Although Christianity is the world's largest religion, with its numerous denominations, and differing opinions on many central tenets, it can be a difficult faith to understand. In this unique and authoritative introduction, renowned theologian Keith Ward examines differing Christian perspectives on themes ranging from original sin to eternal life, and reveals a wonderfully multifaceted tradition united in a common belief, whose impact has been felt in the most remote areas of the planet.
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"An excellent book in the questioning Beginners Guides series. Examining all the key themes, and then comparing all the different Christian perspectives to these themes, make it a guide for those who like to think a little deeper on the issues." -- Publishing News, October 5, 2007
About the Author
Keith Ward is Professor of Divinity, Gresham College, London, UK, and Regius Professor of Divinity, Emeritus, of the University of Oxford. He is author of the best-selling "God: A Guide for the Perplexed", and "Pascal's Fire".
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A bit disconnected,
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This review is from: Christianity: A Beginner's Guide (Beginners Guide (Oneworld)) (Paperback)
I bought this book because I really liked Keith Ward's essays in another book ("The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis") and because I'm looking for a good, simple, clear book that could be recommended to new Christians or seekers. Unfortunately, for each chapter in this book Ward gives three different viewpoint--usually a traditional conservative view, a standard liberal view, and what might be called a third-way or progressive option. To me this results in a confusing, disconnected experience for the reader. I wish he would have instead divided the book into three sections, where each section would cover all of the points from start to finish for each of the three viewpoints. I also wish he would have omitted terms like "perichoresis" and "pleroma" and just kept the language simple.
I found the Atonement section particularly disappointing. He didn't spend enough time here in making a persuasive or plausible case for any of the views or models of the atonement. By comparison, S. Mark Heim, in his book, "Saved from Sacrifice," gave concise, persuasive, compelling summaries of all of the various traditional atonement models (and Heim made compelling cases for each model even though he isn't satisfied with any of them as they are traditionally understood). Bottom line is that I'm still looking for a good, simple, clear introduction to Christianity. I will read more of Ward's books, though, because I think he does have some very interesting ideas regarding theology and philosophy.
2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This is WRONG!,
By J Book (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Christianity: A Beginner's Guide (Beginners Guide (Oneworld)) (Paperback)
For a book entitled the way it is, it doesn't seem very exclusive in what it "teaches"..
Well, this is what the Christians say or the Bible teaches... but really there are many ways to look at this... I have shredded my copy just so no one else would be fooled into thinking what this title says is accurate Bible teaching. What it states inside is not the same regardless of denomination. A book like this could ruin the lives of many new Christians. There is only ONE way to get to Heaven... there is not a grab-bag full of options! Christianity, Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc...ARE NOT THE SAME!
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