Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 78 votes)
5 stars
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78 reviews
April 17,2025
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Ravi Zacharias attempts to answer questions of pleasure and vice from a biblical perspective by creating a fictional conversation between, at turns, Oscar Wilde and Jesus Christ, as well as Wilde and Blaise Pascal.

It was fine. I might have liked it better had I read it as a play instead of listening to it. The narrator was a bit Drrrramatic (with a capital D); his line reading was irksome. That may have colored my opinion a bit.

I listened to this book via Audible in the summer of 2018.
April 17,2025
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Ravi had a great imagination and voice capture! But I found the work all too predictable and rote.
April 17,2025
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Its a Good one....want to read it again...want to espouse it to the bone.....
did like the explanation on how imagination overpowers reason....how men seek cure in them for all the miseries .....the need of law...wanting and pleasure needs a proir moral commitment...this is a good book.


April 17,2025
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A quick read. This book is relevant and timely. A lot of big ideas packed into a small space. The modern views on pleasure and purpose are presented and discussed within the context of the Christian perspective. In addition, Zacharias has piqued my interest in both Blaise Pascal and Oscar Wilde. I'll probably end up reading several biographies.
April 17,2025
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Before reading this book I didn’t know much about Wilde’s (Is “trivial” too much? I don’t want to exaggerate) personal life. The truth about him struck me while discovering how sensitive Ravi Zacharias touched this subject through the characters he brought in dialogue with Oscar Wilde, Jesus Christ and Blaise Pascal, before his death. The wonderful serendipity in choosing Pascal was the fact that Zacharias didn’t know about Wilde’s interest in him, his reason being totally different. Going through the dialogue, touching Wilde’s life, concerns, heart, sins, one can see a loving gentle Jesus who is answering to Wilde’s questions about ‘pleasures and satisfaction’. The author’s compassion heart, who is not condemning writer’s ‘wild’ life, is seen also in the end when he is explaining the reason of writing this book reminding of one of the Lord’s parables that fits so much to Wild’s death! I would recommend this book to be read after Wilde’s “The Portrait of Dorian Grey” because, in a subtle way, there are references to it.

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Asta-i o caracteristica ciudata a oamenilor...sunt preocupati de faima lor chiar si atunci cind nu vor mai fi de fata ca sa se bucure de ea.
April 17,2025
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One of my friends recommended this book to me. I didn't really understand The Picture of Dorian Gray, and this book goes hand-in-hand with it. It's an imagined conversation between Jesus and Oscar Wilde. Very interesting. I love Ravi Zacharias' books!
April 17,2025
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Good information, a bit of a dry yet detailed read, creative, but also quite sad.
This is unfortunately the last book I'm reading by this author since his credibility and reputation have gone down the drain... which renders much of the philosophical and beautiful sentiments in this book useless coming from his mouth. I think you would have to know a lot about Oscar Wilde before reading this book in order to fully grasp what is going on
April 17,2025
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Very refreshing concept of Christian apologetics! I did like that it was all in the form of dialogue, which could even be used as a script for a theatre play!

Moreover, the way in which the author unfolds the debate is very appealing to thinking.
April 17,2025
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Interesting approach . Reads like a play.
Juxtaposition of Wilde and Pascal is amazing in imagination.
Did not realize they were buried in the same cemetery.

Made me think of The Smiths song about Wilde being on Morrissey’s side ….
April 17,2025
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This is probably one of the best books I have ever read. In fact, I read it 3 times the weekend I got it. It's a very slim volume, but I love Oscar Wilde and I love Jesus. I think I'll go home tonight and read it again!
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