Let me warn you from the outset—reading this book is a project if you are not a scholar. Having said that, I managed to get through it without too much trouble, and learned some things as well, even though I am not a scholar. It seems to me that this scholar does his best to make this book and its thoughts as accessible as possible for most people.
The greatest thing this book did for me was to compare biblical faith with other faiths. If you have heard all your life, "We all worship the same God," the author will prove to you that is not so. He goes through many different faiths examining and comparing their "story" as he calls it with the Old Story, the Old Testament, and you will come away knowing that the God you worship is most definitely not The Great Spirit or Allah or any other of the various "gods" based upon their exhibited character, actions, and spoken words.
He also takes several of the great questions of life and examines all of these religions by the answers they give. What is the world? Who is God? How should we relate to God? Why do evil and suffering exist in the world? In all the exploring you will come away knowing more than ever that our Old Story is the true one, the only one that makes sense.
If you decide you want to give it a try, do not despair when you pick it up and see how thick it is. The last third is footnotes (many certainly worth reading), bibliography, and various indices. I won't tell you that you will understand everything you read; neither did I. Still, I learned new things and now have a better handle on how to deal with other religions, and their followers. My advice? Read slowly and take notes. Then in a few months, read it again. You will understand more than you thought possible.
Seriously Dangerous Religion is published by Baylor University Press. It is also available on Kindle.
Dene Ward
The greatest thing this book did for me was to compare biblical faith with other faiths. If you have heard all your life, "We all worship the same God," the author will prove to you that is not so. He goes through many different faiths examining and comparing their "story" as he calls it with the Old Story, the Old Testament, and you will come away knowing that the God you worship is most definitely not The Great Spirit or Allah or any other of the various "gods" based upon their exhibited character, actions, and spoken words.
He also takes several of the great questions of life and examines all of these religions by the answers they give. What is the world? Who is God? How should we relate to God? Why do evil and suffering exist in the world? In all the exploring you will come away knowing more than ever that our Old Story is the true one, the only one that makes sense.
If you decide you want to give it a try, do not despair when you pick it up and see how thick it is. The last third is footnotes (many certainly worth reading), bibliography, and various indices. I won't tell you that you will understand everything you read; neither did I. Still, I learned new things and now have a better handle on how to deal with other religions, and their followers. My advice? Read slowly and take notes. Then in a few months, read it again. You will understand more than you thought possible.
Seriously Dangerous Religion is published by Baylor University Press. It is also available on Kindle.
Dene Ward
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