schilleebeckx,Jean Vanier, Carlo Caretto alongside writings by members of the ecumenical Iona Community. My first stop biblical commentary remains The New Jerome. This is fleshed out with other writers of other denominations & a good dose of Quaker "Faith & Practice" - I have some sympathy with their wariness about defining doctrine rigidly - it's all too small to contain the richness it touches on + they have a spirituality that in a peculiar sense joins up with the insights of many of the Catholic writers I admire -that all life is sacramental.

I admire people like yourself, who as liberal Catholics remain within the RC Church, and i also am grateful for the riches its given to me, but I haven't been able to remain within it.

That's a very long way round to the point you make about the basis of sincere religious belief, but maybe it illustrates the cultural influences that have affected me.

There are times where I would appreciate more gentleness & sense of a shared journey & search for truth within my own church, (there are those in it who take a very literalist view of scripture & who distill a thin & simplistic moral view & spirituality from it, and who contend in strident terms 'I'm right, you're all wrong') & in the overall Christian Church. In so many contexts Christians are reduced to a matter of polemics.(less)
18 de May 12:17

Nov 02, 2011 Ben Hobson rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book examines Jesus in a way I haven't seen any other book attempt, let alone accomplish.

I've often struggled with the many faces of Jesus. In certain sections of the New Testament he can appear aloof, uncaring, overly harsh or even critical. At other times he is soft, placid, and, dare I say, dull. This is not the historical Jesus, the real Jesus, the flesh and blood man who died on the cross. The real Jesus had much more to say in the way that he said things. Eldredge's book looks at this...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Matt Hill rated it 3 of 5 stars

*epic* by the same author is a great book . . so little, so concise, it touches on something very important that not a lot of people think too much about and presents it really well (the whole you're part of God's big redemptive plan for the universe which is more like a big *story* than anything else, etc. etc.) . . this book, on the other hand, didn't do much for me . . i'd read other things by this author too (sacred romance, bits of other things) and he's a little touchy-feely for my taste a...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: twentyeleven, i-recommend-it, favorites

I have to search for words to really explain what this book has done for me. It is broken into two parts - the first half of the book is an exploration of the personality of Jesus & the second half is a more practical, hands on "how" of sorts on letting Jesus be himself in your life. Both parts of the book are excellent. However, for me, it was the first half of the book that reignited my love for Jesus. It made him come alive to me in ways I had never noticed before while reading scripture....more

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Dec 29, 2012 Matthew rated it 5 of 5 stars

I strongly recommend this book, both for those who have known Jesus all their lives and those who are seeking God for the very first time. Either way, this book will help you to discover/remember the wonderful vibrancy of Him, the beautiful outlaw. You will especially enjoy this book if you have been avoiding "religious people" because of hypocrisy or judgmental attitudes -- this book gets to the heart of who God is and why that should matter to us. For me, reading this book was like listening t...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Ali rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Christians, the curious

Recommended to Ali by: A good Christian friend

This book provides a very interesting view of Jesus. The author encourages us to cast aside the "religious fog" and find the real spirit of Jesus. Some of the messages in this book were tough for me to consider. As a Catholic, I know that my church puts a lot of distance between us and the Lord. Sometimes, we don't even pray directly to him out of reverence! I may not have fully agreed with Eldredge's view of religion as skewing our image of Jesus. However, one message stood aside for me: The au...more

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Oct 02, 2011 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: religion, review-copy

