The second half of this book, where Merritt explores "transformed meanings" of sacred words, is good. There are about 15 of these short chapters, so each really just feels like a little bite rather than an in-depth exploration. A lot of this feels like fairly typical post-evangelical reflection, a few of his points I found to be much more different and interesting than something I've heard before.

I really don't understand who he thinks this book is for. The first 80 pages are about rates of engagement with religion, spiritual conversation, etc., and about how words/languages live and die -- which makes me think that this book is for faith leaders, but he claims it is for people who have left/never been part of a church community.

The thing I found most frustrating is that he takes as an implicit assumption the fact that we should be "speaking God." This book is clearly addressing an audience, directly or indirectly, who does not share that value, so it felt like a gaping hole to not tackle this. It felt like Merritt offered the beginning, that religious language has turned people off, and the end, that it doesn't have to -- but not the middle, that there is some reason why people who have been turned off should even bother coming back.