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Idiot, Sojourning Soul: A Post-Secular Pilgrimage
What is “Christianity”? What’s it supposed to be? In a world where Trump, Obama, Putin, and Lady Gaga all claim Christianity as their spiritual home, it’s not an easy question to answer.
Part memoir, part historical-theological analysis, Idiot, Sojourning Soul tells the story of one former skeptic’s exploration of Christian spirituality. Justin Rosolino was raised in a post-Christian context where all gods were up for grabs and all truth-claims equally dubious. While studying political theory in college, Justin found himself drawn to the writings of Augustine, Kierkegaard, and Martin Luther King Jr. Much to his surprise, he resonated with their profoundly Christian accounts of human nature, desire, lack, and love.
With wit and scholarly precision, Idiot examines Christianity’s historical development, from its ancient beginnings to its current and confounding condition. The result is a must read for anyone who’s ever wondered what Jesus was really up to, and why contemporary Christianity bears so little semblance to its namesake.
Part memoir, part historical-theological analysis, Idiot, Sojourning Soul tells the story of one former skeptic’s exploration of Christian spirituality. Justin Rosolino was raised in a post-Christian context where all gods were up for grabs and all truth-claims equally dubious. While studying political theory in college, Justin found himself drawn to the writings of Augustine, Kierkegaard, and Martin Luther King Jr. Much to his surprise, he resonated with their profoundly Christian accounts of human nature, desire, lack, and love.
With wit and scholarly precision, Idiot examines Christianity’s historical development, from its ancient beginnings to its current and confounding condition. The result is a must read for anyone who’s ever wondered what Jesus was really up to, and why contemporary Christianity bears so little semblance to its namesake.
344 pages, Paperback
Published January 29, 2020
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January 8, 2021
I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Part memoir; part church history; part theological exploration. All in all, a delightful read. Rosolino uses a highly informal writing style (gonna, kinda, sorta, etc.) which I found somewhat distracting, but I loved his honesty and humour. I also enjoyed his synthesis of diverse voices from ancient to present times. I’m the sort of reader who reads footnotes, and 1000+ of them impressed me.
The book was birthed in a baccalaureate address Rosolino delivered to a graduating class of high school students in, somewhat ironically, the Bible belt of the southern United States. The speech contrasted the message Jesus came to bring on living – here and now – in the Kingdom of God, lived out by the early disciples and followers of “The Way,” to present day America, characterized by rugged individualism, a resistance to authority, and a certain way of reading and interpreting Scripture.
In this culture, the gospel, or salvation message, has been reduced to a transaction, and possibly worse, a one moment event that has no bearing on our lives. As Rosolino puts it, “the tendency [is] to reduce ‘following the Way’ to a momentary decision made in response to a stirring sermon: ‘Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible).” Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), an American Reformed theologian, called this transaction an “artificial minute for our soul’s salvation.”
A pivotal figure in Rosolino’s journey was Chuck Klosterman, an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture and the crisis of belief, where we believe in a little of everything, afraid to be wrong, or worse yet to be seen as dogmatic and too certain of ourselves. Rosolino writes, “Most of us are as repelled by religious fundamentalism as we are scientism, both of which claim to enjoy direct, unfiltered access to infallible knowledge. We don’t really buy into either camp, although we suspect they’re both partially true. And let’s face it: atheism is too much of a commitment. So we go on doubting the absolute claims of religion, even as we doubt our own doubts. This is our lot, we pilgrims of the twenty-first century."
Rosolino, reminiscent of folks like Augustine and C.S. Lewis, describes his slow, arduous journey to faith. Not that Rosolino had all the answers when he made the leap. He writes, “At bottom, I wasn’t afraid to believe because I thought God might not be there. I was afraid because I thought God would be.” Finally moving past that hurdle, Rosolino simply made the decision. He writes, “I still had doubts and questions. But I couldn’t shake the sense that Jesus was really there, crucified and alive. Somehow, in all that wandering I had begun wondering; in the wondering I had begun wanting; in the wanting I had begun seeking; in the seeking I had begun believing; and in believing I was already loving.”
