Customer Reviews

At the Heart of the Universe: The Eternal Plan of God

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is literary in style, original in approach and comprehensive in scope given its brevity. Over five short chapters, Jensen, an Australian theologian, explicates Christian doctrine beginning from the end. The gospel of Christ is the driving force of the book. This book also has the advantage of being by a believer - it avoids the coldness of much theological writing and Jensen reveals a passion for his subject. Definitely worth a read.

Peter Jensen puts Jesus Christ in the centre of God's plans. This is not quite correct; the Bible puts Jesus in the centre of God's plans and Jensen just reports on it. If you accept the Bible as being the Word of God you will probably enjoy this book, if you do not accept the Bible as the Work of God you will certainly not like this book.

"At the Heart of The Universe" is one man's stab at trying to condense orthodox Christian doctrine into one 170 page book. Starting from the "End Times" and working backwards -- because this methodology should allegedly make the theology of God's purpose and salvation (AKA soteriology) clearer -- all Jensen manages to do is bore and confuse. If you know absolutely nothing about Christian doctrine whatsoever, this book might be OK for a very quick precis. However, it /is/ one man's own theology with references, biblical and otherwise, mostly missing.

Women will be saddened to hear that Jensen also insists that we must call God by a male personal pronoun and that we must neither seek God's feminine side (God as Mother) nor must we remove the personal pronoun (Creator God). As far as I'm concerned, womankind can do without yet another Christian book which seeks to invalidate one of the most basic parts of our identity.

Bottom line, this book is tedious and sexist. It is only the fact of it's doctrinal orthodoxy which saves it from getting one star. Readers who want a *good* book on Christian theology by a conservative, orthodox Christian should rather put up with the 560 pages of Alister E. McGrath's "Christian Theology, An Introduction." This serves as a good reference book, is heavily cited, and much more intellectually honest.