The Reason Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?

by Julia Sweeney and Robert M. Price

Book Overview

Pastor Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Life has been both a commercially successful best seller and a widely influential book in the Christian community. As a rejoinder to the fundamentalist assumptions of Warren's book, Robert Price, a biblical scholar, a member of the Jesus Seminar, and a former liberal Baptist pastor, offers this witty, thoughtful, and detailed critique. Following the concise forty-chapter structure of Warren's book, Price's point-counterpoint...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591024765
• ISBN13: 9781591024767
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 370 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

This book set me free.....

Really, It did. When I started reading this book I was teetering on the edge. For years I had followed the beliefs and practices as promoted by Rick Warren...White North American Evangelicalism. After years of obsessive prayer, bible study, and "worship" with shoddy church music, I was burnt out, unhappy, and hungry for something deeper. Price, in his paradoxically humble yet arrogant, ferocious, and sardonic style, dismantled the edifice that the Evangelical church had tried to build in my mind. While doing so he also introduced me to some of the teachings of the Stoics, Buddhists, reflections from the venerable Eric Hoffer, author of the "True Believer," and Berger and Luckmann's "The social construction of reality." Rather than a cut and dry polemic then, Price pulled together a wide variety of religious and philosophical literature and traditions, and used them to interpret, criticize, or contrast the evangelical beliefs of Rick Warren. I find this eclectic and literate polemical style to be very interesting and personally rewarding. What most reviewers have not pointed out is that this book is Price's reflections on and reactions to each of the 40 chapters found in the Purpose Driven Life. Since Rick Warren revisits the same issues and beliefs in different chapters, Price must return to the same number issues, like the nature of mass movements or the nature of God, for example. This approach may prove too repetitive for some people, but, for me I found it to be almost meditative. After all, meditation is often derived from the repetition of a thought, chant, or breathing pattern. Every chapter is short, usually a page or two, and can be read in a matter of minutes. So, again, in a way then, Price's book was almost devotional or meditative for me. While Price may be harsh at times, his piercing words set me free and pushed me over the edge into a strange new place of existence, far more exciting and fulfilling than my life under the single vision of a protestant denomination. Were it not for Price, I might not have taken that existential plunge. For that, I am grateful to him; and I encourage people who are questioning their Evangelical faith to read this book. If you don't fall into this group, or don't have much interest in religious criticism, you might want to pass this book up, it probably will not be relevant to you.

Reason Driven Life

Excellent thoughtful book. Price wrote this as a counter to book called The Purpose Driven Life that is apparently a bestseller in the USA. I have no knowledge of that book but found that Price does an excellent job showing that biblical fundamentalism is simply unsustainable. More challenging for me was Price's careful and reasoned argument for the value of insights from religious traditions. Price is intellectually honest and generous but perhaps a little to respectful of Christian tradition. Nevertheless this is an excellent read.

Is it OK not to be a religious whacko?

This book really answers the question: "Is it OK not to be a religious whacko". The multitudes of people that have inherited going to church from their parents can break with clear conscience the habit. No longer do you have to sit in church, or feel guilty about skipping, when you are only there to pacify someone else's expectations. It is the semi-religious moderates that facilitate the whackos. Their kinda-faith creates the space for the nutcase to hide from closer scrutiny. This book is the key to setting the masses of semi-religious moderates free, and also what will expose the fundamentalist whackos for what they really are. The world is going to be a better place for everyone, and this book will be part of the reason why. Read it!

Biblical Scholar Meets Reason

This is one of the most compelling books I've ever read. Dr. Price's approach to philosophy puts facts and reasoned thinking above emotional appeals. The book exudes the presupposition that all areas are open to investigation and that meaning is found through truth, not dogma. While I have the upmost respect for Rick Warren's work with AIDS and other humanitarian efforts, it is long past time to call "The Purpose Driven Life" what it is: Bad Theology. Fundamentalism so rarely gets refuted in this careful and factual manner. Dr. Price would be justified to stop there, but rather decides to give the reader an alternative philosophy that requires no false presuppositions. With the rock walls of reason and evidence at his back, he gives his post-post-modernist view of the meaning of life. I loved this book.

Those who've already read and deeply considered Pastor Warren's title, will find this survey equally

Pastor Rick Warren's THE PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE has been a best-seller in Christian circles, and biblical scholar Robert Price's THE REASON-DRIVEN LIFE: WHAT AM I HERE ON EARTH FOR should prove the same. It uses a similar point/counterpoint argument pattern to survey the importance of reason in life's realities, comes from an author who was a born-again Christian in his youth, and provides an offset and counterpart to Warren's scripture-driven analysis, offering a critical approach to Warren's title and offering arguments for the use of reason as a tool for developing moral maturity. Readers interested in philosophy and religion blends, especially those who've already read and deeply considered Pastor Warren's title, will find this survey equally satisfying. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch