God Is Disappointed in You

By: Mark Russell, Shannon Wheeler

Narrated by: James Urbaniak

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

God Is Disappointed in You is for people who would like to read the Bible...if it would just cut to the chase. Stripped of its arcane language and interminable passages, every book of the Bible is condensed down to its core message, in no more than a few pages each.

Written by Mark Russell with cartoons by New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, God Is Disappointed in You is a frequently hilarious, often shocking, but always accurate retelling of the Bible, including the parts selectively left out by Sunday School teachers and church sermons.

Irreverent yet faithful, this book is a must-listen for anyone who wants to see past the fog of religious agendas and cultural debates to discover what the Bible really says.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2011 Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Entertaining Biblical summary

If you could sum up God Is Disappointed in You in three words, what would they be?

Makes Bible simpler.

What other book might you compare God Is Disappointed in You to and why?

Can't think of any. Rather unique approach to summarizing the books of the Bible.

Have you listened to any of James Urbaniak’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Don't know if I have, but I certainly enjoyed this performance. Just the right tone!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not that kind of book.

Any additional comments?

I grew up less than fond of reading the Bible. I was put off by the "begats" and by the arcane language and customs, the violence, the wrath of God, and the emphasis of rules and regulations over the spirit of the laws. I did like the more succinct stories, like those of Noah, David, Esther, Ruth and Jesus. I felt connected to Jesus' message of love and forgiveness. This book, God Is Disappointed In You, is a humorous but not, in my opinion, irreverent summary of each Biblical chapter, epistle, letter and so on of the modern Christian Bible. Arcane language--no way! Page after page of genealogy? No worries, not included. What the book does best is to pare down any action in each Bible book and present it in terms of the featured spiritual point. I found the book to be an enjoyable review of a very dense text. I also purchased the author's next book, Apocrypha Now, which is about ancient texts that relate to Biblical matters yet were excluded from the official Christian Bible, for a variety of reasons. I have no familiarity with those writings. I was raised Catholic. The Apocrypha was never mentioned in the Catholic schools that I attended. Heaven forbid that we should discover and then read any of these disgraced writings and be influenced by them! So I am looking forward to reading another pithy summary from this excellent author.

Lighthearted, casual bible with swearing :)

I read/listen to a fair bit of biblical criticism (Robert M. Price, Richard Carrier, Bart Ehrman). The problem is, they get very specific and I didn't have a good overview of the entire bible for context. This book is a great condensed version that's basically no interpretation, here's the story as it is, and you can believe it or not. It's VERY casual, which I thought was entertaining, but a religious person might not like that their holy book is being paraphrased so irreverently. The reader did a GREAT job of conveying the spirit of the the text.

Hysterical! Fun! Quirky! Cool!

What made the experience of listening to God Is Disappointed in You the most enjoyable?

Having grown up on the buckle of the bible belt, I revered the Bible as the only true, infallible, authoritative Word Of God... A bible thumper all the way UNTIL ... I actually sat down and read the darned thing.

After starting at Genesis and ending at Revelation, I was appalled. No wonder kids heard the story of Noah and the ark and Jonah in the whale over and over and over in Sunday Scool. Poor old teachers can't tell the stories of murder, rape, mayhem, drunkeness, and incest! The kids would need counseling!

As an ex-Christian, I picked up this book thinking it might bring a measure of balance to my view of the bible. And it did! The authors tell these bible stories in 21st century speak and it's just delightful! A truly fun way to explore the main stories of the bible.

What was one of the most memorable moments of God Is Disappointed in You?

Loved Deuteronomy! "Last thing we need around here is a nut-clutcher!" Laughed out loud on that one! The laws in Deuteronomy are so outlandish read straight out of the bible, but the authors treatment of the text just makes it all so much more ca-razy and funny. Love the naughty words throughout!

Have you listened to any of James Urbaniak’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is my first experience with this narrator. He is just plain brilliant. Perfect for this particular book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

God is Disappointed in You ... and all of your family for generations to come.

Any additional comments?

I took the bible SO SERIOUSLY in my youth ... I was 'on fire', 'sold out', totally surrendered to the holy spirit. Total Jesus freak. Had I read this book back then, I'd have been enraged. Now that I've distanced myself from Christianity and the 'letter of the law' thinking I was so prone to, I can view this book from an entirely different vantage point.

God is Disappointed in You is refreshing. It's honest. It tells-it-like-it-is. This work nails these nutty bible stories in such a way, that it should be a wake up call to anyone who takes the bible in its entirety too seriously. There's a ton of good stuff in the bible worthy of living by, YES ... but some things are simply dumb and yet, we have many churches and individuals clinging to the bible as if it's the final word on all things "good". But so much is BAD. (Either bad or dumb.)

The next time someone says to you, "I just live by the bible", tell them to read this book. They DON'T. No one can. And you'd be labeled insane in you did.

Stories your pastor / priest never told you.

Hilarious narrative of one of the most misunderstood and often quoted books ever written. Doesn't seem so great after hearing this!

Hilarious!

A condensed, and hilarious retelling of the Bible narrative.

I see some of the negative reviews and I can't help but see quite a few of them as people ticked off about the content of this book going against what they believe their Bible says.

I've read the Bible page for page, and this book accurately recounts the core narrative of each of the individual books of the Bible (albeit in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.)

I found this book hilarious and well worth the listen.

original and fun Fun, not too serious and sharp

in the middle towards the end got a little repetitive.
enjoyed the narrator. Sounds like he was having fun being silly

Crib notes for the Bible

How wonderful to hear the Bible boiled down to its everyday essence. No minced words, no sacrilege, just a clear, no nonsense, funny and touching summary of all that goes on in the Bible.

Wow...all around...wow!

Great, refreshing storytelling. I think he got this right. Hilarious, entertaining and well worth it. Got my kids hooked. Would rec.

Loved it

This was a hilarious read I kept going back to listen again and again. Am definitely sharing this

Smart! Funny! Well-written! Superbly-performed!

What other book might you compare God Is Disappointed in You to and why?

I've heard modernized versions of Shakespearean plays, and it never occurred to me that this format would work so well with the Bible.