{"id":42529,"date":"2013-12-30T08:00:40","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?p=42529"},"modified":"2013-12-30T09:03:43","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T16:03:43","slug":"24-when-we-were-on-fire-the-dismantling-of-christian-cliches-capc25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2013\/12\/24-when-we-were-on-fire-the-dismantling-of-christian-cliches-capc25\/","title":{"rendered":"24. When We Were On Fire: “The Dismantling of Christian Cliches” #CaPC25"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

All this week,\u00a0the writers of Christ and Pop Culture unveil their 25 most loved things<\/a>\u00a0of \u00a02013.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Previous<\/strong><\/a> #25: From Up On Poppy Hill<\/em><\/p>\n

#24:\u00a0When We Were on Fire<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Addie Zierman<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a reason that Addie Zierman\u2019s debut work<\/a> was named by Publisher\u2019s Weekly as one of the top 5 religion books of 2013. In lovely,well-paced prose that moves more like a novel than a memoir, Zierman ushers her readers into the heady evangelical youth culture of the nineties, complete with Jesus Freaks and True Love Waits, WWJD bracelets and See You At The Pole. (Her descriptions brought back so many memories for me that I immediately called my two best friends from high school and told them to order the book.) Zierman tells the story of finding her place within that \u201con fire\u201d Christian culture as an insecure teenager, but neglecting to develop a sense of her self apart from it, instead seeking mainly to be the good Christian girl that the \u201cmissionary boys\u201d wanted to marry. When the youth group ended, though, she found that being \u201con fire\u201d for Christ left her only with ashes. \u00a0Through depression, alcohol, friendship, and love, Zierman begins to find herself \u2013 and God \u2013 again.<\/p>\n

Zierman\u2019s story is compelling, but the most important work she does in telling it is the dismantling of Christian cliches. Each chapter begins with a word or phrase (such as \u201clost,\u201d \u201ccommunity,\u201d or \u201cchurch-shopping\u201d) and its definition within Christian culture. Near the end of the book, Zierman explains how many of these phrases have become worse than cliches: they\u2019ve become what psychologist Robert Lifton called \u201cthought-terminating cliches\u201d. \u00a0In this type of cliche, \u201cthe most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases.\u201d \u00a0Zierman realizes that the real work of faith has nothing to do with saying the right words (such as \u201cI\u2019m born again!\u201d), but rather is about finding the real, complex, and often inexpressible truth at the heart of those words.<\/p>\n

Next<\/strong><\/a> #23: Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep Us Apart<\/em> by Christena Cleveland<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All this week,\u00a0the writers of Christ and Pop Culture unveil their 25 most loved things\u00a0of \u00a02013.\u00a0 Previous #25: From Up On Poppy Hill #24:\u00a0When We Were on Fire\u00a0by Addie Zierman There\u2019s a reason that Addie Zierman\u2019s debut work was named by Publisher\u2019s Weekly as one of the top 5 religion books of 2013. In lovely,well-paced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1354,"featured_media":42565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1484],"tags":[2705],"class_list":["post-42529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature","category-ofthemoment","tag-capc25"],"yoast_head":"\n24. 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