Rude Awakening by Mark E. Donnelly

Rude Awakening by Mark E. Donnelly ISBN-13: 9781938670008 Trade Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Engaged Publishing Group Released: July 10, 2012

Source: Review copy through BookCrash.com.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
What if the things we think impress God actually do the opposite? Two groups of people in the Bible were absolutely convinced they were doing everything right, but they were gravely mistaken. How do you know you're not one of them?


My Review:
Rude Awakening is a Christian Living book. The three main sections of the book were: loving God, loving others, and loving yourself--though perhaps the last section should have been labeled as denying yourself.

From the book description and excerpt I'd read, I was expecting a book about focusing on knowing God rather than simply knowing about Him or doing things for Him. The first few chapters did have that focus and pointed out scripture verses that supported this idea. He did have good and valid points woven throughout the book, but he tended to get distracted from this focus.

He sometimes got sidetracked into promoting and/or defending very specific and unique takes on things found in the Bible. I didn't always agree that his take was supported by the Bible. For example, he took the idea that maybe the blood of murdered righteous men literally had a "voice" that God could hear, and then he moved into a theological point based on this shaky idea. He also had odd takes on the Holy Spirit and on the point of fasting which a lot of Christians won't totally agree with.

The book also got sidetracked into focusing on how Christians and the church are failing and on to-do lists of things you ought to be doing. These lists were slightly different than those you normally see and did make some good points. But I was disappointed that the overall focus of the book seemed to be more on things to do than about knowing God.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: You can find an excerpt on Amazon.