书评：《狂热的爱》(附英文原文)
“你的爱让我如此狂热。”
碧昂丝在歌曲《狂热的爱》里这样唱到。虽然陈恩藩所著《狂热的爱》一书并没有引用这句歌词，不过把歌里的神秘男人换成永生的神，歌词也会很贴切：神的爱应当让我们变得狂热。
陈恩藩是美国加州硅谷房角石教会的教导牧师，也是Passion（这个词表示“激情”，也指耶稣的受难——译者）大会的常驻讲员。《狂热的爱》这本书挑战了那些安于现状的“基督徒”。陈恩藩在序言里说这本书是“写给那些渴望更多得着耶稣、对美国基督教感到无聊的人”（21页）。陈恩藩认为，挂名的、不冷不热的基督徒的症结在于对神的认识不准确（22页）。
概述
《狂热的爱》的结构很简单。在第一部分，作者提出问题。他回顾圣经中神的品格，挑战我们关于“神是谁”的狭隘观念。第二部分，他挑战自以为是的基督徒来省察自己。他描绘出不冷不热的基督徒形象，并且得出结论说“‘不冷不热的基督徒’是一个相互矛盾的概念，实际上没有这种人。说得直白点，经常去教会却不冷不热的人其实不是基督徒。天堂里看不到他们的身影”（81页）。
陈恩藩知道这番话会让人产生畏惧和罪咎感，所以他以指向神的爱来回应。对于不冷不热的人，他指出爱神是唯一的出路，“出路就是你要让神来改变你”（103页）。
接着，陈恩藩挑战基督徒的生活方式应当与这个世界对话。第7章的标题是“你最美好的生命……在后面”。他期望基督徒的生活方式有别于这个世界。我很赞同他提到的一个事实，基督徒的狂热和特立独行不应该表现在对这个世界的价值观的欣赏，而在于教导这个世界的人对未来有指望。所谓狂热的基督徒是那些传递爱的人、去服事的人、愿意冒险的人、谦卑的人、看自己为寄居者的人、目标专一的人、委身的人、愿意牺牲的人。
叫醒挂名的基督徒
《狂热的爱》一书实质上是对挂名基督徒的提醒。陈恩藩正确地指出问题的症结：对于神错误的认识。他也指出许多的基督徒害怕承认：那些挂名的、不冷不热的、三心二意的“基督徒”实际上并非基督徒。陈恩藩也简短地平衡了他富有挑战性的言论。他说，“我不想让真信徒因为这本书而怀疑自己的救恩。即使我们在学习爱神的路上屡屡跌倒，神仍然以恩典覆庇我们”（87页）。
作者也理解让信徒去察验自己可能会使他们倾向于把行为和得救联系在一起：
“也许听起来我好像是要你们通过自己的努力来亲近耶稣。不是这样的。我完全相信我们得救是靠着恩典，借着信，是神的礼物，而真实的信仰会在我们的行为当中显现出来……”
但是，今天美国许多自称“基督徒”的人，他们的生命却没有传递出有力、活泼的信仰。说实话，这有些吓到我了（95页）。
如何看待过着平凡生活的基督徒们？
总体而言，这本书对基督徒是一个很好的提醒，陈恩藩呼吁他们来重新看待神，审视自己是否活出了一个被改变的生命。不过，我确实希望陈恩藩能够处理得更小心一点，不要让真信徒气馁。陈恩藩的确已经设定了立论的基础（参见166,168和172页），但是我希望他做得更多。有一些人虽然从未去埃塞俄比亚宣教，也没有变卖所有的家产，但是他们却在工作中忠心地传福音、照顾他们的家庭、爱护他们的教会，不应该打击他们。
陈恩藩所引用的大部分经文突出用激烈的方式表达对神的信心，但是那些要我们在平常生活中活出信仰的经文却较少触及。以马太福音24:45-46为例，人子回来的时候，看见忠心有见识的仆人“按时分粮”给家里的人，“主人来到，看见他这样行，那仆人就有福了。”耶稣用这个例子来鼓励信徒在日常的工作、家庭和各种关系中活出信心。同样的，保罗也鼓励信徒过“平静安稳的日子”(提前2:2，新译本)。圣经要我们对神存有强烈的信心，但是这种委身在不同情形下的表现是有区别的。
一根有用的刺
对于一些人来说，这本书是一根有用的刺，因为他们把基督信仰看作是头脑中对一系列事实的认同，而不是用来改变生命。但是耶稣对我们的呼召乃是要去“尽心、尽性、尽意爱主你的神”（太22:37）。
Book Review: Crazy Love, by Francis Chan
“Your love has got me looking so crazy right now.”