As Rosolino began his Christian journey, the Bible was more problematic than helpful. Being a Biblicist or “Bible-only-ist” ultimately didn’t work for him, and Rosolino makes a good case for such a literal, inerrant view of the Bible as being a relatively modern invention, writing, “biblicism is more novelty than orthodoxy.” The Bible is idolized, making “the essential ‘it’ of conservative Christianity… neither Christ, nor belief in Christ, but belief in the Bible – a book about Christ. And if the Bible can be shown to contain even a hint of ambiguity or inaccuracy, then Christ can’t be the real deal. The stakes are that high.”
Rosolino turned to modern biblical criticism, through which scholars scrutinize Scripture, analyzing it as they might any ancient text. This also created issues: “Because for all its conscious commitment to intellectual honesty, historical criticism offers no more clarity than conservative biblicism.” The scholars did not agree, and “to this day, historians keep coming up with various, often mutually exclusive versions of the ‘real historical Jesus’ based on their own research.”
The author decided he needed “some new and informed voices in the conversation. A fresh perspective.” And where did he search for it? “Among the dead!” Among the early church fathers and mothers. In doing so, he had to push past our modern tendency to think that we are the enlightened ones, and that our forebears were crude, unsophisticated and, well, wrong. He found that these “saints” considered multiple interpretations of Scripture, including but not limited to the literal one. In other words, the “single meaning theory” had to go.
Ultimately, Rosolino came to adopt what he called a Jesus-shaped, or Christological, lens, borrowing it from ancient interpreters who didn’t have our modern bias for reading things literally, as true or false. It means not only that Jesus is God, or Jesus is like God, but that “God is like Jesus, the visible embodiment of invisible divinity, a window into the heart and mind of the hidden God... In other words, the most authentic, accurate, penetrating way to think about God is to think christologically. God is like Jesus.”
Rosolino came to see “the final flaw of fundamentalist biblicism: it encourages people to presume the purity of their own interpretive motives, all while holding other interpretations (and interpreters) in suspicion – maybe even contempt.” And thus we come to need community for the best biblical interpretation. Even Luther, in his famous stand for Sola Scriptura, believed it had to be a communal affair. “For the early Protestants, biblical interpretation was a public, churchwide endeavour.”
The philosophy of materialism was also addressed by Rosolino, and linked to the incarnation. “The incarnation means matter isn’t fundamentally flawed,” and “it spells the ultimate validation of embodied existence, of ‘real life’ in the Real World… the incarnation tells us that God has chosen to entwine his own story with ours and bind his fate to our own. That’s what we discover in Jesus.” The implications? “The incarnation calls us to be fully present and immersed in reality.”
Rosolino then takes a deep dive into science and evolution, which was not initially thought of as a threat to the creation story. The greatest challenge, even now, is in the randomness of evolution. Rosolino describes the impasse as follows: “if you’re a strict Darwinian naturalist, then you’re at odds with one of Christianity’s central claims – namely, that the Kingdom of God is coming, no matter what. That’s certainly what the Christian creeds propose, as do Jesus parables.” And, “so much of what Jesus said and did presupposed a God who was actively involved in the Real World… He was both proclaiming a new reality and accomplishing it – bringing it into being – which is why he and his followers talked about history as if it were an unfurling story whose conclusion had already been written.” To summarize, “In the end, the real bone of contention between creationism and evolution is chance, not change.”
From there to an anlysis of how evangelicalism became fundamentalism, which was primarily an American phenomenon. He covers Social Darwinism and the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. For the small but vocal minority, winning the culture war became their everything, not considering that “Jesus’ victory was won through longsuffering and love, not political coercion. His was a triumph ‘from below,’ not a theocratic decree ‘from above.’” Rosolino makes a good case for the fact that the Bible was never meant to be a rule book, or scientifically or historically accurate textbook. He echoes early fundamentalists like George Frederick Wright that, “The utterances of the Bible are not infallible except as pertaining to things ‘necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation.’”
