Customer Reviews

The Christian Faith: A Lutheran Exposition

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In the last ten years as a Lutheran pastor I have handed out as many as fifty copies of this pearl by Robert Kolb. Written in intelligent yet accessible English, the book has served well to describe Lutheran Christian teaching to people at the undergraduate college level and above. Vivid prose, clarity, and lucidity are high points. Kolb exhibits a rare knack for explaining complex topics in simple (not simplistic!) terms. He also succeeds in applying enduring (read, "ancient") theological themes in an emerging post-modern context.

The book arrived timely and in brand new condition. It is a very good book for anyone who has the desire to understand true Christianity and some of the false ideas that the Church has come against.

Kolb's book on "The Christian Faith" is excellent. It is very readable and understandable and presents LCMS doctrine clearly. It is refreshing to read a book where history has not been rewritten and defanged to conform to the secular political correctness dogma. This book complements the video lectures by Dr. Joel Biermann, Concordia Seminary, which is available on iTunes U.

This book is frequently used to teach basic Lutheran doctrine but it is a poor choice for such a fundamental task. Doctrine is developed from a systematic analysis of the Scriptures...yet such a systematic approach appears missing from this text. Ambiguity, not clarity, is its hallmark.

It is possible that the book appeals to those who already have a firm foundation in Lutheran doctrine in that the literary style for presenting the material is fresh and not "dull" in that dry "old school" way doctrine has been presented historically. If one already understands the doctrine the book may not disappoint but if one does not know the information the book makes it difficult to capture some of the key doctrinal positions of the Lutheran church. The book does not do a good job of:

1) Clearly sorting and labeling the topic(s) under discussion in a distinct manner (such as using bullet points, outlines, etc.,) to facilitate learning.
2) Clearly defining terms. Some terms are well defined but many terms are poorly defined or not defined at all.
3) Clearly discussing the topic at hand. There is a lot of nice language in the book, lots of literary descriptions that create lovely word images but do little to help clarify the topic under discussion. In many cases, it is difficult, if not just about impossible, to identify the Lutheran church's position on the topic...definitely not a plus for a text designed to teach doctrine!

Ultimately I gave up trying to decipher what the author was trying to say about Lutheran doctrine and I defaulted to an older text on the subject, Christian Dogmatics by John Theodore Mueller. The Mueller text is well organized and clearly communicates the doctrine, the rationale and the related scriptural references.