I was sent this book by the publisher, through Adam Walker Cleaveland, many thanks.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must start by saying that David James Duncan is, by his own admission, not a fundamentalist Christian. His ideas about “Christianity” would be defined as “heretical” in that they do not conform to Orthodoxy. However, David James Duncan does not deceive the reader on this point. He does not claim to represent any kind of Christian Orthodoxy. As such, he is writing as “an outsider”. While he grew up in a fundamentalist Seventh Day Adventist tradition, he did not remain there and his views have taken on, what most Christians would label inclusive or universalist.

He defines himself as a follower of Christ’s teachings, as well as the teachings of the prophets and teachers of all great wisdom traditions.

This does not, in any way, discredit Duncan. On the contrary, I believe it lends credibility to his words which are very honest and, at times, almost brutal, cutting to the quick. Duncan is the type of person “we” need to be listening to. His words are words we need to not only hear but respect and heed.

His words bleed and drip off of the page. Sometimes they feel like nails on a chalkboard, the sound of them ripping into the reader’s very core.

God Laughs and Plays is a collection of “sermons” given over time, to various audiences and for various purposes. Duncan speaks about religion, politics, the environment, justice and charity, war and in turn, peace. He is bold but also soft hearted and humble in his views of the world and humanity at large. He is a modern day mystic and seems to be sincere in seeking an inclusive faith that still embraces the work of the divine and the role of the human on this planet and in the world to come.

Duncan’s words are dangerous to Christians, not because they seek to “undo” us but because they are challenging and profoundly insightful. Many will find Duncan too inclusive and will, to their detriment, dismiss this book as unnecessary. I would challenge those people to give it a chance.

One of my favorite essays is boldly titled, “What Fundamentalists Need for Their Salvation” where he adeptly discusses issues such as censorship, the use of the term “God’s Word” to describe the Bible and criticizes how far we have come from our historic faith and how little we now look like Jesus.

I have grown increasingly frustrated with our “Americanized Christianity” and am seeking, in my own life and ministry, a simultaneously deconstructed and complete life of a Christ follower. Because of this journey, I strongly related to this:

“The kind of fundamentalism that now more or less governs our country does not just proudly pronounce the word “God,” it defines and Americanizes “God,” worships its own definition, and aims to impose that definition on all.”

Duncan says this about what our response should be to the far right fundamentalism that still dominates American Christianity:

“The defamation of a religious vocabulary cannot be undone by turning away: the harm is undone when we work to reopen each word’s true history, nuance, and depth. Holy words need stewardship as surely as do gardens, orchards, or ecosystems.”

The chapter titled “When Compassion Becomes Dissent” was incredibly moving. Duncan recounts several stories and sets of statistics that are both maddening and insurmountably sad. He talks about living a life of fiction and making it reality. Which, Biblically speaking, is very much what “faith” is all about.

“Ernest Hemingway’s is the definitive statement about this. “Make it up so truly,” he said, “that later it will happen that way.” This, I dare say, is Christ-like advice, not just to those practicing the artform know[n] as fiction writing, but to anyone trying to live a faith, defend the weak, or sustain this world through love.”

I could go on and on quoting my favorite “sound bites” from this book as there are so many, but I will end with this: I firmly believe that people like Duncan have a voice in what we call the Christian community. If we censor or attempt to muffle that voice, it will be our undoing.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, not just the mystics, the seekers, the spiritualists, democrats or environmentalists. If you can set aside your own ego, your own “truth is truth” speeches and prevent yourself from putting up defenses, you might just come away having grown a little bit.