Rosolino does not find God, faith, and the Bible to be “self-evident truths,” and states, “I told these truths to be obscure… honestly, when I look out at the world, ‘through a glass darkly,’ I don’t see irrefutable evidence for a beneficent God whose main purpose is to safeguard our individual rights.” He concludes, “in the final analysis, that’s what we’re really after: not proof of God’s existence, but experience of God’s presence.”
Rosolino then explores universality as more than an “all dogs go to heaven” simplification. Rather, it implies an offer comprehensive in scope, welcoming all to the table and the kingdom. In Rosolino’s words, “There is neither liberal nor conservative, blblicist nor skeptic. There’s not even secular vs. religious, because in God’s kingdom, there is no temple – and, therefore , no religion.”
Rosolino focuses on the fear of death in the following chapter, and talks about how the incarnation means “nothing human is alien” to God. And, really, ponders Rosolino, would we want immortality if it means more of life as it is – with sin, sickness, suffering, and the like? Rosolino thinks not. And, believing in the myth of pure evil makes us think the problem is “out there,” not in our own back yard. We passively participate in evil every time we do not speak out against it. “Which is a poetic way of saying that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem… ‘Sins of omission,’ some call it.” Or as MLK put it, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
"Sin" is a word Rosolino does not avoid. Our sin is often a not-so-simple failure to love. As he writes, “when it comes to love, the words ‘self,’ ‘God,’ and ‘neighbor,’ are indissolubly enmeshed. To Jesus, a failure to love anyone constituted a failure to love God.” Further, “we all exist under the shadow of God’s universal call to love, to live in the present reality of God’s kingdom. And we fail. On the daily.”
How do we make sense of this world? Is it “a Problem to be solved… or abandoned… or outright obliterated?” Rosolino writes of “apocalyptic anticipation” and the promulgation of a somewhat novel escapist theology known as “premillennial dispensationalism,” a distinctly American phenomenon. Jesus at times seemed to be cynical about the world and its ills, yet he came to save it, to renew it, to reconcile it, to heal it, because God loves the world. And, yet, Rosolino contemplates, “this is precisely where we could use a good dose of atheism. What could be less credible, less believable than the unfailing love of an invisible God?” Even better, “So we postmodern pilgrims are in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, sky-high self-esteem makes the love of God seem self-evident. On the other, modern skepticism makes the love of God seem unimaginable.”
The last chapter offers an invitation to accept the Christian story, and I found Rosolino’s presentation of the gospel and atonement somewhat surprisingly orthodox. He starts by questioning whether Jesus was a hero based on his cry from the cross (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), and supports Augustine’s interpretation that “[the] fearful cry we hear from the cross.. is yours.” He writes, “Jesus made the same sort of leap we make, if we elect to do so. He chose to surrender.” He calls the atonement “The Great Exchange,” as in, “Jesus exchanged his life for ours.” Still, he rejects Jesus’ need to appease God’s wrath, or “fulfilling some obligation to a higher law or principle, i.e. justice – as if justice were something above or outside of God.”
Rosolino likes the word “coinherence,” borrowed from the poet and playwright Charles Williams. He defines it as, “We live from others, at least as much as for others, even when we don’t realize it.” More clearly, “We live from others, accruing untold benefits from their participation in our lives, receiving far more than we could ever have earned by and for ourselves. And this is what Jesus does – though on a much more cosmic and mysterious scale.” Rosolino links coinherence in another way: “To be ‘crucified with Christ’ is to let your ‘old self’ die – the ‘imposter’ self; the wounded, fearful, self-centered, performer self; the ‘false self.’” And that’s where he leaves the reader; with a decision.
