Making Sense of the Christian Faith is an exciting and inviting exploration of the major theological doctrines of the Christian faith in the order of the biblical story. Written as a conversation in order to invite you to "jump into" the conversation, the text stimulates the reader's thinking instead of attempting to persuade a particular point of view. The book is written as a single narrative that anyone can read with great enjoyment and satisfaction. Topics include Theology, Creation, Sin, Covenant Law, Community, Incarnation, Atonement, Church and Holy Spirit, and Eschatology.
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David J. Lose holds the Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, where he has also served as Academic Dean. He is the author of Confessing Jesus Christ: Preaching in a Postmodern World.
David Lose is the Director of the Center for Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary where he also teaches with amazing students and colleagues and, once upon a time, served as Academic Dean. Author of the popular Making Sense Series, David speaks throughout the US and abroad on preaching, leadership, Christian faith in a postmodern world, and biblical interpretation. But his favorite thing to do is hang out with his family in St. Paul, MN, where he can play tennis, cross-country ski, mourn the fate of the Vikings, or get wrapped up in a game of Settlers of Catan with his kids.
David Lose continues with the conversation style he used to excellent effect in Making Sense of Scripture. At first, like a previous reviewer, I found this construct to be a bit contrived. However, it becomes an excellent way to engage in a conversation with Lose about Christian theology. I taught a course using Making Sense of Scripture, and, am now teaching this book. We are enjoying the book immensely, and find Lose's insights to be provocative and illuminating. This tends to be aimed at Lutherans - surely mainline Christians. I have recommended these "Making Sense" books to colleagues to consider for adult classes. There are some wonderful insights in what David has to say.
One reviewer did not like the format so gave this book a poor rating. In checking into who Brian Sniffen is, I learned that he is a brilliant MIT engineer and computer expert, so certainly has a good mind. He may be right that this is not the right book for a very concrete, sequential reader with the mind of a computer geek.
HOWEVER, I find this fairly simple format an excellent way to present this material to one who may not have that level of formal education. It is conversational and works especially well as a small group, class, or discussion.
Further, David Lose is widely known for his clear, honest, and sensitive way of presenting deep spiritual truths.
So this just might be the right book for you or your group. I recommend it.
The format of this course makes its study available for different kind of learners. Dr. Lose's teaching style does the same. The people (20 or so) who participated became engaged because of accessibility, but also because they began to accept permission to voice the questions of their hearts and minds. As people became more comfortable with each other, there were lively discussions, and much thought, which is the engagement I longed for and they got into.
Since studying this book, we have studied another and will being Lose's Making Sense of Scripture next week. Oh, another cool thing: 7 of the 15 people signed for this course, bought it for their Kindle! Yea, Kindle!
We really liked the format of the book, two people talking about their faith. We found this to answer some of our questions and enabled us to have a more in depth conversation on the issues.
It's good to experiment with new ways of presenting tough material to a general audience. Lose and Augsburg Fortress try a new thing with this book: they present the material as an imagined conversation. This is a new version of an old tradition, dating back to Galileo and Plato before him.
Unfortunately, writing dialogue is very hard. Lose isn't as good at it as Galileo. Here's an example from chapter 5:
>> Sure, I'm willing to see how this plays out. But I've got one other question first, if that's okay. > Absolutely. Please go ahead. >> Thanks, because I'd like to go back, for a minute, to where we left off with covenant, law, and community. > Okay. >> Well, it seems like a good plan. God chooses Israel, starting with Abraham, and through them blesses the whole world. Lots of potential there. > The authors of the Old testament thought so, too. So what's the question? >> Well, what happened? > What do you mean? >> I guess I'm wondering whether the plan failed. > Could you say a little more? I'm not following. >> You know, the plan to restore relationship with humanity and bless the whole world through the covenant...
This takes about half a page, split over two pages, to bring up a connection to a previous passage. The fake dialogue--the "Okay" and "What do you mean?" and "Could you say a little more?" take space on the page without conveying anything to the reader. That style is carried through the whole book. Very many of the lines are "Okay then" or "Yes?" or the like. That's bad enough when it wastes space through the simple bits in an attempt to be conversational and approachable. But it also dilutes the hard nuggets of historical fact at the end of each chapter....
If those hard nuggets were framed differently, they would make a good pamphlet on the history of Lutheran theology. It wouldn't be more than about thirty pages, but that's okay. As it is, there's thirty pages of good content shredded and re-stuffed into over a hundred pages of rough going.Read more ›
