The Faith Given Once for All

Colson, Charles W., and Harold Fickett. The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2008. $18.99

The Faith is an excellent, modern-day addendum to C.S. Lewis' famous Mere Christianity. Colson and Fickett have tried to steer clear of the divisive secondary issues that Christians often fight about and touch base with the core beliefs that make us Christian. In addition, this books is a call for Christians of all traditions to get back to those core doctrines, primarily so we can better be Christian bust also so we can work together because of this common ground.

I believe that the authors do a wonderful job of both informing the reader as to the bedrock doctrines of the Christian faith and challenging Christians to take the logical next step of engaging and transforming the culture. The powerful use of true stories of Christians, past and present, who have acted on their orthodoxy is one of the best aspects of this book. I do still think that Mere Christianity is the stronger book of this sort, but the modern language and style of The Faith make it a better tool for teaching younger believers and non-believers about what it truly is to be a Christian. This is an excellent book for college classrooms or small group studies.

Finally, this book is built on the premise that many so-called Christians do not know these fundamental doctrines or the implications that spring from them. From my own experience, I would have to agree that this is a dire problem in the church, which is part of why liberal, non-biblical concepts have come to be accepted in many mainline churches. If there is, as the New Testament books repeatedly suggest, a core Apostolic teaching about Jesus that must be held for a person to be a believer, then not knowing could easily cost many people for eternity. If the culture were not being horribly debased, this would still be a good enough reason to teach doctrine, but it is and this fast increases the need for Christians to live according to their beliefs.