Part memoir; part church history; part theological exploration. All in all, a delightful read. Rosolino uses a highly informal writing style (gonna, kinda, sorta, etc.) which I found somewhat distracting, but I loved his honesty and humour. I also enjoyed his synthesis of diverse voices from ancient to present times. I’m the sort of reader who reads footnotes, and 1000+ of them impressed me.
The book was birthed in a baccalaureate address Rosolino delivered to a graduating class of high school students in, somewhat ironically, the Bible belt of the southern United States. The speech contrasted the message Jesus came to bring on living – here and now – in the Kingdom of God, lived out by the early disciples and followers of “The Way,” to present day America, characterized by rugged individualism, a resistance to authority, and a certain way of reading and interpreting Scripture.
In this culture, the gospel, or salvation message, has been reduced to a transaction, and possibly worse, a one moment event that has no bearing on our lives. As Rosolino puts it, “the tendency [is] to reduce ‘following the Way’ to a momentary decision made in response to a stirring sermon: ‘Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible).” Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), an American Reformed theologian, called this transaction an “artificial minute for our soul’s salvation.”
A pivotal figure in Rosolino’s journey was Chuck Klosterman, an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture and the crisis of belief, where we believe in a little of everything, afraid to be wrong, or worse yet to be seen as dogmatic and too certain of ourselves. Rosolino writes, “Most of us are as repelled by religious fundamentalism as we are scientism, both of which claim to enjoy direct, unfiltered access to infallible knowledge. We don’t really buy into either camp, although we suspect they’re both partially true. And let’s face it: atheism is too much of a commitment. So we go on doubting the absolute claims of religion, even as we doubt our own doubts. This is our lot, we pilgrims of the twenty-first century."
Rosolino, reminiscent of folks like Augustine and C.S. Lewis, describes his slow, arduous journey to faith. Not that Rosolino had all the answers when he made the leap. He writes, “At bottom, I wasn’t afraid to believe because I thought God might not be there. I was afraid because I thought God would be.” Finally moving past that hurdle, Rosolino simply made the decision. He writes, “I still had doubts and questions. But I couldn’t shake the sense that Jesus was really there, crucified and alive. Somehow, in all that wandering I had begun wondering; in the wondering I had begun wanting; in the wanting I had begun seeking; in the seeking I had begun believing; and in believing I was already loving.”
As Rosolino began his Christian journey, the Bible was more problematic than helpful. Being a Biblicist or “Bible-only-ist” ultimately didn’t work for him, and Rosolino makes a good case for such a literal, inerrant view of the Bible as being a relatively modern invention, writing, “biblicism is more novelty than orthodoxy.” The Bible is idolized, making “the essential ‘it’ of conservative Christianity… neither Christ, nor belief in Christ, but belief in the Bible – a book about Christ. And if the Bible can be shown to contain even a hint of ambiguity or inaccuracy, then Christ can’t be the real deal. The stakes are that high.”
Rosolino turned to modern biblical criticism, through which scholars scrutinize Scripture, analyzing it as they might any ancient text. This also created issues: “Because for all its conscious commitment to intellectual honesty, historical criticism offers no more clarity than conservative biblicism.” The scholars did not agree, and “to this day, historians keep coming up with various, often mutually exclusive versions of the ‘real historical Jesus’ based on their own research.”
The author decided he needed “some new and informed voices in the conversation. A fresh perspective.” And where did he search for it? “Among the dead!” Among the early church fathers and mothers. In doing so, he had to push past our modern tendency to think that we are the enlightened ones, and that our forebears were crude, unsophisticated and, well, wrong. He found that these “saints” considered multiple interpretations of Scripture, including but not limited to the literal one. In other words, the “single meaning theory” had to go.
Ultimately, Rosolino came to adopt what he called a Jesus-shaped, or Christological, lens, borrowing it from ancient interpreters who didn’t have our modern bias for reading things literally, as true or false. It means not only that Jesus is God, or Jesus is like God, but that “God is like Jesus, the visible embodiment of invisible divinity, a window into the heart and mind of the hidden God... In other words, the most authentic, accurate, penetrating way to think about God is to think christologically. God is like Jesus.”
