Why Christian? [Paperback]

Douglas John Hall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

In these dialogues with doubt, Hall enters into an earnest search with a young inquirer—a composite of undergraduates, graduates, clergy, working people, his own children—who is on the edges of Christian faith. Half familiar with superficial aspects of Christianity, hopeful of there being greater depth than has been found so far, she or he is curious, insistent, looking for something to believe in but not ready to leap without good reason. Such a person is asking, "Why be Christian?" In a passionate and personal way, Hall probes fundamental religious questions and wrestles with the cogency of basic Christian convictions about Jesus and God, about religious belief and the human predicament, about inauthentic forms of Christianity, about what is missing in human life today. Quoting Unamuno's dictum that "Faith that does not doubt is dead faith," Hall's accessible and straightforward book helps readers to reclaim a Christianity of personal, intellectual, and moral integrity. This book may well prove a modern religious classic.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas John Hall, Professor Emeritus of Theology at McGill University in Montreal, is one of North America's most respect theologians. With "Confessing the Faith" (1996), he has completed his great trilogy "Christian Theology in a North American Context."

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: FORTRESS PRESS (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0800631307
• ISBN-13: 978-0800631307
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #82,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On the edge of faith . . ., May 20, 2001

By 

Dave Kinnear "Executive Leader Coach" (Lake Forest, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Christian? (Paperback)

I found this book to be very well written with a rather unique approach of using a "composite character" with whom the author has first a dialogue on a question and then for whom he provides a more thorough essay answer. The reader is caught up in this give and take between professor and student, and the questions are the hard ones! Why Christian? Why Jesus? Saved from What and for What? Why Church? Is there Hope?

There are many selected biblical quotations with a clear explanation written in such a way as to leave room for the reader to differ. In almost all cases, respect for other faith systems is maintained, reserving the most direct criticism for the author's own beloved Christianity. Professor Hall recognizes many of the atrocities committed in the name of religions, including Christianity, and explains why such actions are inconsistent with the precepts of those religions. He discusses how birthright so often is a reason for starting out in a religion but how today especially, birthright alone is not enough to keep someone in a given faith system.

Appropriately, some of the more fundamental questions are left to the reader to answer. For example, " 'So what precisely (as we may ask with Wendell Berry and others) are human beings for?' If we are not just accidents of nature, what is our place in the scheme of things? What is our purpose and how could we attain it, or reclaim it?" This question is never really answered directly, but is diverted to a related "sense of anxiety" angle.

My belief is that this book will be a bit of a disappointment for those looking to find a dogmatic statement of why Christian today. Instead, one finds a respectful questioning of today's Christianity with a deep routed love of what Christianity can be. This is indeed a wonderful resource "for those on the edge of faith."

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not preaching, but dialogue with doubt, September 22, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Why Christian? (Paperback)

This book represents Hall's dialogues with a hypothetical student--someone drawn to Christianity by cultural contact and/or past association, but not willing to jump unthinkingly into blind belief. Hall engages the student, giving "reasons", but not proofs, for "the hope that is in" him.

As one who has encountered Hall's theology before (_Thinking the Faith_), I am struck by this application of his "contextuality": rather than trying to transcend its historical context (like C.S. Lewis's _Mere Chrisianity_), Hall's apologetic speaks to North Americans of the 20th century. Moving beyond (but not discarding) theologies of the past, Hall re-interprets the gospel to address the crisis of modernity and the challenge of post-establishment Christianity, as well as the student's very personal questions: "What's so important about Jesus?" "Why go to church?" "Is there any hope for the world?"

That said, the book is a trifle simplistic for anyone interested in serious theology--though this does not seem to be the target audience. Those interested in hearing more of what Hall has to say are encouraged to pick up _Thinking the Faith_, and the rest of Hall's contextual theology triology.

This book is not only for doubting Christians, but for those whose faith seems a bit too secure. Those of the latter group would do well to sit on Hall's side and wrestle with the questions the student poses--faith unchallenged is not faith, after all.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, if inconclusive, December 4, 2000

By 

Gary Chartier (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Christian? (Paperback)

As any reader of Douglas John Hall's massive three-volume systematic theology--Thinking the Faith, Confessing the Faith, and Professing the Faith--will know, Hall is a sensitive and thoughtful Christian who is convinced of both the reality of God and the decisiveness of Jesus. He does not seek in this book simply to repeat in detail the content of his earlier work but to explain to contemporary audiences why he believes Christianity still makes sense. Some Christians will regard him as too liberal, others as too conservative; all can, I hope, agree that his heart beats with a passion for making God's love real in our world and for acknowledging the gap between God's goodness and the state of contemporary North American culture. I wish Hall had been somewhat more systematic; I wish he had explicated his own position in a somewhat less impressionistic fashion. But this is certainly among the books I'd place in the hands of someone interested in exploring the Christian gospel.