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3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Two people with personal religious doubts meet, each is stronger after their encounter Jul 15, 2007
By Charles Ashbacher
The contents of this book are not quite what the title would lead you to believe. Nagy is an ordained minister and on a cold night, he is out and about engaged in a personal mental struggle over his religious beliefs. As he walks along an urban pathway, he encounters a man named John who also seems to have a need to ponder the world alone. John is the person filling the saint role here.
They engage in an extensive conversation, which has some good points. Both men are clearly thoughtful people who have issues with the leaders of the Christian religious structures. Generally, they do not doubt the fundamental Christian dogma; their questions are largely the universal and personal ones concerning how the individual relates their individual differences to the group norms. In general, they succeed in raising some basic questions of personal Christianity.
However, the book falls flat in the same way that many books about religion are weak, when there is an attempt to question science. On pages 99 and 100, there is a section called "Scientific Proof", which is nothing worthy of the name. There is a brief mention of spontaneous generation and the origin of life that moves to the physical theory of strings as the basic component of matter. The section closes with the sentence, "String theory, explained in a Biblical context, I was impressed!"
Well, I was not. Entire volumes containing very advanced mathematics are necessary to explain the complexity of string theory. The idea that a conclusion of the magnitude that the quoted sentence implies could be reached in two pages is ludicrous. Similarly, the fundamental theory of the development of life on Earth through spontaneous generation over millions of years is an extremely complex idea. It just cannot be explained or sensibly argued either way in a few paragraphs.
In conclusion, this book is in no way about a saint as the term is normally used. It is about two men with doubts who "coincidentally" meet each other. To both of their benefits, rather than their doubts reinforcing each other's, each tends to cancel the other's out, leaving each stronger after the encounter.
4 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Interview With A Saint Feb 21, 2008
By Cathy L. Leslie
After reading this book again I find it very phony. Disappointing and a huge waste of money.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
The Flipside of Scrooge Nov 11, 2007
By Lloyd A. Conway
We're all familiar with how Dickens had an old, hardened sinner receive supernatural visitors in one last attempt to open his eyes to reality. Mr. Nagy recounts a mirror-image experience: A weary believer meets a saint. Their discource, mpromptu during the course of an encounter while out walking on a winter's eve, has as it's fruit of a clarification and renewal of the believer's faith. Whether taken literally or allegorically, such conversations are a time-honored literary device used, for example, by Boethius to recount his philosophic death-row musings as a conversation with Lady Philosophy.
The author raises questions relating to church (read: denominational) doctrine and faith. They bring to mind certain Biblical passages in which Jesus Christ points out how the Pharisees have put their traditions above God's own word, making it of none effect. As a former pastor, the author has insight granted to only a small minority of his readers - how a faith leader confronts doubts about the truth of his denomination's interpetation of Scripture as a guide to both belief and action. The text is devoid of specifics that would tie it to a particular denomination's creed, giving the writing broader appeal and a greater quality of timelessness. Instead, the conversation is presented as a general discourse on what constitutes a living relationship with God, both individually and corporately.
In thinking about the life of a body of believers, the author's Saint classifies churches into three broad categories: Near, Distant and Far. These caregories reflect how closely each type of body carries out the calling of God. A Near Church is typically established by someone heeding God's call, who then sets out to follow that calling. (Although no specific examples are given, one can easily name some: The early Church in Acts being most prominent, and Wesleyan Methodism being a more recent example.) Spiritual gifts and works befitting such an organization will abound. Perhaps a Near Church example would be the Church at Smyrna, as described by St. John in Revelations, Ch. 2. A Distant church is simply a Near organization that has lost some of it's original closeness to God. Perhaps they think that the messenger has become more important than the message. Perhpas they get bogged down in personality cults or (relatively) petty doctrinal disputes. One might think, going back to Revelations again, of the Church at Ephesus as being an example od a Distant Church.
Unlike Near and Distant Churches, Far Churches do not have their origins in the Call of God, but in the will of man. Perhaps they originate because of a doctrinal or personality-driven schism in a Distant Church. Perhaps they are like some of the televangelist cons that get exposed from time to time, where they are basically enterprises of, by, and for the profit of man. None of the Revelation churches, not even Laodecia, would fall into this category. (To be fallen implies that one was risen at some point.)
Present in all of these organizations are what the author calls 'runiers,' people who do as his epithet implies. Somewhat analogus to Ayn Rand's 'moochers,' they are like locusts, feeding off the system, even while assuming an Olympian stance of critical disdain for it. These are the folks who will point out vever flaw in an organization, not for the purpose of correction, but to empower themselves. This is the class of humans that produces the worst - the author used the phrase, 'archtypal devils.' The Nazi concentration camp guard may have been a brute and a criminal, but he is not in the same league as a Mengle, a Beria, a Pol Pot, or other cool-minded, rational, destroyers of the innocent in pursuit of their utopian, egotistical vision. These enemies within ane not the source of a Near organization's downfall, however: They can be exposed by the just and defeated. Rather, it is the Laodecian disease - under-committed souls whose lukewarmness invites their being spewed out of the Master's mouth that kill an organization. Their proliferation is what gives ballast to the tendency for the Near to drift into the Distant. (This explanation mirrors some findings of Organizational Development, and one can see it at work in non-churches. One might think of automakers who lose their car focus and make more money off of financing, or of manufacturing firms becoming milti-industry conglomerates, and the like.)
Along the way, the author touches on a number of subjects, restating traditional beliefs in what Kipling called "The Gods of the Copybook Headings' - basic truths about work, family, prayer and obedience, that need restating, even for believers, now and again. He reiterates the importance of works, especially, as the product of faith; in a Protestant-cum-secular society, this is especially important, as the American Church, of whateverr denomination, tends to be long on the "God is love' stuff, but short on requiring of it's flock anything much beyond, "I believe, I believe." In closing, let me offer one more example of the reverse-parallelism with Dickens: Whereas Marley's Ghost recounts to Scrooge how he'd forged his chain of eternal bondage in life, link by link, the author and his Saint see a vision of Heavenly denizens wearing robes studded with diamonds, each representing souls they'd won (as instruments of the Divine) to Christ on Earth. Putting the emphasis for Christian living back on the Great Commission is surely a good work in itself, and more that enough to overcome a few minor flaws that the reader will encounter along the way.
-Lloyd A. Conway
 An interview with a Saint Sep 09, 2011
By Leanne
I am so glad I chose to read this book as I wanted to read something with Spiritual meaning as was lacking faith in myself and I wanted to assess my life. This book answered all my questions and doubts. I read it within two days as I just could'nt put it down. After reading this book a felt uplifted and enlighting. I definately have been embraced by the light and feel I will be able to build better relatiomships with people. My faith has been restored and most importantly to me I learned the difference between Salvation and exaltation. I am so glad I came accross my book it had so much meaning and I learned so much and about myself too.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Inspiring and practical! Nov 30, 2008
By B. Bridges
Mr. Nagy details an inspiring account of hope that everyone can apply in their lives to bring them closer to their Creator and help them gain greater joy and peace in their lives. So many of the teachings of this book are practical, clear and easy to apply and bless the life of the reader I highly recommend this wonderful book! Thank you Mr. Nagy for writing such a simple and important book!
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