Rosolino came to see “the final flaw of fundamentalist biblicism: it encourages people to presume the purity of their own interpretive motives, all while holding other interpretations (and interpreters) in suspicion – maybe even contempt.” And thus we come to need community for the best biblical interpretation. Even Luther, in his famous stand for Sola Scriptura, believed it had to be a communal affair. “For the early Protestants, biblical interpretation was a public, churchwide endeavour.”
The philosophy of materialism was also addressed by Rosolino, and linked to the incarnation. “The incarnation means matter isn’t fundamentally flawed,” and “it spells the ultimate validation of embodied existence, of ‘real life’ in the Real World… the incarnation tells us that God has chosen to entwine his own story with ours and bind his fate to our own. That’s what we discover in Jesus.” The implications? “The incarnation calls us to be fully present and immersed in reality.”
Rosolino then takes a deep dive into science and evolution, which was not initially thought of as a threat to the creation story. The greatest challenge, even now, is in the randomness of evolution. Rosolino describes the impasse as follows: “if you’re a strict Darwinian naturalist, then you’re at odds with one of Christianity’s central claims – namely, that the Kingdom of God is coming, no matter what. That’s certainly what the Christian creeds propose, as do Jesus parables.” And, “so much of what Jesus said and did presupposed a God who was actively involved in the Real World… He was both proclaiming a new reality and accomplishing it – bringing it into being – which is why he and his followers talked about history as if it were an unfurling story whose conclusion had already been written.” To summarize, “In the end, the real bone of contention between creationism and evolution is chance, not change.”
From there to an anlysis of how evangelicalism became fundamentalism, which was primarily an American phenomenon. He covers Social Darwinism and the Scopes “Monkey” Trial. For the small but vocal minority, winning the culture war became their everything, not considering that “Jesus’ victory was won through longsuffering and love, not political coercion. His was a triumph ‘from below,’ not a theocratic decree ‘from above.’” Rosolino makes a good case for the fact that the Bible was never meant to be a rule book, or scientifically or historically accurate textbook. He echoes early fundamentalists like George Frederick Wright that, “The utterances of the Bible are not infallible except as pertaining to things ‘necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation.’”
Rosolino does not find God, faith, and the Bible to be “self-evident truths,” and states, “I told these truths to be obscure… honestly, when I look out at the world, ‘through a glass darkly,’ I don’t see irrefutable evidence for a beneficent God whose main purpose is to safeguard our individual rights.” He concludes, “in the final analysis, that’s what we’re really after: not proof of God’s existence, but experience of God’s presence.”
Rosolino then explores universality as more than an “all dogs go to heaven” simplification. Rather, it implies an offer comprehensive in scope, welcoming all to the table and the kingdom. In Rosolino’s words, “There is neither liberal nor conservative, blblicist nor skeptic. There’s not even secular vs. religious, because in God’s kingdom, there is no temple – and, therefore , no religion.”
Rosolino focuses on the fear of death in the following chapter, and talks about how the incarnation means “nothing human is alien” to God. And, really, ponders Rosolino, would we want immortality if it means more of life as it is – with sin, sickness, suffering, and the like? Rosolino thinks not. And, believing in the myth of pure evil makes us think the problem is “out there,” not in our own back yard. We passively participate in evil every time we do not speak out against it. “Which is a poetic way of saying that if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem… ‘Sins of omission,’ some call it.” Or as MLK put it, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
"Sin" is a word Rosolino does not avoid. Our sin is often a not-so-simple failure to love. As he writes, “when it comes to love, the words ‘self,’ ‘God,’ and ‘neighbor,’ are indissolubly enmeshed. To Jesus, a failure to love anyone constituted a failure to love God.” Further, “we all exist under the shadow of God’s universal call to love, to live in the present reality of God’s kingdom. And we fail. On the daily.”
