Theology Thursday Book Review: Basic Christianity
Now and again I pick up a book, read it a bit, then decide to shelve it in favor of something else I'm diggin'. And sometimes I pick said book up again and think, "Why did I ever put this down?" Or I just pick it up again and decide to make it my Nightstand Book. Usually it's something that's easier to digest in small bites.
Basic Christianity, by John R. W. Stott fell into that last option. It wasn't what I'd call hard to read, but it didn't lend itself to a plow-through. And so it sat, buried on my nightstand, for more than a year. But during a hiatus in my Library Patronage, I was reading a book not suited to before-bed reading (read: on the boring side), so I needed a substitute. And here we are.
Of course, once I got within thirty pages or so of the end, I took it off the nightstand and made it my Lunchtime Book. (Lesser-known book-types: Toilet Tank Book - Dad's was usually Shogun, Desk Book, Backseat Book - The Shack for much of this year, Emergency Take-along In Case Wife Wants to Go Fabric Shopping Book - any title will do.)
There are so many titles available about excruciatingly arcane bits of theology that it's refreshing to delve, every now and then, into the simplicity of Christianity. Because, at its core, Christianity is very simple. Paul sums it up nicely in 1 Corinthians:
Stott proceeds logically through the Basics, starting with the Person of Christ (His Claims, Character, and Resurrection), then shifts to Man's Need of Him (what sin is and why it's important). He finishes up with how Christ's Work (Death and purchase of Salvation for us) fills Man's Need, and then details Man's Response to Him. This latter section was especially good, because he wrote about Counting the Cost before making a decision, and then the crucial role of Being a Christian, as opposed to Becoming one.
I'll admit I tend to get caught in a lot of Theological Arcana, so this was a good book to ground me a bit. Not that it'll stop me from blogging about all kinds of boring things in the future, mind you. But still a good change of pace.
June 11th, 2009 - 13:15
Basic Christianity is one of my favorite books. I read it first in college and was quite surprised that I liked it so much. At the time, I assumed anything theological would be boring and then I couldn’t put John Stott’s book down!