"It seems nearly heresy to explain the gospel of Jesus, this message an infinitely complex God has delivered to an infinitely complex humanity, in bullet points." Yet, as Miller explains with insight and humor, is all too common in today's society. People of all beliefs and agendas try to use God and Jesus to fight for their point of view and against all others, polarizing the world. This is not what Jesus taught. A true relationship with God is just that, a relationship, not a list of morality More...

In Searching for God Knows What, Miller unpacks why the Christian faith cannot be whittled down to a three-step self-help program or some simplistic mathematical formula comprised of a few mere propositional beliefs. I was amazed, honestly, at how deftly this book laid out so much of the thinking God has been instilling in my own life this year...in Miller's understanding (and I agree), everything goes back to a time before the fall, when man was still living in peaceful, right relationships wit More...

Donald Miller has once again written a book that brings you into a personal understanding of who Jesus is and the deep importance of loving everyone as He loves them. I personally resonated with his description of "life boat" politics and how Jesus never wanted us to be in the lifeboat. He constantly reminds the reader that Christianity is not something that can be understoof in a list of steps or through doctrinal "formulas." A look at scripture and how Jesus interacted with those around Him sh More...

These days I am afraid and ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian. I'm afraid because I know as soon as the word leaves my mouth I'll be associated with people who hate homosexuals and science classes, people who cast every vote as though abortion is the only issue, people who think God wants us to drop more bombs in Iraq because He only loves America. I'm ashamed because I don't do enough to counteract that stereotype. I don't explain that it doesn't matter to me whether homosexuality is sinful More...

He has a long section about Jesus that I remember liking. His lifeboat theory is what i remember most from this book. Basically that people feel more accepted when they are leaving someone else out. Your not in unless you can point to who is out. It makes you feel extra smug when there is some outcast you can concretely point to. Erik Erikson's theories of identity are in line with this. When you are forming your identity you need two things. A group of people you identify with, and a group of p More...

Donald Miller represents the worst aspects of religion. His stories are entertaining until he begins to preach about Jesus, then this book turns into a lesson in intolerance and looking down on others. The worst part is there's an entire chapter on not judging others, which Miller effectively undoes through his comments and attitudes towards other religions.

I really enjoyed this book. Miller shows that authentic Christianity is not a formula, but a relationship of love. He's an engaging, funny writer who shows very clearly that human beings are created for this relationship, and that most of what people do is out of longing for the validity and peace that only Christ can give us.

I would give the book 5 stars, but some statements Miller makes about the nature of truth can be misinterpreted in ways that are troubling to me.

But overall, this is a wel More...

Themes/things I gleaned:

We want the Bible to be formulas, but it's not.

Everyone wants to be validated, to feel important and valuable. Most everything humans do it about trying to get this kind of validation. But human love/validation has to be given again and again to give us a sense of security. God’s love, on the other hand, in the ideal state, would instill our souls with such affirmation we would need ntohing more and it would cause us to love others so much we would be willing to die for More...

As I read Donald Miller's Searching For God Knows What, I would set it down knowing that I was going to have conversations with people about what I was reading. Miller's content is challenging and his tone is genuine. I've got a friend who knows a whole lot more about the Bible and Jesus than I do, but whenever we talk about it, he pushes me and spurs me on to uncover truths from within me. He provokes self discovery rather than just rattling off the facts that I know he could recite. I've felt More...

The title Searching for God Knows What is really applicable to Donald Miller’s writing style — he sort of meanders and wends his way around everyday thoughts about Jesus and God, as well as deep theological ideas — which he manages to approach in a very accessible, self-deprecating, somewhat winsome style. It may not be for everyone, but I find it beautiful in its searching simplicity and humility.

A lot of what he talks about in this book has resonated deeply within me, and is related a lot to s More...