Beautiful Outlaw, by John Eldredge is almost like two books in one. The first half takes you through different personality traits of Jesus, emphasizing how human he was and how loveable his personality is. The second half is about us, how we can respond to this Jesus and live more fully through Him. Sprinkled throughout are Bible versus that help support what he is saying/illustrating. While I enjoyed the first chapters, the chapter about Jesus’ “Disruptive Honesty” really stuck out for me. Espe...more Beautiful Outlaw, by John Eldredge is almost like two books in one. The first half takes you through different personality traits of Jesus, emphasizing how human he was and how loveable his personality is. The second half is about us, how we can respond to this Jesus and live more fully through Him. Sprinkled throughout are Bible versus that help support what he is saying/illustrating. While I enjoyed the first chapters, the chapter about Jesus’ “Disruptive Honesty” really stuck out for me. Especially in the politically correct world we live in, I have never really equated honesty with love before. John takes us through different scenarios of Jesus correcting people. He says: “The man [Jesus] shoots straight. Sometimes he’s playful; sometimes he’s fierce; the next moment he’s generous. This is the beauty of his disruptive honesty—you can count on Jesus to tell you the truth in the best possible way for you to hear it.” (P. 71) I had never thought that Jesus was tailoring his rebukes towards the heart of the recipient before, or that rebuke can be an act of love.
The second half of the book really picked up for me. I Love how John is willing to wage battle against religion (even current-day religiosity) warning us of the dangers of crowding Jesus out with fake rules and practices. The following quote also resonated with me, as I look back on my youth-group days with much of the same feelings. “The campus ministry [my friend] had joined shortly after coming to Christ was – sadly—deeply infected with the religious. They did not teach the availability of an intimate relationship with Jesus. Focus was on consistent Bible study, witnessing, good morals. Motivation was largely pressure and guilt. A kind of Christian Islam. The fruit was that most of its disciples did not experience Jesus, did not believe in anything supernatural, and lived under a cloud of pressure and guilt.” (p. 187) I think most kids in my generation felt this way. I wish more youth leaders- and pastors for that matter spent more time cultivating knowledge and expectations of relationships with Jesus than they do on activities and pressures to witness to friends. (This is not the majority of the second half of the book- it’s just something that has stuck with me personally)
John wraps his book up with a chapter called “one last thought” and I hope that everyone will read it. After showing us who Jesus is, and then helping us understand how we can respond to that, he leaves us with a few last words… mostly of encouragement, but also of warning. A warning that life will still continue to be hard and that suffering will almost certainly happen. He encourages us to cling tightly to Jesus, especially through the pain and hard-times. I have been a Christian for a very long time, and while I felt acquainted with most of the concepts in this book, there were some new ones for me, and I am left with a deeper expectation/hope of relationship with Jesus, right now, this side of heaven; and for that, this book is worth the read.
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Oct 11, 2011 Tom Roepke rated it 5 of 5 stars

this is john's best effort yet.

"Reading the Gospels without the personality of Jesus is like watching television with the sound turned off."

"The ravages of sin, neglect, abuse, and a thousand addictions have left us all a shadow of what we were meant to be. Jesus is humanity in its truest form. His favorite title for himself was the Son of Man. Not of God – of man."

"Sadly, for too many people, the Christ they know is too religios to love, too distant to experience and too rigid to be a sour...more

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May 21, 2012 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars

I hesitate to say that any book, other than the Bible, is life changing, but this book helped me to look at Christ in a different light. I had seen many of his statements as kind of unkind. I knew that wasn't the case, academically, but I couldn't reconcile the word that I read with what I had be taught of the character of Jesus. This book helped me to see the context in which Jesus said them and how they would have been received by those to whom he spoke.

Thanks again John for this wonderful bo...more

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Nov 27, 2011 Patrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

John Eldredge's latest looks at the personality of Jesus. It looks at the events as recorded in the Bible and he says "now what kind of person would do that?" His answer is a playful, disruptive, and extravagant person. Looking at Jesus' personality, John goes on to say that He is someone we can fall in love with.

This book changed how I think of Jesus. I no longer think of Him as an unapproachable God, but as God who wants me to know Him and to be friends with Him. I now want Jesus to shine thr...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Ashley Hansgen rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book was really well written and offered an interesting look into the personality of Jesus and how we may become closer in our personal relationship with Christ. One negative of the book was the plethora of persitent jabs at organized religion which were prevelant throughout. Although I see his point, it seems that the author had a bone to pick based possibly on previous circumstances which the other used the platform of this book to vent. Although a little over the top in this one aspect, t...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Malin Friess rated it 1 of 5 stars

Eldredge's "Beautiful Outlaw" is a one of many recent books that likes to emphasize that Jesus was counter-cultural (Blessed are the poor, the meek, etc), subversive (in Mark Jesus heals but then proclaims, "don't tell anyone what I have done"), and Scandalous (he had dinner with thieves and tax collectors and allowed a prostitute to wash his feet with her hair). So this is a long line of more progressive evangelical books that focus on Jesus and deemphasize "religion" or otherwise known as "Eme...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Dara rated it 5 of 5 stars

I wondered, "How could John Eldredge possibly come up with something more brilliant to say than what he's already written?"

Well, he did.

