The Trivialization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity

By Donald W. McCullough

Trivializing God has always been the temptation for the people of God. We trivialize God into a god who will be manifest and useful in this confusing world, a god who will fit the contours of our... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0891099093
• ISBN13: 9780891099093
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Navpress Pub Group
• Length: 172 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Thinking about God without feeling Guilty

McCullough recognizes why the fear of the Lord is a must have. He laments the lack of reverence our culture has for God and, for the reader of conviction, provides ample reason for its recovery, using sobering references from Scripture. This book does not hound the reader to feel contrition for such trivialization. Instead, McCullough firmly reminds the reader of God's wholly-otherness, His mystery. It creates in the sensitive reader an appropriate posture toward the omnipotent and transcendant deity without using guilt to achieve it.

A Crusade to restore Awe and Mystery to the Divine

McCollough's book reads like a captivating sermon. His foundational premise, that "we prefer the illusion of a safer deity, and so we have pared God down to more manageable proportions," is eloquently devoloped. This is a book which moves the soul to want a God who is bigger, and less safe than the one which our culture tries to peddle to us today. His book takes an interesting turn in the last four chapters. The Chapters are as follows:1. The Trivialization of God; 2. A Pantheon of Deities; 3. In the Temple of Idols; 4. The Self-Revelation of God; 6. Consuming Fire; 7. Conversion into Community; 8. Community of Worship; 9. Community of the Word; 10. Community of Love;So chapter 7 makes a seemingly awkward transition on the surface. The content flows, however, and the transition is an important one, spiritually. The idea of Community drives the last portion of the book. There is a very compelling image which McCollough borrows from Donald Baillie in chapter 7: t is "a tale of God calling his human children to form a great circle ... In that circle we all ought to be standing, linked together with lovingly joined hands, facing toward the Light in the centre, which is God...But instead of that, we have, each one, turned our backs upon God and the circle of our fellows, and faced the other way, so that we can see neither the Light at centre nor the faces on the circumference...That is what is wrong."This a book well worth reading and sharing with others. It has been a great tool in small group settings. I've shared many chapters of this book with friends, and various groups.

"Your God is too Small" for the 90s

The correlation between this book and JB Phillips classic "Your God is Too Small" are obvious as soon as you look at the verses of scripture which begin the work (Isaiah 44:10 & Isaiah 40:25 - both of which deal with the fact that there is none like God and our attempts to make an idol of Him are faulty), yet this book is more than just a rewriting of "Your God...". "Trivialization" takes Phillip's theme and conveys it in modern language and metaphors. Dr. McCullough chips away at the false gods of the 90s and after the dust has clear from the destruction of those false concepts that we try to pretend are God, we find a marvelous vacum that is just waiting for the true and living God to come in a fill. Dr. McCullough brings out the mystery and danger of our God and by doing this helps those believers (and non-believers) who read this work to begin to fathom what an incredible God the Lord is.

Astonishing insights

Probably the best book written in the evangelical world in 1995. Insightful and thought provoking. Guaranteed to shake you, right down to your roots. I hope his message is heard loud and clear.

We agree that contemporary culture seems to triviolize

Our Menlo Park,Ca. reading group of 17 people agree that contemporary Christian culture seems to be triviolizing God in both the observed sense and in personal experience. The readers responded to the author's high view of the holiness of God and acknowledged that modern worship does not seem to enhance the possibility. The work did provoke readers' to examination of their own view of God. The group also heard a recording of an interview with the author which revealed his passion for God and His holy character.