Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge
When I received the book Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge I was eager to start reading. I enjoyed the first of the book where the authors wrote of the importance of women to God and also how the Devil is out to try to destroy our relationship with God, but the more I read the less I enjoyed reading. In my humble opinion, I feel that many of the descriptions of Jesus and God as a woman’s lover just did not seem quite right and they left me with an uneasy feeling. I had the definite feeling that Stasi and John used scripture more to validate their own ideas than to prove the worth and role of women. Many of their scripture references were on target, but I found many to be theologically unsound. To me the most unsettling, theologically unsound statement was on page forty-five when Stasi or John wrote, “Eve was given to the world as the incarnation of a beautiful, captivating God-a life offering, life-saving lover, a relational specialist, full of tender mercy and hope.” That is not what my Bible tells me.
One thing that I really did not like about the book was all the references to secular movies, poems, books, and songs. Many of them I had never heard of and even if I had, I did not see the advantage of using such references. Another problem was that many times I would read half a page or more before I knew if it was Stasi or John writing. It was good to have both a woman’s and a man’s opinion in the book but knowing at the beginning of a paragraph who was writing would have helped tremendously.
I am of the opinion that probably the book has more value for younger women and girls for much of what was in the book seemed irrelevant to a woman in her sixties or older. We women are never to old to be the woman that God wants us to be but I think that we can do that without this book. I will probably tell friends about this book but will tell them to keep an open mind and an open Bible when they are reading it.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”