The Sacred Romance changed my life, my spirituality. And now, having read Beautiful Outlaw, my relationship with Jesus has taken on a richer and more meaningful dimension. It's reality, not "religious fog." God is not that corner of the ceiling that I pray to, as C. S. Lewis pointed out. He is a man. A playful and fierce, generous, honest, and humble man. And he...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Barbara Ell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, christian, non-fiction, written-reviews

I received this as a GoodReads First Read.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It made me think of Jesus in a different way, which is always good. Looking at my own life, I know God has a sense of humor, but reading some of the Gospel stories and finding that humor within, I never thought to do so.

The one issue I had was that the later chapters seemed to jump around quite a bit, and it was hard for me to focus. I have decided though to set the book aside and maybe pick it up again in a...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Christel Lim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's a great book which challenges the religious fog which has unwittingly clouded our minds. The analysis done for bible stories open up a whole new way of reading the bible. It gives reading the bible stories something it has always lacked - the presonality of Jesus.

The personality of Jesus has always been missing for such a long time. Some preachers do not even do justice when they read or tell a bible story as it is usally done without Jesus' personality in it! We've been watching a movie w...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Joon Park rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian

John Eldredge, the manly man's author of Wild At Heart and Captivating, has written quite a manly work on Jesus. It's a frustrating, if at times well-written and unique journey, into the life of the most famous person in the history of the world. Such a daunting task is not lost on Eldredge, who bypasses the scholarly doctrine and gets right at the heart of Jesus, not always successfully.

We often project our own personality onto Jesus himself, as argued by Scot McKnight and counter-argued by N.T...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Hillary rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: deep-imagination, self-help

The first fifteen chapters of this book all come down to basic knowledge. I know Jesus was truth, I know he was generous, holy, beautiful, etc. I've always known this. Usually Eldredge captivates me with his methods right from the very beginning but I struggled through much of this book. Then towards the end, he dives into the application aspect of knowing who Jesus is and understanding how to let that Jesus be the life in you. And I admit, I cried through most of it. Among many other great conc...more The first fifteen chapters of this book all come down to basic knowledge. I know Jesus was truth, I know he was generous, holy, beautiful, etc. I've always known this. Usually Eldredge captivates me with his methods right from the very beginning but I struggled through much of this book. Then towards the end, he dives into the application aspect of knowing who Jesus is and understanding how to let that Jesus be the life in you. And I admit, I cried through most of it. Among many other great concepts, he focuses on the idea that "you find Jesus pretty much as you expect to." So what is it about your expectations that has placed limits on the "Lord of Life" in you?

I've grown up nurturing a very legalistic limited faith. My heart just aches for all those years I didn't understand why I had to do things I did (like only being proud of my faith when it was spent in 2 hr Bible Studies starting at 4am or when I burned all my secular music so Jesus would hear me when I prayed about which church to go to) and those are just the very basics. I've always had this fear that Jesus was already disappointed in me, so I had to try to make things better by trying to be like him. Eldredge says to just stop that.

"[...] few things can mess you up as badly as trying to do your best. For the tender heart, the earnest heart, it is so discouraging to give all you have trying to do what you think Jesus would have you do, and find yourself falling short, sabotaging your own efforts at every turn. Discouragement and shame settle in like a long Seattle rain." p.202

"The blossom of your humanity is the life of Jesus in you." p 204

"If you want the real deal, if you want to experience the lush, generous, unquenchable, unstoppable life of Jesus in you and through you, then surrender your self-determination."

Well, I could go on, but it comes down to this beautiful sense of freedom that I am already beautiful to Jesus and with him through me, I need nothing else. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with checklists, regulations, orders and trying too hard. (less)

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About John Eldredge

John Eldredge is an author (you probably figured that out), a counselor, and teacher. He is also president of Ransomed Heart, a ministry devoted to helping people discover the heart of God, recover their own heart in his love, and learn to live in his Kingdom. John grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles (which he hated), and spent his boyhood summers on his grandfather’s cattle ranch in eastern Ore...more

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Books by John Eldredge

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive

The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We Always Dreamed of

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“He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is cunning as a snake and gentle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road.” — 11 people liked it

“Now yes, yes, creation sometimes screams a confusing message—fear, pain, grief. Fire burns, rivers flood, winds go hurricane, the earth shudders so hard it levels cities. But you must remember—this was not so in Eden. Mankind fell, surrendering this earth to the evil one. St. Paul says that creation groans for the day of its restoration (see Rom. 8:18–22), making it clear that everything is not as it was meant to be. People come to terrible conclusions when they assume this world is exactly as God intended. (An assumption that has wrought havoc in the sciences.) The earth is broken.
Which only makes the beauty that does flow so generously that much more astounding. And reassuring.” — 3 people liked it

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