Christianity

Christianity: An Outline Of Salvation And The Christian Life
$14.95
I found this book to be a great overview of Christianity, which I never received in 12 years of Catholic schools. The chapter on Faith spoke to me and I have reread this chapter several times. Excellent read!

Jesus Before Christianity
$15.00
Albert Nolan presents an image of Jesus before Christianity who is full of compassion and an exemplary willingness to suffer in order to conquer suffering in the world. This theme seems to run throughout the book. This, in itself is very commendable. But Nolan's Jesus has been practically stripped of his divine nature using assumptions that are reminiscent of the Jesus Seminar's questionable scholarship. The miracle stories are matter-of-factly dismissed as embellishments added later by the Church along with many other statements attributed to Jesus in the Gospels that don't fit their (desired?) image of Jesus. The reasoning supporting this reductionism isn't explained in the book, but its conclusions are taken to be well founded.

It was disappointing to me that, after 25 years since the book's first publication, Nolan still considered this view of Jesus to be entirely relevant, even more so in 2001 than in 1976 (p. ix), in no need of revision in light of the scholarly debate that has taken place in that time. Other views that one might want to consider are The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is by N. T. Wright, The Real Jesus : The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels by Luke Timothy Johnson and The Many Faces of Christ: The Christologies of the New Testament and Beyond by Ben Witherington, III. It's easy to find others who present seriously considerable challenges to Nolan's picture of Jesus and the scholarship that supports it. (For an in-depth treatment of the Gospels as eyewitness testimony see Richard Bauckham's more recent book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels As Eyewitness Testimony.)

In his work, N. T. Wright puts forth a challenge to Christians to do the difficult work of rethinking their image of Jesus in light of new historical and biblical understanding. In my opinion, studying a picture of Jesus that was in vogue 33 years ago will not serve readers well today in meeting that challenge.

The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (Story of Christianity)
$23.99
"The Story of Christianity" puts Christian monks, martyrs, popes, heretics, saints, kings, persecutors and women in their proper context. The book is a Sunday School appropriate, scholarly account of Christians who passed on the faith from one generation to another.

The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith
$14.95
Borg writes clearly enough, but his premise is fatally flawed. In essence, he starts out with his beliefs and rejects anything in the Bible inconsistent with his beliefs. It's circular reasoning at best.

I have no issue with people who reject the Christian scriptures because the content is inconsistent with their beliefs. This is something I respect. But to parse the Christian scriptures starting out with a particular viewpoint ('I would prefer Jesus had never claimed to be the Son of God, so I will reject those parts of the Christian scriptures that document that he did') is childish. Grow up.