So sings Beyonce in her song “Crazy in Love.” Francis Chan doesn’t quite use this line in his book Crazy Love, but switch out Beyonce’s mythical man for the eternal God, and the lyric works nicely: God’s love should make us look crazy right now.
Chan is the teaching pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley California and a regular speaker at Passion conferences. His book Crazy Love challenges the “Christian” status-quo. In the preface, Chan says that this book is “written for those who want more Jesus, and are bored with American Christianity” (21). Chan argues that the problem with nominal or lukewarm Christianity is an inaccurate view of God (22).
OVERVIEW
Crazy Love has a simple format. In the first section, Chan addresses the problem. He reviews God’s character from the Bible and challenges our small understanding of who God is. In the second section of the book Chan challenges professing Christians to examine themselves. He gives a profile of the lukewarm and concludes,”A lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are lukewarm are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven” (81).
Chan knows that what he has said will produce fear and guilt, so he counteracts that with pointing to God’s love. He says love is the only answer for the lukewarm: “The answer lies in letting him change you” (103).
Chan then moves on to challenging Christians to live counter-culturally. The title of chapter seven is “Your best life…later.” He wants to see Christians living differently from the world. And he gets the fact—rightly I think—that Christians are provoked to be crazy and distinct not by talking about the value of this world, but by teaching them to store up their hope in the next. It’s these Christians who become “obsessed”—who become lovers, servers, the humble, the risk takers, the sojourners, the engrossed, the dedicated, the sacrificers.
A WAKE-UP CALL FOR NOMINAL CHRISTIANS
Crazy Love is essentially a response to nominal Christianity. Chan rightly goes to the root of the problem, a wrong understanding of God. He also says what many Christians are afraid to say: that nominal, lukewarm, half-hearted “Christians” are not Christians. Chan also briefly balances his confrontational language. He says, “I do not want true believers to doubt their salvation as they read this book. In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us”(87).
Chan also understands that by calling believers to examine themselves they may be tempted to look to their own works for salvation:
Perhaps it sounds as though I believe you have to work your way to Jesus. I don’t. I fully believe that we are saved by grace, through faith, by the gift of God, and that true faith manifests itself through our actions…”
But,
The lives of many people who call themselves “Christians” in America lack manifestations of a vital and active faith. And this, to be perfectly honest, frightens me (95).
WHAT ABOUT THOSE WITH NORMAL LIVES?
Overall, the book is a good call for all to look anew at God and examine themselves to see if they are living a changed life. However, I do wish that Chan would have been a little more careful not to dishearten those Christians who are simply living faithful Christian lives. Granted, Chan does cover his bases (see pages 166, 168, and 172), but I would have liked to see him guard more against discouraging those who do not move to Ethiopia or sell all their possessions, but who faithfully evangelize at work, serve their families, and love the church.
Chan quotes a lot of Scripture that speaks of our radical faith in God, yet he does not interact much with verses that speak of us simply being faithful to God in our everyday business. For example, Matthew 24:45-46 speaks of the Son of Man coming back and finding the faithful and wise servant who “give[s] them their food at the proper time. Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.”Jesus here encourages believers to be faithful every day in their jobs, families, and relationships. In the same vein, Paul encourages the Christians to live “quiet and peaceable lives” (1 Tim 2:2). The Bible calls us to be radically faithful to God, but this devotion will look different in different circumstances.
A USEFUL PROD
That said, this book is a useful prod—a prod for anyone who treats Christianity as if it only means intellectually assenting to a set of facts, but not something that changes your life. Jesus calls us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”(Matt. 22:37).
书评作者：Patrick Schreiner
Patrick Schreiner是俄立根州波特兰市西部神学院的新约讲师。
用圣经视野和实用资源装备教会领袖
进而通过健康的教会向世界彰显神的荣耀
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