We Become What We Worship

A Biblical Theology of Idolatry

By: G. K. Beale

Narrated by: Kent Klineman

The heart of the biblical understanding of idolatry, argues Gregory Beale, is that we take on the characteristics of what we worship. Employing Isaiah 6 as his interpretive lens, Beale demonstrates that this understanding of idolatry permeates the whole canon, from Genesis to Revelation. Beale concludes with an application of the biblical notion of idolatry to the challenges of contemporary life.

©2008 G. K. Beale (P)2022 Tantor

Choppy Narration

The content was good, though a little long-winded at times. The narrator was distracting with how choppy he spoke.

Great content, poor narration

The book itself is great, and I purchased the audio version to have better access to it while driving. Unfortunately the narration is too difficult to listen to. Sentences are spoken with unnatural breaks and pauses, and the pronunciation of words makes it too difficult to follow. I hope it’s re-recorded, because it’s well worth a listen… just not by this narrator

One of the best books

Wow. This book used so much Scripture reference, my head was spinning from it, and my entire view of the Bible was brought into greater understanding. It is hard to listen to an audiobook with all the Scripture references named because it feels like “interruptions,” but it just requires greater focus to not mind-wander during the many Bible book/chapter/verse references. But it is worth the extra effort because the content of this book is pure gold. I am so thankful for this book and everything GK Beale writes. He does not ever get “fluffy” with his writing, but stays solidly Biblically focused and on point. He is one of my favorite Reformed writers/theologians right there with Thomas Watson and JC Ryle.

Excellent Content, Choppy and Painful Narration

I finished this book two weeks ago, and I am still foundering its implications. Beale, an outstanding theologian (in my opinion), has produced a thoroughly researched and popularly-sophisticated work in "We Become What We Worship." Please note- this is a more scholarly work, and, at times, it has lists of Scripture references and citations that would be helpful to follow but not practical in the audio format. I will be purchasing this book for my personal library and will likely take plenty of notes in the text. I would give the content 5 stars (especially the first chapter outlining his biblical theological method in approaching the subject at hand. I will be using this chapter alone for a class I teach on Biblical Theology!).

Narration
I nearly quit listening to this book because of the narration! It was unbelievably choppy. My nine-year-old daughter, who overheard me listening to this book, asked me if the narrator was a robot (and that was at nearly a 2X speed)! It feels like, every couple of words and the narrator encounters a period. To be fair, I know that reading a more technical book out loud is a challenge, usually forcing a narrator to read slowly. This is why we have variable listing speeds, which are a huge blessing. However, even at 1.7X speed, this was still a painful listening experience. Increasing the speed helped, but the narrator still had the choppiest reading cadence I have ever encountered. Here is an actual sentence from the book with punctuation reflecting the narrator's cadence (The beginning of chapter 4, chosen at random for the purpose of fair representation): "Four: The origin, of idolatry. In. The Old Testament. Though, Genesis 4, does not, explicitly label, Adam. and Eve's sin, as, idolatry. We must investigate further, whether, or not, the concept. of idolatry, is present, there." I kid you not; this is how the whole book goes.

Summary
Overall, the content is great, but the narration is challenging to listen to.

Fantastic Insight

Overall a great study on Idolatry. I would recommend to every preacher and teacher for group study. I was irritated by the pronunciation of non English words

Excellent book

The book is fantastic! One of the best I’ve heard. The performance, though, is rough. Had to listen at 1.7 times speed for it to sound normal.

Deep, comprehensive biblical theology of idolatry

The message is clear enough from the title, but the depth and comprehensive work of Beale here rewards us in this study.

Very poor narration.

The contents of the book are great just like everything Beale writes. However, the narrator reads like someone who is just learning to read. The narrator emphasizes the wrong parts of sentences, pauses in random places, and overall sounds like he never familiarized himself with the book before recording which is very distracting and makes following the arguments made in the book quite difficult.

I love the title but...

The delivery is not well presented. The author lists more references than I have ever heard in a book.