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Review: You: an introduction
Written by Michael Jensen
Matthias Media, 2008
available from Matthias Media
In 2006, TIME magazine famously announced that the person of the year was in fact YOU. With the explosion of user-generated online content, via youtube, myspace, facebook and blogging, there has never been such an intense time of narcissistic introspection as now. However, at the same time it seems that we’ve never been more confused about who we actually are. We’re so quick to transcend stereotypical labels of gender, race, class, work and so on. But how then should we define ourselves? Where should we find our identity and purpose? And in all this, what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be, well, you?
Into this existential mess comes, YOU: an introduction. In clear, readily-digestible style, Michael Jensen examines what the Creator has to say about his human creatures via his written word. Starting with life and finishing with death and the afterlife, YOU covers some of the multi-facetted aspects of what it mean to be human, such as living in a body, grasping at freedom, negotiating gender, and aspiring to dream. Each chapter introduces the topic, draws out some of the important questions, looks briefly at some alternative answers (eg. materialism, feminism, Buddhism), before proposing a succinct scriptural conclusion.
As such, this book isn't intended to be a systematic textbook on the topic of biblical anthropology. Rather YOU is an introduction. It answers big, complex questions simply, though it refrains from being smug and overly simplistic. It gives the reader a taste of the biblical material, but in a way that invites further exploration and discovery.
To this end, each chapter retains the original comments from Michael’s blog posts (which formed the body of the published chapters). At first, these epilogues seemed a bit gimmicky, and will no doubt be frustrating to some readers with a few of the chapters feeling inconclusive as a result. But on the whole, the concept works well for the book’s introductory purpose, serving as catalyst for the reader to question the text, reflect on the Bible and think through the issues themselves.
Apart from its clarity, one of the book’s strengths is its conversational tone. This book is a real pleasure to read. The language is deliberately non-technical and even earthy in places (any evangelical Christian book that can discuss ‘poo’ and ‘cars that fart lethal gases’ gets my tick of approval!). The text is peppered with anecdotes about the frustrations of moving house, the joy of walking through a city, the pain of friends dying. This is no dry and dusty account of human life; this is personal.
What’s more this is a culturally reflective book. Michael draws on pop-cultural phenomena such as body-piercing/tattooing, The Lord of Rings, The Simpsons, smart bombs and Monicagate to illustrate his text. Likewise quotes from Derrida, Foucault, Aristotle and Shakespeare, are interspersed with the wisdom of the Rolling Stones, The Smashing Pumpkins, Jimi Hendrix, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It’s this seamless transition from the sublime to the ridiculous (eg. from freedom to belly-button fluff) that makes the book so delightful to read and somehow aptly captures the profound and absurd nature of human life with and without God.
Nonetheless, the book’s greatest strength is its focus on Jesus. Throughout the book we slowly see that the meaning of our human identity and purpose is inextricably tied to the person and work of the God who became human. Through his life, death and resurrection in our place, Jesus draws us back into relationship with the God in whose image we are made, and begins our transformation into the children he intends us to be.
So whoever you are, this book is for you. Sure it’s not an exhaustive biblical study of the human condition, but it’s a great place to start thinking rightly about who we are in relationship to our Creator, and who as God’s people we will ultimately become in Jesus.
But enough about YOU, what about you? In the collaborative spirit of the book, I’d love to hear your reflections on this book. What do you think about YOU?
