Customer Reviews

Theology for a Troubled Believer: An Introduction to the Christian Faith

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

 

 

Theology for a Troubled Believer differs from other books by Diogenes Allen in at least two ways. First, he spends more time in biblical exposition. This book is a blend of the biblical and the philosophical. In the first section, for example, on the nature of God, Allen spends much time in the Hebrew scriptures, looking at God's revelation to Moses and Isaiah. Later sections also incorporate more biblical material than I am used to finding in Allen's work. His philosophical masters are still present, though, particularly Simone Weil and Blaise Pascal.

A second difference is the attempt to be more comprehensive than in his other works, which tend to treat specific themes. The subtitle of this book, 'An Introduction to the Christian Faith,' indicates a broad scope. Allen's treatment of Christian faith divides into five parts: The Nature of God, Suffering, The Divine Sacrifices, The New Life in God, and Responding to God. I found the third part on the divine sacrifices most compelling; here Allen discusses creation, incarnation and crucifixion, seeing each as an act of God's self-limitation and self-emptying in love. The atonement Allen sees as an event in which the Son absorbs the full effects of sin and evil -- an exposure that would destroy us -- so enabling us to journey toward God.

In the end, what troubles a troubled believer is suffering, which Allen treats in part two. He sees the inevitability and pain of suffering, but he also reminds us of its positive uses. Suffering can make us more humble, and it can open us up to the love of God. The book begins with a letter Allen received, asking him about the problem of suffering, and this theme bubbles up frequently in the pages that follow.

All in all, this is an excellent book. Reading it will shed light on the themes in Allen's other writings. My only critique is not for the content of the book, but for its presentation by the publisher -- the print in the book is very small and difficult to read. It's a 300 page book disguised as a 200 page book. I hope this is changed in a future edition. Publishers should have more mercy on our eyes.

I recommend this book highly, as well as my favorites among his others, Temptation and Spiritual Theology.

I regard this work as an excellent example of the kind of apologetic analysis that many liberal and moderate theologians are being driven to do because of the sharp lines that have been drawn over the last few years by the militant new atheist movement. No longer can typical fuzzy thinking have any relevance or say in these important matters when we are now seeing people of faith, no matter how mealy-mouthed or open-minded that faith may be, are being declared irrational at best, or pernicious at worst, by the likes of Hitchens, Dawkins, etc. Here Allen gives a carefully worded summary of where the Church currently stands in light of these sharp distinctions. The fundamentalist claims (inerrancy, young earth, literalism, millennialism, etc.) have long set themselves up for attack by critical scholars of every stripe, and according to some (Carlos Bovell, Peter Enns), produce Bart Ehrman types who thoroughly discard the baby with the bath water once they encounter evidence that their strict upbringing may not be quite up to the task of explaining itself in the post-reformation, post-modern world. I myself have been very suspicious of liberal theology for decades because of the skeptical nature of those who constitute things like the Jesus Seminar, De Vinci decoders, or gnostic-gospel proclaimers. They appear to pursue their craft not simply to discover truth for any ultimate purpose of shoring up believers and getting the biblical message as accurate as possible, but rather take perverse pleasure in attacking believers or their belief, while perhaps maintaining some kind a respectability of religion only so far as to promote liberal social agendas and political ends.

Allen, who has the advantage of many years of varied philosophical encounter with theology that an environment such as Princeton Seminary provides, now clarifies to a large extent these so-called Jesus wars, science wars, Bible wars, and so forth. It is time to quite trying to put everything into Enlightenment categories of thinking and move back to a more philosophically informed way of interpreting scripture. Some passages are propositional truth claims, while others are topological, allegorical, or mystical. Deciding which is what is, of course, the sporting field of biblical studies and philosophical theology, but it remains the case that the Reformation project has done it work and is long over, as is much of 19th century liberalism, 20th century modernism and postmodernism and that there are much more critical issues now at stake. And through it all, I really think Allen has his heart in the right place by not being afraid to declare Jesus as the bridge between God and man. There are things in the book I would not agree with, but I have become long-suffering and appreciative of the task this book sets out to do with engaging troubled believers, and his writing is so clear and distinct that even Descartes might find a lot of properly basic ideas contained therein.

We can be blunt, theology as a subject for the most part has been forced out of the modern academy. It has been replaced with religious studies, sociology of religion, philosophy freed of any creed based chains. Theology itself probably bears some responsibility for its situation as it increasingly became insular and much less compelling to any wider audience. What Dr. Allen tries to do in this book is write a compelling modern theology that is both relevant to the larger intellectual community and meaningful to those practicing a living Christian faith. Informed by his philosophical specialty, Dr. Allen starts at an original place. Theology has for too long started with a generic God, a hangover from the scholastics and the un-moved mover, and moved to the specific revelation. Dr. Allen admits that the theist project is bankrupt - you can't prove the unmoved mover, but he starts with God revealed in His interaction with Israel primarily as savior. He then proceeds at a crisp pace to build a robust theology firmly planted on this fundamental concept of God. The theology is general and meaningful addressing the questions all believers have in an honest method. It is a theology for a troubled believer only in so far as that believer is attempting to hold onto bankrupt philosophy. But the subtitle - an introduction to the Christian faith - is spot on. If you have an intellectual friend who has written off the faith, or if you want a deeper presentation of the faith beyond the typical pulpit platitudes, this book is it.