I have seen a growing number of Christians begin to pick up books by Comer over the years. Has anyone read any of his books? It’s seems he focuses on spiritual disciplines.
I looked him up and some sources say he rejects the immutability of God and also the substitutionary atonement. He emphasizes living and loving like Jesus over the emphasizing the wrath of God in the gospel message.
I know he was a pastor out in Portland Oregon a few years ago before he handed it off to Tyler Staton
I would recommend against him. I've read his book on the doctrine of God (God Has a Name), and interacted quite a bit with his video teaching. He is heterodox in quite a few areas, most notably his understanding of God, and where he is orthodox (like
some of his teaching on the spiritual disciplines), you can find better teachers amongst the Puritans and Church Fathers who aren't as compromised. In his teachings, he draws on a far-too-wide list of sources: from R.C. Sproul to universalist mystics like Richard Rohr. But he draws on the heterodox far more than the orthodox, including positive citations of open theist Greg Boyd to defend his understanding of God's mutability. Although he affirms penal substitutionary atonement in his writings, he only does so by name, and does little with the doctrine in practice. Instead, he prioritizes Christus Victor to the point of neglecting the doctrines of Hell and total depravity. He is openly against the Augustinian theological tradition - I wouldn't be surprised if he goes the open theist route one day.
Some of his stuff on the spiritual disciplines is good, and he does put his finger on quite a few cultural problems within the church that need to be fixed. However, he gets a lot wrong too (especially his individualistic understanding of Sabbath), and what he gets right on the spiritual disciplines is readily available from better sources.
I think the two major reasons for his popularity is 1), his approachability - he is very easy to read and listen to; and 2), his marketing strategy. He has done a great job of making his content easy to find, ingest, and share, especially for those who would otherwise never read a book about Christian living. His videos are very visually appealing and engaging.
If you want to grow in your spiritual vitality, read the Puritans and listen to their advice. They too practiced Scripture meditation, fasting, Sabbath, Christian friendship/brotherhood, generosity, service, etc. And they did so with a far better theological foundation than Comer.
