#bookreview: The Bad Habits of Jesus | Leonard Sweet

The Bad Habits of Jesus: Showing Us the Way to Live Right in a World Gone Wrong by Leonard Sweet
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think I was expecting a lot more of this book than what was delivered. I mean, it's a cool title. It felt like it was going to be one of those cool, cutting-edge books that blows your mind and opens your eyes. You know, something like Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.

Instead, The Bad Habits of Jesus reads like rushed blog posts, like short soundbites cobbled together screaming for attention in an oversaturated world. It doesn't read like a book - which was what I was expecting it to be. Maybe I have over-defined criteria to segregate the media I consume.

At the same time, it felt like Sweet was overextending himself and his definitions in a bit to fit his title. An easy example would be Chapter 2: Jesus procrastinated -

Jesus delayed doing what he wanted to do or needed to do because the timing wasn't right, because he was telling time by his Father's clock and making the most of the time his Father had given him. Jesus stalled because "There is a proper time and procedure for every matter"(Ecc 8:6). High procrastination for Jesus was less to put off doing things than to wait for the right moment to do things, which often conflicted with the timetables and schedules of everyone else.

Look, I get what Sweet is trying to say, but it basically turns out to: you may think Jesus procrastinates! But he doesn't! He's doing things at the Right Time!

So yeah, you may find some good stuff in here, but it's written in a way that I'm disinclined to take seriously. I may be showing signs of age here.
If you're looking for something on bad-ass Jesus and how to live radically, I'd say maybe you should pick up Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World instead.

Note: I received an e-ARC of this book via Edelweiss for review purposes.

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