Adrian Plass

This is not, as I half-expected, an evangelistic book. Instead this is full of short sections explaining different reasons why the author follows Jesus. They range from the standard, self-evident reasons through to the bizarre (such as 'because he's so good at judo' or 'because he doesn't insist that we must all have Scottish accents').

Each of more than thirty sections is about four or five pages long, full of Adrian Plass's typically excellent writing. He uses anecdotes about himself and show more his family and friends, often showing himself at a disadvantage. He uses gentle humour, too, and some satire to make his points.

There's much to think about in this book. I read only about ten pages per day, and enjoyed it very much.

Definitely recommended.

Full review on my blog: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/07/why-i-follow-jesus-by-adrian-plass.... show less

What a gem. Christian writers Adrian Plass and Jeff Lucas teamed up to produce this book. It consists of letters they exchanged over some months, with a brief introduction by each of them at the beginning. I'm assuming the letters - if they really did start their existence that way - have been heavily edited; but it hardly matters. The personalities of the two writers comes across with that wonderful mixture of humour and deep 'aha' moments that I've found so often with Adrian Plass's show more writing.

There are amusing - sometimes embarrassing - incidents recorded by both, demonstrating their fallibility and humanity; something often missing in books by 'famous' authors (Christian or otherwise). There are some clever gems scattered around, easy to miss if reading too fast. And there are a great many thought-provoking discussions about church life, and boredom, and Christian conferences, and ways that God might - or might not - speak.

I would recommend it highly to any Christians who might be feeling cynical, or disillusioned, or just trying their best in a low-key kind of way to follow Jesus.

Latest full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/06/seriously-funny-adrian-plass-jeff-l... show less

This is a collection of short-stories, written as modern parables. They’re not all easy to understand, and should not be taken as direct analogies. Adrian Plass tells us in the introduction that a parable is ‘a story that entertains at the front door while the truth slips in through a side window’.

Some of the early stories are decidedly strange, and they’re all very different from each other. Quite a few have somewhat depressing themes, at first glance. There's a small boy who show more doesn't quite believe that his grandmother has died, a terminally ill patient reflecting on life with Jesus and cricket, the defendant at a murder case... perhaps the most obvious parable is one written in letter form, explaining why we're all supposed to climb Snowdon regularly.

The last story, ‘The Visit’ (which has been published elsewhere separately) is a rather longer one; it’s the story of ‘The Founder’ making a visit to a small town in the form of a man, confounding expectations and showing people the way he wants them to live. I very much liked this; but then Adrian Plass’s writing is always thought-provoking, making me smile and think in turn.

Overall I enjoyed re-reading this short story collection, and would recommend it in a low-key way. show less

This is a thoughtful discussion, cloaked in satire, of cultural differences within Christian circles on both sides of the Atlantic. George and Brad are two fictional young men who decide to write to each other....the book details their correspondence.

It’s a cleverly written book. Cultural differences are touched upon several times, most relevant to Christians who are familiar with church settings, but much would be relevant to others too. There’s no real plot as such; it’s show more character-based, charting a year's journey, seeing Brad starting to come to terms with a bereavement, and George writing about why he lost his faith. There were a few places where I smiled, one where I chuckled slightly, and one where I was moved almost to tears.

There are caricatures, of course; both correspondents use humour and satire to cover embarrassment or hurt. My only problem with the book is that the styles and characters came across, sometimes, as too similar. But overall I enjoyed it very much, more so than when I first read it about twenty years ago. show less