Sadly, Christians follow fads like everyone else. WWJD ring a bell? “Christian” culture is no different and you can often gauge one’s “hipness” by the trends currently filling their sails. Fads often come with faces and for many the current face of “Christian hip” belongs to Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and Searching For God Knows What among others.

According to his bio, Don is “a frequent speaker, focusing on the merit of Christian Spirituality as an explanation for beauty, meaning and the human struggle.” Nailing down his doctrine, we are told: “Among other core beliefs, Don holds to the ideas that Christian spirituality is not currently represented by one political party, that the gospel of Jesus is a mysterious, relational invitation and that the elements of story were caused by human and divine historical accounts” and that he “lives in community in Portland, Oregon.”

So he dabbles in philosophy and aesthetics, just because the Democrats claim to care for the little guy, they’re not “God’s party” (surely he’s more creative than simply going after Republicans again), something about divine/human juxtaposition, he’s not entirely sure how to explain the Gospel, and he has roommates.

The telling phrase: the merit of Christian Spirituality implies that we must prove our merit before a judging society. This idea is common and must be addressed (though briefly in this format). What is meant by relevance? Meeting people’s needs as Jesus did? Fine. A total Truth? What could be more relevant? Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, great. If you mean the lost must feel comfortable in church, you’ve lost the Gospel. The Gospel confronts sin and that ought to make people uncomfortable. By the world’s standards we are not relevant.

Few would argue Miller’s merits as a writer. With a warm wit, he’s a vivid word painter, stroking concrete images with clever wordplay. His confessional style puts readers at ease like an old friend. Many, however, would argue Miller’s merits as a spokesman for anything traditionally considered Christian, and that’s probably just how Miller wants it.

There’s a reason Blue Like Jazz is subtitled “Nonreligious Thoughts On Christian Spirituality”. Rarely, if ever, does Miller interact with Scripture. Subjectivity rules the day, experience is Miller’s mirror (James 1:22-25) and relationships his tutor (Galatians 3:24). Miller often resembles the boy just discovering Christian Liberty. His anecdotes are wafting with pipes and cigarettes, set in bars, overflowing with pints and shouting with protests; all of which is lawful but not necessarily profitable (1 Corinthians 10:23). Miller never considers that his liberty-flaunting might cause one to stumble (1 Corinthians 10).

There’s a certain look, I’m cool air, name-dropping Wilco, Patty Griffin and Reed College (I admit the same tendency; it takes one to know one). There’s also an air of judgment. Just because my church may not have artists painting during my sermon does not mean I don’t appreciate art. Just because we don’t have a soup kitchen does not mean we don’t care and yet Miller implies just such indictments.

By the end of Blue Like Jazz, we’ve been led along a well-written prose path only to stumble on an empty well. Miller has no insights a first year philosophy student hasn’t tripped over and no scenery anyone who’s limped through the Christian life for any length of time hasn’t already seen (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11). It’s written well, but in the end, it’s Miller’s diary with an editor. If you want to know what Don Miller thinks, this is the book. If you want fresh, insightful interaction with both Scripture and culture, go back to Schaeffer.

Miller must know that his message is not new. A call for genuine community? A call to real spirituality? Just because the “traditional” church on the corner doesn’t resemble these things certainly does not merit the dangerous move away from Christianity to “Christian Spirituality.”

Read books by Donald Miller.
Read Relevant Magazine interview Donald Miller.
Read Hip: The History by John Leland.
Visit Donald Miller’s website.
Visit the Burnside Writer’s Collective website.
Visit Leith O’Malley’s website (painter of the above image).
Download Blues On the Corner by McCoy Tyner (fromThe Real McCoy).
Download Gate City by Donald Byrd (from Byrd in Flightt).
Download Orbits by the Miles Davis Quintet (from Miles Smiles).
Download Strode Rode by Sonny Rollins (from Saxophone Colossus).

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