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Christianity Explored

Warmly evangelistic

CHRISTIANITY EXPLORED
By Rico Tice and Barry Cooper
Authentic Lifestyle. 162 pages. £4.99
ISBN 1 85078 383 7

An evangelistic book which takes readers to the text of Scripture has got to be a good idea. This book uses Mark's Gospel to introduce the good news of Christ to people.

If you are familiar with the Christianity Explained course (now revamped in the Christianity Explored course), the structure of the book will be no surprise to you.

The four basic elements of the course are here. Jesus's authority, Jesus's death, Jesus's resurrection and salvation by grace are each given a lively chapter using the Markan text as the jump-off point in just the same way that Christianity Explained does. Instead of the separate course elements on repentance and faith, we are given a chapter on the topic 'What is a Christian?' and two chapters on 'Choices' in which the decisions of Herod, James and John, and blind Bartimaeus are examined. These chapters provide a pointed and powerful evangelistic punch to the book. There is a final chapter for those who have prayed to become Christians on the four chief ways God provides support for his people, namely through the Holy Spirit, prayer, the church, and the Bible.

It is well written and quite a page-turner in its own way. With plenty of contemporary illustrations and stories, I suppose its target readership is probably 20 and 30-somethings. There is a warmth and solidity to the book, in that the reader gets the impression that the writers are very familiar with their material, have tested it out in many evangelistic situations and have handled the various reactions before.

It is reminiscent of some of the great 'studenty' evangelistic books of the past which used to be written by people like David Watson and Michael Green. The book is to be particularly recommended for the clarity of the message and the fact that it pulls no punches with respect to Jesus's demand for discipleship, that we must take up the cross if we are to follow him. The only negative, I suppose, is that it uses so many references to recent films that it will have quite a short shelf-life. But then, I suppose, it could be updated and reissued every couple of years.

It would be good to give to any non-Christian and certainly would make a fine follow-up to any Christianity Explained or Christianity Explored course. Well done, you guys!

JEB
John Benton