Title: Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith
Author: Robert Gelinas
Info: Copyright 2015: Book does not reveal a publishing company, so I assume it is self-published.
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮✮
Category (ies) - Recommended reads:
This book was a suggested read by the couple who leads our community groups ministry. I'm on my second attempt at heading a book discussion group, and they thought one of our pastor's volumes would be a good fit.
Synopsis: What do jazz and the Christian life have in common? Should they have anything in common? Pastor and self-proclaimed "jazz-theologian" Robert Gelinas uses Scripture and the history of the evolution of jazz music to give the reader an alternative to how traditional Christianity is studied and practiced.
For my First Line Friday "first thoughts" on this book, please see my post here.
Select Favorite Quotes:
Syncopation is not limited to musicians; it just requires an eye and ear for that which goes unnoticed and unheard in life. p. 17.
When we make a “personal” decision to follow Jesus, it is simultaneously a decision to join a community. p. 65.
A jazz- shaped approach to the Scriptures emphasizes knowing them by living them in community. It is not just reading our Bibles, but letting the Bible read us. Instead of always interpreting the word of God, we desire more that it interpret us. p. 91.
It's hard to make pain smooth, and jazz doesn't attempt to do so. Consequently, a jazz-shaped faith knows how to redeem pain. It recognizes that it is fashioned in the circumstances that cause the heart to ache. When we sanitize suffering, we create a soulless faith. p. 130.
The positive
- My being a musician who understands (for the most part) the structure and history of jazz made the prospect of this subject matter exciting. The three elements of jazz (syncopation, improvisation, and call-and-response) and their application to the Christian life was fascinating.
- Gelinas mentioned several pieces of media to explore, including Ken Burns' Jazz documentary. I found it on PBS's Roku channel and plan to watch it. Also of note are several jazz albums and works of literature from the Harlem Renaissance. My Christmas vacation may be a jazzy one.
- I had to chuckle at his description of studying at the jazz club. My thought was "How?" Jazz is not all smooth and silky. Most of the time it is hard driving, so how did he study with all that going on? Hey, it even mystified one of the percussionists playing there who asked him, "What are you doing?" (See chapter three).
The Negative:
Since Gelinas is my pastor (and has several books published while mine are still drafts on my laptop), I hate that I have anything negative to say. However, I'd be wasting mine and everyone else's time by writing a review full of lies and sucking up. So, here goes.
While the exploration of jazz was a unique take on Christian practice, I feel like there was too much race baiting that overshadowed the main message of the tome. Yes, jazz was a part of black culture and used not only as a political statement, but a means of expressing the oppression and hardships of the times--in fact, good jazz still is. However, incorporating too much of the oppression and hard times at the time of the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement would seem to alienate anyone reading the book who wasn't black. In other words, does having a "jazz-shaped" faith only include those of African decent, or at least those who are not so long as they are weighed down with "white guilt" for something they are not responsible for or participants in?
Like the author, I am of mixed heritage, but most of my ethnic make up is African. As the book dove deeper into racial history and less into the how-tos of the subject matter, I felt more questions (and consternation) rise up in my soul. The main question was "Why are we even going here?" Things fell completely apart and I came unglued when the author brought up Methodist minister and "black theologian" James Cone's assertion that "Jesus is black." Sure, he danced around it by saying that Cone wasn't talking about Jesus' ethnicity in his human form, but of how our treatment of others reflects our relationship with Christ (see Matthew 25:35-40). However, I have studied a little of Mr. Cone's story and teachings (as much as I could stomach for my theology courses anyway). During the Civil Rights movement, Cone was not on board with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision, but was more of a disciple of Malcolm X who asserted that Christianity was a tool of oppression used by whites to stymie blacks from seeking equality and to force them to worship a "white" Jesus (for more information, see Mary M. Veeneman's book Introducing Theological Method, pages 130-140).
I cannot--and will not-- get on board with that.
Also, if you know anything about our church, you'll see that it is a culmination of Pastor Gelinas' dream: It is a multiracial, multi-ethnic, interdenominational congregation of all shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities. It is the very picture of heaven in Revelation 7:9-10. No one is left out, so I don't understand the isolating tone of this book
Conclusion/Takeaway:
Full disclosure: The book study group I facilitated using this book only made it through two chapters before I lost both the participants to scheduling conflicts. Though disappointed at first, I now see that as a mercy. Why? Both participants were of Asian decent, so not only was the jazz metaphor hard for them to incorporate into their spiritual practice, I believe that as they read further into the text, they may have felt left out and unnecessarily guilt ridden...and they're not even white.
Am I saying no one should read the book? Of course not; any not-so-stellar review I post isn't about that kind of curating. In fact, I hope that any of you who are reading this review will read the book. I want to know what you get out of it. If you are of predominantly Caucasian/European heritage, I really want to know what you got out of it. I hope I read it wrong. I doubt it, but here's hoping.