Book Review: "Hipster Christianity" by Brett McCracken

 In Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide, Brett McCracken, a twenty-something self-proclaimed Christian hipster, explores the age old concept of “cool” and the evolution of today’s “hipster” label and how they relate—or don’t relate—to Christianity.

The book itself is an irony because the concept of “hip” is not something frequently discussed, especially among hipsters (as McCracken frequently points out). But, he assures in the introduction, “It’s not a joke, and though it is humorous at times and occasionally ironic, it is by no means an exercise in sarcasm.”

 

Summary

The book is divided into three parts. The first is titled “The History and Collision of Cool and Christianity,” and deals largely with the meanings of the words “cool” and “hip”, providing background for the rest of the work.

The second part, “Hipster Christianity,” focuses on defining “Christian hipsters” and the “hipster churches” of today. It goes beyond the surface of the sub-culture, and touches on the ideals and values behind it.

In the final part, “Three Problems and Solutions,” McCracken finally arrives at the main discussion of the book. First he takes the stand that cool and Christianity do not meld, then he explains how they can, giving examples of how hipster Christianity does work.

Negatives

•  The first two parts are long and drawn out, and McCracken seems to be saying some of the same things over and over again. While all that background, the definitions, explanations and history are important and necessary for the discussion, they could have been condensed. He doesn’t get to the main point of the book until two thirds of the way through.

• In places, it’s wordy and poorly edited. He uses a lot of big uncommon words that aren’t a part of the average person’s vocabulary. A good portion of the content could have been written using a lot less words, and many of the fancier words could have been replaced with simpler ones that mean the same thing.  

•  Many portions of the text in part three seem unorganized and full of ramblings, while not pushing deep enough into the topic. It starts to read like a research paper for English class, going a little too heavy on the quotes and references to other works.

Positives

• The book is well researched and thought out. McCracken does not simply give his own opinion. He writes about visiting different hipster churches worldwide in preparation for the book, quotes a large number of expert and relevant sources on the topic and references a good amount of Scripture in appropriate contexts. 

•  It’s non-bias and well-balanced. It’s not an advertisement for Christian hipsterdom, nor is it a condemnation of the church. Rather, it is an honest search for the truth and a well-balanced evaluation of the topic and question at hand: whether or not Christianity can, or should, be cool. 

• He writes in the beginning that he is not out to bash or criticize the church, and he does well in keeping this promise. He points out not only what Christians are doing wrong, but also what they are doing right and how they can do better.

Good Quotes

“Cool and Christianity clash on a myriad of points. In fact, they share very few attributes in common. No wonder ‘cool Christianity’ frequently becomes so awkward and ugly! It’s like mixing oil and water.” (Chapter 11: “What’s So Wrong With Cool?”)

“I’m convinced that most secular seekers today care very little about how cool church is, but very much about how authentic it is. They are interested in the church being the church. They want the church to know what it is and be honest with itself and the world, and to quit putting on airs of glossy marketability and perfection. People see through that.” (Chapter 13: “Reversing the Ripple Effect”)

“Christianity’s appeal comes not from culture but from within—and the minute we start looking outside our own identity for affirmation about our relative relevance, we immediately begin to lose our cool.” (Chapter 14: “Relevance Is Not A Fad”)

Conclusion

The question is an important one in today’s culture, and one that Christians, cool and uncool alike, need to address.  Overall, this book does a good job at explaining Christian hipsterdom and the controversies surrounding this sub-culture. 

To learn more about Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide, or to take a 30 question “Are You A Christian Hipster” quiz to determine your “CHQ (Christian Hipster Quotient)”, visit hipsterchristianity.com. 

(In case anyone’s wondering, yes, I took the quiz, and yes, I failed. Miserably.)

The Story That Will Never Be Written

Imagine a library bigger than any you have ever seen, bigger than the Library of Congress. It is filled with so many books no one has ever tried to count them. But it doesn’t matter how many books are in this library because people don’t go there much, and it is usually empty. Every once-in-a-while someone will stumble through the doors by accident, not quite sure how they got there, and stay only long enough to take one book off the shelf, flip through its pages, and return it to its place.  No one has ever read any of the books from these shelves, but even if someone were to try, it would be impossible.

Every page in every book in this library is blank.

Such a place exists. Figuratively, but it exists. I know this, because I’ve been there. In fact, I was there today.

The last thing I remember before suddenly finding myself in the library, I was sitting on my bed looking through a photo album. I had paused at a photo of my late Great Aunt Lettie and was trying to remember what was going on in the captured scene.

In the photo, we are sitting around a table at another relative’s house in New Jersey, and Aunt Lettie is entertaining everyone with one of my brother Eddie’s puppets. 

I remember we were all laughing so hard our sides hurt and some of us had tears in our eyes.

Eddie loves puppets and is always doing skits with them, so when Aunt Lettie started fooling around with the puppet that day, some of us started encouraging her to write a skit for him to practice with his puppets at home. She loved the idea, and promised to work on it and send it to him in the mail. Almost every time we saw her or talked to her after that, she would mention the puppet skit, and say she would be sending it soon.

It never came.

She died before she could write it.

