Comments on: Book Review: Escaping the Matrix by Gregory Boyd & Al Larson

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:10:18 +0000

I think what is being overlooked here is that boyd and larson both address the fact that many christians are having a difficult time with certain situations that hinder their christian walk. The woman who was afraid of spiders for example, that is not sin, it's a real phobia the woman had and by what her walk with God was in her life it should not have had that sort of dominion over her and freezing her up with the thought of bugs. Sometimes one must reframe the events in a visual manner or remain a slave to that visual. We all respond differently whehter it be to a smell, a sound or a visual, so this book in my mind clicked on some very good points esp when one is not sure what the muck is hanging around in their mind because one they are afraid to look to far into it, and for another example, at the end of the book there was a woman who had no clue why she had been depressed her whole life so it stands to reason that if she did not know what caused this how could she operate on the idea that she could correct her interpertation.
I loved the book.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 03:35:48 +0000

My simple understanding of a reframing exercise is that you reframe what you think about what was happening. You correct your interpretation of what was happening, rather than change in your mind the content of the events of the memory.
What you describe this book encouraging seems to go farther than that to writing over old memories with new ones. To be successful, I honestly would expect this to have a similar result as hypnosis if not identical means.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 03:03:20 +0000

*Correction. The final line should read “are far from Biblical.”
Apart from the theological issues, it seems to me that this sort of practice would be dangerous. Any time we go about altering our memories I would think we're tampering with something we shouldn't be tampering with. It's not quite hypnosis, but it is still altering things. I wish I knew more about this field, but all I can say is it just doesn't seem like a good thing to do.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:30:41 +0000

I like meditation as a practice. I can appreciate the psychological benefit of reframing the past as a therapy. To suggest that this is a primary Christian discipline, though, seems strange.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2005 04:35:50 +0000

I picked this one to review because Greg Boyd is usually criticized for his teachings on open theism, however, I know a number of people who have appreciated some of his apologetics work. So I thought this might be something worthwhile since it wouldn't have much to do with open theism (and from what I can tell it doesn't.) I wanted to believe that was the only problem with his theology. Even towards the beginning of this book there were a few odd things but I thought they were just minor and the rest of the book would probably be good. It just got wierder and wierder. The most dangerous theologies/practices are those that are baptized in spiritual language because they are more deceptive. What Boyd and Larson offer is very much wrapped up in Biblical language, but the theology & practice are from Biblical.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2005 03:44:53 +0000

Our perspectives are often different, Roger, but I agree that what you describe in this book is not good. Honestly, it sounds eerily like the kind of theology one would start a cult with.
God changes me. I am transformed by the Holy Spirit. I may even come to understand the past differently given new truths. The methods you suggest this book promotes are peculiar at best.