Rightly understood and rightly communicated, the Christian faith is one of great joy. It is an invitation to God’s kingdom, where tears are replaced by laughter and longing hearts find their purpose and their home. This is the heart of the gospel: God’s search to reclaim us and love us as his own. But have we truly grasped this?
Those of us who have disdained Christianity as a religion of bigotry–have we repudiated the genuine article or merely demonstrated our own prejudice and ignorance?
Those of us who are Christians–have we deeply apprehended the mission of Jesus, and do our ways and character faithfully reflect his beauty? From the nature of God, to the human condition, to the work of Jesus, to God’s coming kingdom, and all that lies between, how well do we understand the foundational truths of Christianity and their implications?
The Faith is a book for our troubled times and for decades to come, for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is the most important book Chuck Colson and Harold Fickett have ever written: a thought-provoking, soul-searching, and powerful manifesto of the great, historical central truths of Christianity that have sustained believers through the centuries. Brought to immediacy with vivid, true stories, here is what Christianity is really about and why it is a religion of hope, redemption, and beauty. Longtime collaborators Colson and Fickett address the very tenets of the Christian faith in order to renew ourselves as Christians and the Church as God’s people. Generally they do this well, first offering an overview of challenges facing the church and then moving on to specific core issues. Chapter builds on chapter, from God Is to He Has Spoken to Truth and so on to Last Things. Especially thought-provoking is the question of why so many people accuse the Christian faith of being dry and brittle. One answer, the authors say, is the church’s failure to teach what the faith is. Colson and Fickett call the church to rediscover the joy of orthodoxy, to renew the surrounding culture and to rethink how we live out faith. If there’s ever been a time in which renewal was essential, it is today, they say. Those who know Colson’s work will appreciate his pointed statements and bold words, while those looking for subtle shadings of doctrinal issues may be aghast at the lack thereof. The book’s strength lies not in minutiae but in opening the discussion on orthodoxy and what living as a Christian means by going back to faith’s beginnings. (Mar.)
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