What Is God Like? Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner. Illustrated by Ying Hui Tan. 2021. 40 pages. [Source: YouTube reading of the picture book + Amazon preview]
First sentence: What is God like? That’s a very big question, one that people from places all around the world have wondered about since the beginning of time. And while nobody has seen all of God (because God is far too big for any of us to fully see), we can know what God is like.
I saw a friend mention this book on FaceBook with a link to a United Methodist pastor reading (all of it) aloud. At the time I wasn't planning on doing anything but listen. After all, I don't have a copy of the book in hand. I was not sent the book to review. No one is expecting me to cover the book. I could merrily go about my business. But. The book is unsettling. And one of the most unsettling things about it is that the reception is so positive. As of the writing of this "review", there are 379 ratings on GoodReads and 330 of them are 5 stars! (33 are 4 stars. 9 are 3 stars. 2 are 2 stars. Only 5 are 1 star.) There are so few negative reviews of this one. So few reviews that mention the warning and danger signs within.
What is God like? That is THE question being asked and answered in this picture book. It's a solid question. No doubt about it. This question is FUNDAMENTAL to anyone who reckons themselves to be religious or spiritual. She argues that the question is universal, and it is. It is as universal as you can get.
How you answer the question "What is God like?" matters. It does. It's a question worth wrestling with. It's a question you may spend hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades wrestling with. It doesn't matter how old or how young you are--at some point you may very well ask yourself WHAT IS GOD LIKE?
And it's because the question is so fundamental and foundational that the answer is so crucial and critical.
Evans answer is Christ-less. Think about that. How can a Christian answer the question What is God like without mentioning the name Jesus Christ?
I think the book is Christ-less because Evans never once uses the Bible either as source or support. I'll try to clarify the best I can. I'll back up a bit. Where can any human being find the answer to the question What is God like? Has God by chance revealed himself to humans in some way? Has God himself in fact spoken? The answer is yes and yes. We have the Word of God...and the Word of God. That is we have both the Holy Scriptures and Jesus Christ, himself the Word of God. We have big questions and we can go to a big book. We can seek and find...in Scripture...the answer to the question What is God like? We don't have to rely on instincts, gut feelings, emotions, or whimsy. In fact, we shouldn't rely on those! We cannot know God apart from God's self-revelation in His Word. Now without a doubt the heart is an idol-making factory. From the very beginnings we humans have been making, remaking, molding, shaping "god" into a "god" of our own liking and making. Each person can easily have an idol named MyGod. Think of it like a Build a Bear Workshop. We can pick and choose the attributes and characteristics we want, and discard anything we don't want. We can make the comfiest-coziest-snuggliest god that makes us feel awesome about ourselves.
You might think. Okay, you're exaggerating. You're surely not suggesting that she is suggesting that the readers imagine God any way they like. I give you the end of her book...
What is God like? That’s a very big question, one that people from places all around the world throughout all time have answered in many different ways. Keep searching. Keep wondering. Keep learning about God. But whenever you aren’t sure what God is like, think about what makes you feel safe, what makes you feel brave, and what you makes you feel loved. That’s what God is like.
Evans' book doesn't set about answering the question What is God Like? by using the Bible as her guide and reference. It is an ear-tickler of a read. So open-ended and non-specific and safe-for-everyone-no-matter-what that it couldn't possibly offend. Well, mostly. There are still some that hold to the Bible as the Word of God and Christ as THE way, THE truth, THE life. But this is a book for the masses that don't care if Christ is missing. Which begs the question...why is Christ missing and no one caring? Because people have lost sight of why Christ came. Christ is not needed as a Savior and so he's not worth mentioning in her book.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that every sentence is completely and totally wrong. But I think that's a matter of a stopped clock--a clock that has stopped keeping time--being right at least twice a day. If you happen to look at it at just the right moment. Or perhaps the better comparison would be if you set about to paint a picture of an elephant, but you happened to leave off the big ears and the trunk. Sometimes enough is left out that what remains is lacking and insufficient.
The book answers the question with poetic language, imagery, metaphors. Her narrative is spiritual-sounding, life-affirming, feel-good-on-the-ears. Evans is sharing HER God with readers without fact-checking if HER God is one and the same with the God revealed within the pages of the Word of God, the Bible. And she's asking her readers to do the same. The way she's answering the question leads me to believe the real question is either a) What is YOUR God like? OR b) Who do YOU think God is?
She closes the book urging her readers to "Keep searching. Keep wondering. Keep learning." But she doesn't once point them to the place where they can find REAL answers. Instead she points them inward.
I'll close with some John Calvin, because why not?!
And let us not take it into our heads either to seek out God anywhere else than in his Sacred Word, or to think anything about him that is not prompted by his Word, or to speak anything that is not taken from that Word. (146)
The theologian's task is not to divert the ears with chatter, but to strengthen consciences by teaching things true, sure, and profitable. (164)
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