How do we make sense of this world? Is it “a Problem to be solved… or abandoned… or outright obliterated?” Rosolino writes of “apocalyptic anticipation” and the promulgation of a somewhat novel escapist theology known as “premillennial dispensationalism,” a distinctly American phenomenon. Jesus at times seemed to be cynical about the world and its ills, yet he came to save it, to renew it, to reconcile it, to heal it, because God loves the world. And, yet, Rosolino contemplates, “this is precisely where we could use a good dose of atheism. What could be less credible, less believable than the unfailing love of an invisible God?” Even better, “So we postmodern pilgrims are in a bit of a pickle. On the one hand, sky-high self-esteem makes the love of God seem self-evident. On the other, modern skepticism makes the love of God seem unimaginable.”
The last chapter offers an invitation to accept the Christian story, and I found Rosolino’s presentation of the gospel and atonement somewhat surprisingly orthodox. He starts by questioning whether Jesus was a hero based on his cry from the cross (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), and supports Augustine’s interpretation that “[the] fearful cry we hear from the cross.. is yours.” He writes, “Jesus made the same sort of leap we make, if we elect to do so. He chose to surrender.” He calls the atonement “The Great Exchange,” as in, “Jesus exchanged his life for ours.” Still, he rejects Jesus’ need to appease God’s wrath, or “fulfilling some obligation to a higher law or principle, i.e. justice – as if justice were something above or outside of God.”
Rosolino likes the word “coinherence,” borrowed from the poet and playwright Charles Williams. He defines it as, “We live from others, at least as much as for others, even when we don’t realize it.” More clearly, “We live from others, accruing untold benefits from their participation in our lives, receiving far more than we could ever have earned by and for ourselves. And this is what Jesus does – though on a much more cosmic and mysterious scale.” Rosolino links coinherence in another way: “To be ‘crucified with Christ’ is to let your ‘old self’ die – the ‘imposter’ self; the wounded, fearful, self-centered, performer self; the ‘false self.’” And that’s where he leaves the reader; with a decision.
March 15, 2021
Idiot, Sojourning Soul: A Post-Secular Pilgrimage by Justin Rosolino is a good book, but a frustrating one. I enjoyed the content, but I think it would have benefited overall from some reorganizing and editing.
The book describes itself as part memoir and part historical-theological analysis, which is an apt description. Rosolino interweaves his own journey through a series of theological and historical concepts, telling a humorous quip in one paragraph and dissecting Stoicism in the next. I enjoyed his humor and that he doesn’t take himself too seriously despite analyzing such heavy topics as the afterlife, biblical literalism, and the crucifixion. And as an exvangelical, I related to a lot of Rosolino’s questions and exploration of various subjects. I also felt that many issues were well-researched and documented. While Idiot may, at first, come off as a goofy memoir there are over 1,000 endnotes and a 30-page bibliography. In that sense, you can be confident that most of what Rosolino says is supported by at least some scholars, and that there are ample opportunities to dive deeper and do your own research if you so choose.
For all these reasons I quite enjoyed Idiot, Sojourning Soul and will likely refer to it in the future. However, Idiot suffers from an identity problem. It doesn’t know exactly who it’s for or what it wants to be. The language would sometimes cause whiplash, switching from a friendly, conversational tone to sounding like a heady, graduate-level professor. At times, very basic Christian concepts would be explained as if to someone completely unfamiliar with Christianity, but the book was also scattered with Evangelical-isms and Christianese. While I enjoyed the humor, at other times it frustrated me because it makes it hard to circle back. There were many times where Rosolino made excellent points and led a great discussion, but they are hard to find later because many of the chapters and headings are arbitrary titles or jokes and not clearly referring to what is discussed.
Finally, I’m just not sure what the controlling idea or the main point of Idiot is. I like the book and think its content is valuable, but at many times it felt more like rambling blog posts than a coherent package. Perhaps that’s the intent – to be a supportive companion rather than a map on a sojourner’s journey. So, while I think Rosolino has written a well-researched, helpful book, it suffers from a lack of focus that could have been addressed with editing and some reorganization.
