Reviews

"This is a good work! I found myself saying 'Amen!' repeatedly as I read through the text. In a cultural moment marked by the white heat of the polemical new atheism, English offers a most appropriate response: a passionate, discursive witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In so doing, he bears witness to what Stanley Hauerwas has called an essential task of ministry: to teach the language called Christian so as to speak Christian rightly. Reading Scripture and tradition with charity and cherishing its wisdom, English wonderfully employs a pedagogical strategy of using four analogies (story, game, language, culture) to offer an invigorating and faithful understanding of Christian faith and life. His discussion of Christianity as game is inventive and most illuminating for a culture obsessed with sports and gaming; the discussion of Christianity as language is worth the price of admission. