Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering
by David Gregory
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Book Summary Information
Author: David GregoryEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-07-12
ISBN: 1578569052
Number of pages: 112
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781578569052
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering
Book Review: Apalling, Biased Views of Other Religions
Summary: 1 Stars
I am a Hindu, and it frustrates me that this book is so popular, because it totally misrepresents my religion, as well as other religions, perhaps even Christianity.
I do not believe that the Universe is God, as this book says I as a Hindu do. I believe that God is IN the universe. I am a PanENtheist, not a Pantheist. Hinduism teaches that this universe begun 19 billion years ago, which is in agreement with the modern scientific estimate of 12-20 billion years ago. Yet this book says that I believe this universe had no beginning! Not at all. I believe that this is just one of many universes. Universes come and go, and there are more than one at any time. It is also incorrect that "no one accepts anymore" the fluctuating universe model. There ARE modern scientists rethinking that model. I would not be too distressed as a Hindu if the fluctuating model was incorrect, because our most authoritative Scripture reminds us that ultimately, we do not know. "Only He knows, and perhaps not even He." So these other models of the universe in Hinduism are simply allegories of spiritual truths. Like a parable of Jesus - they teach us spiritual truths, not materialistic ones.
I find it ironic that the book appeals to science in an attempt to prove Hinduism wrong, and yet it totally disregards science where it conflicts with Christianity.
Right and wrong are inherent in the universe. There is ultimately no good and bad however. That is because the labels "good" and "bad" are OUR evaluations of events. We are capable as humans of reframing events. What seems bad to us may actually turn out to be good, and vice versa. But we do not cause harm to others. As Hindus, we most certainly do have a basis for morality, unlike this book says.
In short, the author of this book has no understanding of my religion. How maddening that someone with such poor understanding of my religion would publish a book in which he has Jesus - a rightfully respected man - spouting misleading views of my faith.
It handles Buddhism in the same shallow way. It perpetuates the misunderstanding that if Buddhism is followed, no one could accomplish anything, because in order to accomplish something, you need "passion." The Buddha most certainly accomplished things after his enlightenment, so this idea is absurd.
Sri Krishna teaches us that our longing, our passion, should be for him. We are not excused from engaging in work, and activity, however. But we must not be attached to the results. We leave the results to the Lord. So in business, we work hard to turn out a good product in an ethical manner, and we give it our all. But what if that does not sell? That is up to God. We leave that to God. We do our duty, and we trust in God.
Buddhism also does not teach the negating of all "desire" as Gregory "informs us" in this book. What it teaches is the negating of "trishna" (Sanskrit), or "Tanha" (Pali). This word is more appropriately translated as intense craving. It is a selfish craving. It is not ALL desire. Do you think that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has no desire to see his people's suffering end? He does have desire that all beings become peaceful, happy, and enlightened. But it is not selfish craving. It is altruistic desire. THAT is what Buddhism is about.
The book mistreats Islam as well. Even though there are revered Muslim writings that state the things about Muhammad (pbuh) that pg 33 of Gregory's book says, these are not undisputed. There are Muslims well within the Islamic tradition who do not accept that Aisha was 6 years old when she was married to the Prophet. It is disputed even by secular scholars, and it is quite possible to interpret the works as reading that she was much older, perhaps 14.
It is also incorrect that the New Testament has not gone through changes over the years. There are so many variations in the early manuscripts that scholars have yet to count them all. Many of these variations make a difference with regard to doctrine. The last and perhaps most crucial verses of Mark, for example, are not in the earliest and most authentic versions of Mark.
He claims that Muslims can't have a close personal relationship with God, and this is not so. Please take some time to study the lives of the Sufi saints if you want to read about some people with very close loving relationships with God.
What I ask of readers is this: Please do not take Gregory's account of other religions seriously. He is just flat-out wrong. I am a religious studies major and I have studied religions for years and have practiced 3 of them in my lifetime: Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism. Please don't let Gregory have the last word on other religions. Do some serious reading and talk to devotees if you'd like a true perspective.
Summary of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering
You are Invited to a Dinner with Jesus of NazarethThe mysterious envelope arrives on Nick Cominsky?s desk amid a stack of credit card applications and business-related junk mail. Although his seventy-hour workweek has already eaten into his limited family time, Nick can?t pass up the opportunity to see what kind of plot his colleagues have hatched.
The normally confident, cynical Nick soon finds himself thrown off-balance, drawn into an intriguing conversation with a baffling man who appears to be more than comfortable discussing everything from world religions to the existence of heaven and hell. And this man who calls himself Jesus also seems to know a disturbing amount about Nick?s personal life.
????..
"You?re bored, Nick. You were made for more than this. You?re worried about God stealing your fun, but you?ve got it backwards.? There?s no adventure like being joined to the Creator of the universe." He leaned back off the table. "And your first mission would be to let him guide you out of the mess you?re in at work."
????.
As the evening progresses, their conversation touches on life, God, meaning, pain, faith, and doubt?and it seems that having Dinner with a Perfect Stranger may change Nick?s life forever.
In Dinner With a Perfect Stranger, David Gregory relates the story of two men sharing a meal. The point of interest is knowing that one man believes he is Jesus. What will the other man think by the time the evening is through? The conversation begins, as one could imagine, scratching the dry hard surface of skepticism and doubt, but gently and persistently goes deeper and deeper, spiraling in from that starting point until they are eventually talking about the true stuff of life; the career drifting off-track, the marriage experiencing its own kind of strain, the life being lived where the philosophical questions of youth have given way to simply coping with modern day-to-day living.
Gregory's book is a refreshing reminder of what evangelical Christianity is at its very best -- a faith enlivened by the personal relationship between the Creator and the created. In the end, evangelical Christians are focused on who Jesus Christ is, and more specifically, who He is to them. Doctrinal stances, theological conundrums, questions about literal or non-literal Biblical interpretation, these are all beside the point for the certain type of Christian whose central focus is the life and person of Jesus.
In the Narnia series, C.S. Lewis touched on some of the core questions of religion, from the Christian viewpoint (is there a hell? What is heaven like, really? How can other religions be wrong, and just one be right?) Taking his cue from Lewis, Gregory does the same, realizing that questions like these come alive when they're in the context of a story, and we can be the third party, watching with interest while they are put on the table and considered. In the end, Gregory's book succeeds because of his willingness to approach interesting, hard questions like these. He is always, undoubtedly, aiming for the heart, but he realizes that to win the heart one must never forget that the mind has to come along for the ride. --Ed Dobeas
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