Reviews

"Michael's passion for the gospel, heaving through his anger with the fake merchants of religion he indicts, is a searing wake-up call. His notion of mysticism as a downward movement to the Divine, becoming incarnate in our day-to-day, and his refusal to let anything get in the way of forgiveness shine through this exceptional teaching." --James Alison, Catholic priest and theologian "Hardin begins by expressing the sense of frustration, at times mounting to rage, that many Christians feel at the moment as they contemplate the fractious, fake, and frequently vicious landscape of American Christianity. He unleashes a prophetic 'no' upon this 'church, ' laying bare its problems at their root. As we read on, however, we find that Hardin's 'no' is undergirded by a far more powerful 'yes.' Behind the fake Jesus is the real Jesus, whom Hardin knows and serves so faithfully. So the book leads us on with undiminished pace and passion, beyond the dreadful mess that is much of current Christianity, into a life of authentic discipleship. . . . Hardin's short, urgent book is, quite simply, a book many of us need to read. By turns I resonated, I laughed, and I repented. I urge you all to do likewise."--Douglas A. Campbell, Professor of New Testament, Duke Divinity School