Cat & the Toaster

The following is a review of "The Cat and the Toaster," written by Douglas A. Hall & two co-authors. Despite its title, this is not a children's book but rather a treatise on ministry from an urban perspective. I was predisposed to receive from this work, first because it was given to me by someone whom I like and respect, and secondly because the author has lived and ministered in the city of Boston, where our church operates, for almost fifty years. I also believe in the principle of "gleaning", that it is not necessary to agree with one hundred percent of what someone says or writes in order to receive something. So it is with sadness that I report that the book has very problematic issues.
     The first is a tendency that plagues many theorists- the need to create or utilize thickets of terminology and jungles of jargon. Why not use Biblical concepts and examples? This should be the common language for Christians. I don't recall a Scripture reference in the first hundred pages of the 350 written. The second problem is taking ideas from other places and then looking for Scriptural support rather than searching the Bible and developing our thinking from that foundation. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind." (Rom. 12:2 ESV)
     Accusing people of heresy because they don't agree with one's subjective interpretations is wrong. Telling people to repent from "inadequate mental models" rather than sin falls in the same category.
     Making technology a cornerstone of one's argument with no Scriptural corroboration, and then saying that God slaying animals for the skins to clothe Adam and Eve is an example of technology is also meaningless.
     Perhaps I am too dull to understand the intricacy and loftiness of the material but I had certainly hoped for something more useful. A person's theories, no matter how elaborate, seldom survive real life.