God’s Not Like That by Bryan Clark

Clark writes about how families influence views of God and contains much common sense - but does not address non traditional family situations in any depth

God’s Not Like That - Redeeming Inherited Beliefs and Finding the Father You Long For
By Bryan Clark
David C Cook
ISBN 978-0-8307-8439-4
Reviewer: Pieter J. Lalleman

Not often has a book’s title misled me so completely. As a biblical scholar, I asked for a review copy of this book when I was about to start a sermon series on God (God’s qualities). I expected to receive a book like Packer’s Knowing God or R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God. Instead, the American pastor Clark writes about how families influence views of God. He argues that the family in which we grow up determines our view of God, much more than our church, the sermons we hear or anything else. Although he does not provide scholarly evidence for this view, I think he has a point.

The book continues as a plea for healthy, loving, traditional families. There are chapters on how fathers influence views of Jesus and how mothers influence views of the church. In both chapters, Ephesians 5 is used in a rather careful way. Another chapter follows Paul Vitz in arguing that people often reject belief in a personal God because they had a defective father. There’s a chapter on how God disciplines and one on grace; these two come closest to what I expected of the book.

The author invites personal reflection on our own family of origin by means of questions and suggestions for journaling. His book is thus much more about pastoral theology and psychology than about God. And as far as I can see, he is a good psychologist. Theologically I am less impressed by the hidden suggestion that by observing good parents we learn about God without the need for explicit teaching about God.

The book contains much common sense, such as that children need discipline, but it uncritically promotes traditional role patterns in the core family. Clark shows awareness that not everyone grows up in a traditional family but does not address such situations in any depth. I commend this book to people who are not sure that God loves them and to their pastors.

The Revd Dr Pieter J. Lalleman is the minister of Knaphill Baptist Church

Baptist Times, 12/04/2024

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