Book Review:Principle of the Path

Principle of the Pathby Andy Stanley is the latest book I’m reviewing as part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Bloggers program. I actually received the book and read it months ago. I’ve finally decided to write the review and put the book far behind me.

I’m sure Stanley is a good pastor. By the way he writes, he’s an engaging preacher. Principle of the Path, however, is not a good book.

Tone: I made the mistake of looking at the back jacket and seeing his publicity photo. He wore a casual shirt and looks twelve years old. Now, I’ve had a few people in my parish suggest that I’m young, and perhaps not old enough to be wise. It’s irritating. One doesn’t have to be advanced in years to give good pastoral care. But the problem with Stanley is that he’s adopted a condescending, know-it-all tone throughout the book and looks like a know-it-all-I-just-graduated-seminary guy. I actually think he’s much older than he appears, but that photo doesn’t do him any favors with the tone he uses. Every time he wrote of his surperior wisdom in understanding The Principle, I couldn’t help but think of that boyish person on the back cover. To make matters worse, when the author was not repeating his “I told you so” tone, he adopted a flippant conversational tone that can work well in the pulpit or in a classroom but falls flat in print.

What is The Principle? It’s actually pretty good: we make choices in life and bear the consequences. Much of the time we can reasonalby predict if our choices will put us on the path to our desired outcome. If you start having an extra glass of wine every night, you can imagine what path that choice is putting you on. You make the bed you lie in–or lie in the bed you make, I suppose. It’s not rocket science, but it is a principle we like to ignore. I heard a long depressing show on NPR this afternoon wherein the host spoke with people who had terminal cancers. The main message: they lived each day making choices which would have lasting value. They chose not to worry about possessions. They didn’t waste nights watching TV. Wasting time and energy on temporary pleasures was like eating ashes. Most of us ignore this most of our lives. We do need to be reminded of this. Stanley does it well, then repeats it oOer and over again. To make it worse, Stanley felt the need to justify it by spending far too long exegeting a few verses of Proverbs. I’m talking chapters of defensive-sounding Scriptural lay-level exegesis.

And then he repeated it all again, basically saying everyone who is in debt, buys new cars with loans, has a bad marriage or disobedient kids are idiots with only themselves to blame.

It’s pretty legalistic.

Related posts:

1. Book Review:The Noticer
2. Book Review:The House of Dark Shadows
3. Book Review: Christianity in Crisis
4. Book Confessions Meme
5. Book Review: The Unseen