I hadn’t thought about that day or the puppet skit in a long time until I looked at that photo. And that was then when I looked up to find myself in the library.

When I arrived, I saw a book on the shelf in front of me that seemed to stick out just a little further than the others, which were lined up perfectly even with each other. It seemed to be calling out for me to pick it up, but somehow I couldn’t. I don’t know how, but I knew, like in a dream, that this book was Aunt Lettie’s puppet skit.

I selected a different book from a nearby shelf and began flipping through its blank pages, but immediately wished I hadn’t. Just like I’d known the identity of the other one without touching it, I knew this one the second I opened it. I thought of Tom O’Hara, a man who used to live down the street from us.

“Mr. O.,” as I called him, was an extremely talented yet unknown photographer, and would capture the image of a flower as small as my fingertip and then have it printed the largest poster size available. He also took beautiful pictures of the many old barns around the area where I live.

On several occasions, he offered to show me how to use his camera and teach me about photography. I always said yes, I’d love that, and I think we made plans a few times to start, but we never got around to it. I kept saying I’d come over one day soon, but was always busy with other things, so it would get put off again.

He died a couple years ago, and now that will never happen.

I knew as I flipped through the pages of the book that this was its story.

Again, although figurative, this library exists, and every book on its shelves is a story that was intended to be written, but never was and never will be.

The purpose of the library, however, is not for its guests to be reminded of and have them dwell on their unwritten stories that will never be, but to encourage them to take note of their unwritten stories that still can be, and finish them.

Just as everyone has past regrets, everyone has potential future regrets and unwritten stories that threaten to end up in the library with the others.

What are yours?

Meet Jazz.

Meet Jazz, my guitar. I named it “Jazz” because it is blue like jazz, and “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller is one of my favorite books ever. If you tell me that’s too corny, I’ll just blame it on my friend Katy, who came up with the idea in the first place.

Miller explains the title in an author’s note at the beginning of the book. He writes, “I never liked jazz music because Jazz music doesn’t resolve.” Then he tells about watching a man play the saxophone for fifteen minutes without opening his eyes and how after that, he liked jazz music. “Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself,” he writes. “It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.”

It’d be hard to sum up what Miller means by “any of this” because the book is full of mini stories and essays about a variety of things. The first time I read it (I’ve read it a few times now) I put it down at the end and said, “Wow. That was a really good book. But I have no idea what it was about.” 

I think the book’s subtitle describes it best: “Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.” 

I don’t want to give too much away, because if you haven’t read it, I hope that you will. I would like to share with you, however, two things about what the book means to me. 

First, “Blue Like Jazz” is a book that brings people together. I lost count of how many times I’d be sitting somewhere in public (a coffee shop, work, school…) reading it and someone would walk by or glance in my direction and say something like, “Hey! Good book!” or “Blue Like Jazz! I love that book!” and even if we didn’t know each other, a conversation would start from there. 

One of these instances occurred this past year during the beginning of my first semester at college. I was reading in the lobby area at school when a professor walked by, saw the book, and exclaimed, “Blue Like Jazz!” Although it may seem like a small thing, to me it was cool to find that connection during a time when I was still somewhat apprehensive about being back in school and trying to get used to the new environment.

The second thing about this book is that each time I read it, it makes me think. A lot. Even though I’m not sure I agree with everything in it, I have to resist the urge to go crazy with the highlighter on every page because so much of it stands out to me. Here are just a few quotes from what I did highlight:

“And that’s the tricky thing about life, really, that the things we want most will kill us.” (page 77)

“Andrew would say that dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something, Andrew would say, is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe, Andrew would say.” (page 111)

“If loving other people is a bit of heaven then certainly isolation is a bit of hell, and to that degree, here on earth, we decide which state we would like to live.” (page 173)

“There is no addiction so powerful as self-addiction.” (page 182)

Some of the chapter names make me laugh. Chapter five, for example, is titled, “Faith: Penguin Sex,” chapter six is, “Redemption: The Sexy Carrots,” chapter twelve is, “Church: How I Go Without Getting Angry,” and chapter 15 is, “Community: Living with Freaks.”

Seriously, if you haven’t yet read the book, read it, even if you’re not into Christianity or religion. What have you got to lose?

And if you’re one of those people who can’t stand to read, but prefers to just watch the movie instead, you’re in luck because this fall, “Blue Like Jazz: The Movie” is expected to be released in theaters. 

The story of the movie itself is almost as inspiring as the story it tells. Just like the book, “Blue Like Jazz: The Movie” brings people together. And I can say this even before I’ve seen it, because it has already brought a whole community of people together—4,495, to be exact (of which I am one). You can read all about that at www.savebluelikejazz.com. 

I just watched the teaser trailer, and in case you can’t already tell, I am very excited about the movie. Of course, I don’t expect it to be just like the book. After all, how do you take a non-fiction book that is a series of essays, and turn them into a story with a plot and a climax without changing and adding some things? 

But I do expect it to be amazing.

At least, I hope it will be, because otherwise, I’ll have to re-name my guitar, and it took me three years to find this name!

You can also see another preview of the movie at: http://isthisgonnagetweird.tumblr.com/ The password is "yeah probably" with the space. Check it out!