Jesus, Pope Francis, and a Protestant Walk Into a Bar- Book Review

Preamble: I received the ebook copy of this book from NetGalley. I am in no way obligated to give the book a positive review, but I am required to state that it was given for review purposes.

There are two stories I want to share before I review Jesus, Pope Francis, and a Protestant Walk into a Bar by Paul Rock and Bill Tammeus. The first one is a personal one.

I used to worship with the Brothers at the Abbey of the Genesee, who were the subject of Henri Nouwen’s The Genesee Diary. I would chat with Brother Christian often before worship started (he was also in Nouwen’s book) about life, faith, and the state of the Catholic Church. There were two conversations about the pope that stuck out for me. The first was when Pope Benedict was still the Pope. I asked Brother Christian what he thought of the Pope. His response was, “we survived other popes and we will survive him too.” I take it he was not a big fan of Benedict. The second conversation was when Pope Francis had been established for a few months. I asked the same question. BC stated, “We have a pope that understands what it means to be a follower of Jesus!” I am guessing BC was a big fan.

The second story is much shorter and it concerns this book. I started to read this book during my lunch time, yesterday. I happened to be in a sushi place waiting for two rolls. By the end of my lunch, I was over half way through the book. It wasn’t an hour lunch either. This book comes in at a scant 96 pages in printed form and has pictures at the beginning of each chapter, at least in the format I received, which may not be the final format. This doesn’t mean it is a bad book though, just a very short one.

The book was created from a series of sermons given while Pope Francis had been somewhat established as pope. He had been on magazine covers, taken selfies, sold the papal motorcycle, and had done other activities which got the attention of the major media and the Vatican. One running theme is that Pope Francis has kept the Vatican on their toes.

It is difficult to translate a sermon series into a book that is approachable, but the authors both do so fairly well. There were a few chapters that were blips, in the sense that they didn’t add much to the overall theme and were shorter than the rest of the chapters, as if they were added to fluff the book a bit more.

The format runs the same throughout each chapter- a Bible passage, a bit about Pope Francis, a bit about Jesus, and a bit about our journey. If it were still a sermon, it would be a typical three point sermon. There are also study questions at the end, which threw me just a bit as I wondered if I would use this in a study with anyone as a pastor.

Summarizing the overall theme, it is Jesus asked us to do a certain thing, doing that thing is difficult, but if someone like Pope Francis can do it, so can we. That seems a bit belittling, but it isn’t meant to be. The format worked for me and even challenged me in places. The book also focuses on how Pope Francis is breaking down walls that have been in place similar to what Jesus did when he was here.

The book is for theology nerds, Pope Francis lovers, or people looking for a quick devotion. For those looking for deep theology, this isn’t the book for you, but it is a fun little read. I got a bit out of it, which made me happy.

I would give it a solid 3.5 stars- slightly above average, but recognizing it isn’t for a very large audience.

Here is the Amazon link again- Jesus, Pope Francis, and a Protestant Walk into a Bar.