Genre: Allegorical Fiction/Motivational

Not Recommended!

The Final Summit is an interesting read. It fails, however, to offer a biblical perspective, and when I read Christian literature that’s the one thing which matters most.

The premise of the story is that God is mad at the world and planning to destroy it unless humanity can restore itself. There is a summit held in the heavenlies where prominent historical figures from all time (not necessarily Christian) and our ordinary hero, David Ponder, meet to “find the one principle that will save humanity.” I love the concept of historical figures coming together to discuss and learn from each other, and some (but not most) of the dialog was really interesting. The writing itself, unfortunately, was only okay: not riveting, not well researched, and predictable. And the theology was–well, it was like asking random people on the street what they think of God and recording its essence without ever having read the Bible.

These were the major theological problems I saw: 1) the nature and character of God in the story do not line up with the God of the Bible, 2) the characters are in heaven and yet God is not central to their thoughts or conversation–even after meeting God at close physical proximity they engage in humanistic, self-centered, thinking, and 3) there is only one thing that can save humanity–Jesus!–but this is not what the story’s heavenly summit found.

Even as a secular book, The Final Summit is only mediocre, but as a Christian motivational message it completely misses the mark.

I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogging Program through booksneeze.com.