---
Disclaimer: I received this book free from the publisher through the Speakeasy blogging review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
The book describes itself as part memoir and part historical-theological analysis, which is an apt description. Rosolino interweaves his own journey through a series of theological and historical concepts, telling a humorous quip in one paragraph and dissecting Stoicism in the next. I enjoyed his humor and that he doesn’t take himself too seriously despite analyzing such heavy topics as the afterlife, biblical literalism, and the crucifixion. And as an exvangelical, I related to a lot of Rosolino’s questions and exploration of various subjects. I also felt that many issues were well-researched and documented. While Idiot may, at first, come off as a goofy memoir there are over 1,000 endnotes and a 30-page bibliography. In that sense, you can be confident that most of what Rosolino says is supported by at least some scholars, and that there are ample opportunities to dive deeper and do your own research if you so choose.
For all these reasons I quite enjoyed Idiot, Sojourning Soul and will likely refer to it in the future. However, Idiot suffers from an identity problem. It doesn’t know exactly who it’s for or what it wants to be. The language would sometimes cause whiplash, switching from a friendly, conversational tone to sounding like a heady, graduate-level professor. At times, very basic Christian concepts would be explained as if to someone completely unfamiliar with Christianity, but the book was also scattered with Evangelical-isms and Christianese. While I enjoyed the humor, at other times it frustrated me because it makes it hard to circle back. There were many times where Rosolino made excellent points and led a great discussion, but they are hard to find later because many of the chapters and headings are arbitrary titles or jokes and not clearly referring to what is discussed.
Finally, I’m just not sure what the controlling idea or the main point of Idiot is. I like the book and think its content is valuable, but at many times it felt more like rambling blog posts than a coherent package. Perhaps that’s the intent – to be a supportive companion rather than a map on a sojourner’s journey. So, while I think Rosolino has written a well-researched, helpful book, it suffers from a lack of focus that could have been addressed with editing and some reorganization.
---
Disclaimer: I received this book free from the publisher through the Speakeasy blogging review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
April 7, 2020
I love this book...I couldn't put it down. It's a well written work that captures the zeitgeist and provides a necessary critique of the church in its current form, all without losing hope or forgetting that Jesus, the true Jesus and his good news message, is the very center of that hope. Well researched, hilarious and founded on both scholarship and knowledge of pop culture, Rosolino manages to write about the weightiest of matters; life, in all its suffering and beauty, tragedy and glory, all while retaining a sense of humor. There's nothing dry to be found here. The book is joyous and freeing in its difficult truth. It's like a breath of fresh air, full of heart, soul and insight. Rarely is an author able to take a scholarly approach to a memoir, thereby engaging the heart, employing ample humor, and drawing from history. It made me laugh out loud, challenged me, and gave me all the feels. It reminded me of why I started following Jesus years ago, at times bringing me to tears of reverence and joy. I needed this. I won't spoil it for you. Read it.
April 12, 2020
If you can fluidly discuss Augustine and Chuck D in the same few pages, it tells me you have command of a faith that is, at all times and in all places, relevant. This work will captivate your soul and intellect, in whatever order your heart needs. It is simultaneously: honest and challenging of your core beliefs; comforting and endearing; scholarly and precise; and funny on a whole other level than the caustic put-downs we have come to believe are humor. Take time to digest the multi-discplinary truth you fill find in Brother Rosolino's book, and you will most certainly also examine yourself, your world, and the claims of Christ, all in a new way. I started off eager to read it, and my enthusiasm only grew throughout.
May 20, 2020
in his breakout memoir, J-RO writes a riveting, witty and compelling case for a faith that makes sense in the 21st C. Rosolino is smart without being pretentious, self deprecatory without being falsely humble and a good bit of fun to boot. What impresses me after reading the book is how generous he is to every perspective given his thoroughgoing commitment to a version of orthodoxy. Also, I don't think I've ever read a book with such a diverse set of sources both in kind and within a genre. This book is accessible for anyone, without negotiating integrity.
