Review | The Walk | Shaun Alexander

Tweet

The Walk by former NFL star Shaun Alexander is apparently written for those Christians young in their faith, but its bland, trite style and theologically questionable premise make it a book only someone with a fairly mature understanding of Scripture ought to attempt to slog through. Even then, there would be very little reward in the end.

Alexander’s premise is this: Since “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33 - often translated as “order” rather than “peace”), that He has created a very specific path to maturity in Christ. That path consists of this series of stages: “Unbeliever, Believer, Example, Teacher, Imparter.” (pg. 21)

Up until this point in The Walk, I had actually been pleasantly surprised. I had fully expected it to be another Christ self-help book – “Here’s how to get spiritual power for your life – to be everything you want to be!” It wasn’t, and I was glad of that.

However, Alexander completely lost me here. The passage he quotes as the basis for his sequence of spiritual maturity clearly relates to worship in the church – not the progression of a believer’s growth. While it is true that 1 Corinthians 14:33 is a statement with broader implications, there is absolutely no Scriptural support for this order that The Walk is entirely based upon. Consequently, it took me about six weeks to read this short book because I felt compelled to continually question the author’s credibility. And I continually found it lacking.

He essentially invents his premise and tells the reader it’s from God, and this plagues the entire book.

There are notes of truth throughout the book, and I would encourage any believer from a non-charismatic background to read the final chapter with an open mind. Like Alexander, I believe that there are still miracles out there. We just don’t see them happen because we have cut ourselves off from this kind of working of the Holy Spirit.

At the risk of being too harsh, The Walk turns out to be a more or less useless book. I absolutely would not recommend it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as part of the Blogging for Books program.