Primal – Our Generation Needs a Reformation

Over the past week I’ve had the privilege of diving headlong into one of my favorite author’s newest books. First, he challenged us to run from the comfortable, predictable Christian life so many of us had become used to and chase the lion in his first book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. Then, in Wild Goose Chase, he invites us to break out of the twisted, upside down cages in which we often dwell and set out on the adventure of following the Holy Spirit. Well, Mark Batterson has done it again. Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity plumbs the depths of the Christian faith and emerges with the most fundamental truth of all Scripture: Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Mark unearths problems the Church all too often keeps buried under dusty hymnals and pious jargon.  “Christianity has a perception problem. At the heart of the problem is the simple fact that Christians are more known for what we’re against than what we’re for” (6). We’ve been shaking our fists at the darkness while all along the world needed us to simply turn the light on.  And my generation has turned from the church for that and a hundred other reasons.  That’s a problem. And if we could stop plastering on our plastic masks and lip-syncing our praise songs long enough to notice, maybe we could do something about it. Now, before you think I’m spitting invectives at the church, know that I am the Church…and I am guilty.  So Primal brings a voice to the concerns I’ve had for many years. But more than that, it provides a solution.

We need to become great at the Great Commandment.

That may not be the best one-sentence summary of the book, but it sets our focus on where the solution lies. If the greatest commandment of all of scripture, then why don’t we spend all of our effort on loving God?  Perhaps we’ve never done a great job at asking the question, “How do we love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength?”  And that’s exactly what Primal sets out to answer.

The book embarks on the adventure in four different parts, focusing on each of the arenas of life in which God calls us to love him. “Think of it as love to the fourth power” (7).

The heart of Christianity is primal compassion.

The soul of Christianity is primal wonder.

The mind of Christianity is primal curiosity.

And the strength of Christianity is primal energy.

The one qualm I have with the book is the missing half of the Great Commandment which I see, as Jesus put it, as “equally important” (Matt 22:39, NLT). That, of course is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s only in the past several years that the Gospel, indeed, all of Scripture has come down for me to simply this:  Love God and Love People. From what I’ve seen of Mark Batterson, I can’t hold this against him at all.  I know he holds the second commandment in high esteem.  He may simply be practicing the principle of teaching less for more.  I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if his next book reveals powerful insights into what it means to love our neighbor.  Still, if I must read Primal with a critical eye, this minor issue is just about all I can complain about.

Mark Batterson uses his unique insights and experiences to take us on a journey into the heart of Christianity. You will be moved to compassion. You will experience profound awe at the wonder of God. You will be given all the reason you need to explore creation and knowledge with the curiosity deep inside you. You will see your daily action as an opportunity to love God. And you will set down this book with a primal desire to love God more in every way.

So, let Primal strip away the years of mortar and clay that cover your once fully-alive faith, wipe away the perceptions that have clouded your sight, and take you down the stairway to “rediscover the compassion, wonder, curiosity, and energy that turned the world upside down two thousand years ago.” This is an invitation; an invitation to embark on a quest for the lost soul of Christianity. An invitation to be astonished again.