Dinner With a Perfect Stranger by David Gregory

From the back of the book:

What Would You Discuss. . .
Over Dinner with Jesus?

That’s the dilemma facing cynical but successful businessman Nick Cominsky when he accepts an invitation to join Jesus of Nazareth for dinner at a local restaurant. Nick is convinced that his friends at work are pulling a prank. But the man sitting across from him appears to be quite serious, introducing Himself as “Jesus. My family called me Yeshua.”

Nick accepts his dinner companion’s suggestion to suspend his disbelief and “proceed as if I am Jesus.” What follows is a fascinating conversation that covers family relationships, world religions, and the afterlife, among other topics. Along the way, Nick confronts his own unfulfilled longings, spiritual uncertainties, and anger with God and he begins to wonder if the man across from him holds the answers to his deepest questions.

We listened to this book on the way to the ILs yesterday. We all enjoyed it. Serious doctrinal issues are served up with humor. It is very entertaining and yet also educational. Many of the questions that unbelievers and even Christians struggle with are addressed. Of course you must keep in mind that even Jesus's answers are still being created by a human author who doesn't have the omniscient knowledge to truly answer from God's POV, but I didn't have any problems with the doctrine presented.

One of the lines that I found funny was when Nick questioned the contradictions in the Bible. Jesus asked him to name one. Nick couldn't think of one "but I know there are supposed to be some." How typical. How many times have people spit out a statement like that and have no knowledge to even back it up. It's just the thing to say. Like "what about socialization" in the homeschool circles.

This would be a good book to share with anyone dealing with questions about Christianity. One of Nick's beefs is that Jesus claims to be the only path to Heaven and Jesus deals with that by discussing the failings of the other religions. But then he points out that even Christianity is not a "path" to Heaven. That, in fact, there is no path. Forgiveness and eternal life are a gift given freely.

I am thinking this would make a great book club book.

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