Where do I begin... First, this is the first Donald Miller book I've read. (It seems like every other reviewer has read Blue Like Jazz, so I feel obligated to admit I haven't.) Secondly, I really expected to -- and wanted to -- like this book. And I did like it, but only 3 stars' worth. Here's why.

The first thing is the writing style. I totally get that Miller wanted to be informal and conversational, but he spent so much time meandering around whatever topic was at hand that it drove me nuts. I More...

I had a hard time getting started with this book. The writing style is conversational, which is fine, but for some reason I couldn't "hear" the voice. He uses a lot of "I only bring this up because... on account of I couldn't do it... it's quite beautiful, really". It took some getting used to - possibly too West Coast for me! I finally pulled up a video of the author on YouTube and after hearing him the voice fell into place and quit being a distraction. Then I felt the book was very good.

This More...

I saw some great reviews for this one so i thought i'd pick it up, but the same kind friend that got me Blue Like Jazz beat me to it. Thanks again, B :) This was the second Donald Miller book i'd picked up, and i was really excited about it considering how much i liked Blue Like Jazz.

And i don't think i was all too disappointed by it. Its content was expectedly more theological than Blue Like Jazz, mostly because i think this was meant to be more of an explication of his spirituality/philosophy/ More...

This author annoys me.

I like his focus on the relational -- specifically, that it's all about having a relationship w/ Jesus. His love for Jesus shows.

Unfortunately, that love hasn't permeated his heart for how he writes about "the religious right" and FOX news and various strawman conservative views that he self-righteously bashes and knocks down. He caricatures these views (maybe from reading the NY Times . . . he doesn't seem to know a lot about conservative philosophy) while claiming that More...

The main premise, repeated ad nauseum, in Donald Miller’s Searching For God Knows What is that the Bible is relational – that is, not to be broken down into cheap bullet points and formulas. As one who’s long been frustrated with the fill-in-the-blank worksheets passed around at most of the church services I’ve attended (I rarely fill them out, preferring to get lost in the sermon and the atmosphere of church itself, as much as possible) I was intrigued by the theme and anxious to see what Donal More...

I like reading Donald's books. He does have a great way of writing that draws you into a conversation...one that you want to participate in. You come to appreciate his point of view and I think that he makes some fantastic points throughout the book, points that I will probably use myself at some point or another in conversation with others. That to me, means that he has written a good book and has, at least, good perspectives on certain things.

As I read it though, I did think about a couple thi More...

This is a revised, updated edition of the book. There's apparently also a lot you can do online (codes, anagrams, etc.) but I haven't done that--and probably won't; my brain doesn't seem to work that way.

This book's thesis is that we all need a relationship with God but that, because of what happened in the Garden of Eden, we don't have one. That causes us to look elsewhere for affirmation (friends, colleagues, etc.). I'm not sure I agree with the idea that we all can only function if we have so More...

Donald Miller is not content to follow the masses in regards to the Christian faith. He wants to help repair the broken views of our religion and bring believers back to a meaningful relationship with our true love, Jesus. Searching for God Knows What conveys the importance of this life-changing relationship while trying to expose what Christianity isn’t.
When I read Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, I devoured each page, excited to unexpectedly read thoughts so similar to mine. Searching for God Knows Wh More...

Donald Miller is a gifted and introspective writer. Unfortunately, I was expecting a bit more from this book I've heard so much about. For someone I've heard others refer to as a Christian intellectual, I was surprised that Miller would choose to model his voice after the character of Holden Caulfield - it took me a while to move past that. Actually, my friend just recently told me that he read only two books the whole time her wrote this book - one of which was 'The Catcher in the Rye'. I reall More...

I admit, the beginning chapters of this book by my favorite author, Donald Miller, were quite dry and bland for me, aside from his whimsical fancies of Genesis 1-2. With that said, the book definitely picked up for me about midway. It was then that I realized the profundity of what I was reading: Don shows how to see past ourselves and our objective thoughts in comparing ourselves to others to recognize that our relationship with Jesus doesn't work this way--that there is a grander and more beau More...

