Blue Like Jazz (Miller)

Discussion Questions 
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started fo Blue Like Jazz:

1. In what way is Miller's understanding of his faith like jazz. How are the two related in Miller's eyes?

2. Talk about Miller's first journey of faith: how he came to his beliefs at Reed College in the confessional booth during the annual Ren Fayre. What happened when he went inside the booth "with doubts," as he says, "and came out believing so strongly in Jesus I was ready to die and be with him"? Can conversion happen that simply or easily?

3. Discuss also the way in which Miller nearly lost his faith. What brought him to the brink? How, then, did he find his path back? Have you ever experienced something similar?

4. What are his frustrations with "Christianity" or the way he sees it practiced in some quarters? Do you agree or disagree with his assessments? How does he learn to love Christians even in churches where he doesn't fit in? He refers to some of his co-religionists as "wacko Republican fundamentalists": do you find his epithet insulting? Funny? Truthful? Or...what?

5. Consider the characters who populate his book: Andrew the Protestor, Tony the Beat, Mark the Cussing Pastor. Do you have any favorites...are there some whose experiences you relate to more than others? Are their paths enlightening?

6. Miller refers to himself, somewhat ironically, as Captain Trendy Spiritual Writer. What does he mean? Do you agree?

7. Does Miller's humor enhance the message of his book? Do you find it honest? Refreshing? Glib? Irreligious?

8. In what way does Miller find Jesus is relevant to the 21st century? How does Miller interpret scripture to reflect today's culture?

9. What are the doubts that sometimes beset Miller? Here he says, for instance, "At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay." Can you comment on this interesting passage? It seems contradictory—if we've got it wrong, how will we be "okay"?

10. What other passages struck you in this book—passages that you found interesting, insightful, puzzling, humorous, wrong-headed?

11. In what way does Miller's book affect your own faith...or lack of it? Does it confirm your beliefs, alter them? Does it challenge you in any way? Is this book safe for your pastor to read? How about your children!

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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