March 29, 2020
A great, engaging romp through millennia of Christian thought; an autobiographical tale of beginning in cynicism and unexpectedly finding oneself walking in the direction of God; an apologetic that’s in the world but not of it; a dessert topping AND a floor wax. A good read for anyone who wants to understand why “Christian” means something very different to evangelical fundamentalists than it did to early Christians. Recommended.
December 30, 2021
An absolutely amazing book. Justin Rosolino works through Christianity from the beginning to the end, embracing all the challenges, obstacles, self inflicted wounds of the faith. He comes out the other side, whole and intact white one of the most complete presentations of the gospel I’ve ever read or experienced.
This should be must treading—even if you’re not a believer and don’t intend to be.
Highly recommended.
This should be must treading—even if you’re not a believer and don’t intend to be.
Highly recommended.
February 14, 2021
My favorite thing about this book is that he points out what Jesus actually taught and is able to compare and contrast that in a historical context. Which allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about how things got to where they are today in the world of the Christian religion. Overall, though, a very good book and worth a read.
April 7, 2020
If you want to read (make that “be captivated by”) a great and true story of one man’s spiritual journey to find truth, you will laugh and hmmm your way into a world seldom understood and even less frequently, challenged. Justin Rosolino has given the world a gift...make sure you unwrap it!
March 10, 2020
This book fully explains the evolution of Western Christianity and how it exists in the world today. Very insightful.
March 24, 2021
title: Idiot, Sojourning Soul: A Post-Secular Pilgrimage
author: Justin Rosolino
date: 2020
publisher: Resource Publications
Justin Rosolino in his book “Idiot, Sojourning Soul: A Post-Secular Pilgrimage” weaves together personal anecdotes, historical context, humour, and his love for Jesus. This is a book that will cause some serious thinking and examining of yourself, your world, and the claims of Jesus.
Rosolino tackles some of the battleground areas in our escalating culture wars, and he does do without hiding behind simplistic answers. Too often Christians have wanted the world to be black and white, but Jesus never was.
Rosolino is obviously very well read with regard to religious scholars and quotes and interacts with many of them at length. What is refreshing is that the issues he addresses, he argues both sides intelligently.
Rosolino examines the modern North American church in a timely way, calling Christians out and calls the church back to a renewed consideration of Jesus and his teachings and deeds as recorded in the biblical text.
This is a good read for anyone who wants to understand why “Christian” means something very different to evangelical fundamentalists than it did to early Christians. Recommended.
#IdiotSojourningSoul
Disclosure: I received this book free from the Speakeasy blogging book review network.
My review is an honest, unbiased review reflecting my own opinion of the work.
I was not required to write a positive review of this work.
author: Justin Rosolino
date: 2020
publisher: Resource Publications
Justin Rosolino in his book “Idiot, Sojourning Soul: A Post-Secular Pilgrimage” weaves together personal anecdotes, historical context, humour, and his love for Jesus. This is a book that will cause some serious thinking and examining of yourself, your world, and the claims of Jesus.
Rosolino tackles some of the battleground areas in our escalating culture wars, and he does do without hiding behind simplistic answers. Too often Christians have wanted the world to be black and white, but Jesus never was.
Rosolino is obviously very well read with regard to religious scholars and quotes and interacts with many of them at length. What is refreshing is that the issues he addresses, he argues both sides intelligently.
Rosolino examines the modern North American church in a timely way, calling Christians out and calls the church back to a renewed consideration of Jesus and his teachings and deeds as recorded in the biblical text.
This is a good read for anyone who wants to understand why “Christian” means something very different to evangelical fundamentalists than it did to early Christians. Recommended.
#IdiotSojourningSoul
Disclosure: I received this book free from the Speakeasy blogging book review network.
My review is an honest, unbiased review reflecting my own opinion of the work.
I was not required to write a positive review of this work.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews