God Is Not...: Religious, Nice, ""One of Us,"" an American, a Capitalist

Move over, Joan Osborne. In this collection's first essay, Rodney Clapp brilliantly refutes the singer's notion that God is ""one of us"" and ""just a stranger on the bus,"" passively along for the ride. Rather than a rant against popular depictions of God, this essay draws upon two key biblical events (the construction of the golden calf and Jesus's humble entry into Jerusalem on a donkey) to suggest that sometimes, the fickle masses can crowd God out and create gods in their own image. Other essays in the book also iconoclastically smash popular notions of who God is: God is not a red-blooded American, not a capitalist who urges churches to behave like for-profit corporations and ministers to be ""spiritreneurs,"" not a relativist and, ultimately, not a nice, benign, wholly ineffectual Santa Claus. The authors (all men-and wouldn't it have been nice to include a woman's essay on how God is not a man?) draw from the highbrow (theologians and church historians) and the lowbrow (""The Simpsons,"" Laurie Beth Jones, ""The Jerry Springer Show"") to demonstrate more clearly what God is by highlighting what God is not.