I call Donald Miller the Douglas Adams of Christian theology, and in “Searching for God Knows What,” his droll sense of self-deprecating humor combines with his passionate pursuit of the truth that Jesus intended through relationships, rather than through the lists and formulas Christianity is so often reduced to today. Less a theological tome, it reads more like a thoughtful all-night conversation with a witty buddy over wine, Chernobyl, aliens, and Shakespeare than a fiery pulpit sermon one mi More...

I'd forgotten some things about Donald Miller's writing...namely, that he uses so much exclusive language (man, He, etc), and that his style is so casual as to sometimes be boring and repetitive. The concept of the book--that God wants us to be in relationship, not to follow a formula for faith--is, I think, pretty much right on. Near the end of the book he says "When Jesus gets inside somebody, the first thing that starts happening is the person starts loving people regardless of their race, th More...

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller is a book intending to shake the traditional Christian’s belief about the way things are in many churches today. Miller is not apprehensive to knock organized religion. Being a Christian is all about relationship, about falling in love, about the person of God. The language, duties, ceremonies, etc that go with church are secondary. That idea is not new to me, but several insights in the book were.

This book was somewhat political. And political in a More...

Lately I've found trying to argue for/against a God with my atheists friends to be pretty challenging. After reading this one, I get the feeling that one of the big reasons why it's hard to argue propositionally for a God is because it's a relationship. You can't measure it with a Cosmo quiz. Trouble is, modern Christianity (and heck, the Pharisees... nothing changes) are obsessed with checklists and rules and spelling everything out.

Isn't love about a sort of loose interplay on each other's beh More...

I thought the first half of this book was amazing. I was recommending it to everyone I talked to. I still think everyone should read the first half, but it kind of went downhill from there for me. I thought his writing went from being insightful and inspiring to preachy and overreaching. The Romeo and Juliet chapter was interesting, but read more like a term paper than a published book and, in my opinion, didn't provide a strong finish to his writing. I really loved the parts about how we are al More...

I'm not sure what to say or think just yet. As a general rule I'm not a fan of the emergent movement. And really, I think a lot of the problems they have with Christianity end up getting rid of babies even as they toss the bath water. But all that said, let me be clear; there is something here. These guys often get labeled as against propositional truth. I'm gonna say I don't think mr. Miller, if. Read him right, is, saying that at all. I think he's rather saying that propositional truth can't More...

Having really enjoyed Blue Like Jazz, I decided to move on to Donald Miller's next book and was simply blown away.

Let me start by saying that I really like the way Miller writes because it almost seems like its his continuous thought process, straight from the heart, and put down on paper. Sometimes he jumps around from one thought to another seemingly without a connection, which might make some people think he is taking a bit of a meandering road to lead up to his point. But given that my thoug More...

This book really opened my eyes to see how we as humanity treat each other and how it all really goes back to the fall of Adam and Eve. The best analogy Miller puts in the book is about the lifeboat theory and it really sticks well in my head. How the "most important person, or the better looking person, or the richest person in the lifeboat should be able to live." He points out how sad it is that we have this hierarchy even within our Christian society and yet this is not how Jesus acted at al More...

I particularly liked this book because the author does not hold back on his willingness to go out on a limb then wrap it up in an easily comprehensible package that makes not good but great sense! I tripped out on the fact that he writes in a manner that my mind frequently operates in, different and bold about it. At times I was at the verge of skepticism, thinking that he may be a bit "out there", then Mr Miller would drive his point home beautifully. He is not held hostage "inside the box", th More...

This is the fourth book by Miller that I have read. I would give all of them 4-5 stars (if you haven't read A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, do it now). I almost want to give this book two stars. I can sum this book up for you in just a few words: don't use formulas to try to establish a relationship with God. Miller's point is well taken and could be made in four chapters instead of fourteen chapters. A few of the chapters were filled with examples and then Miller seemed to sum it up in jus More...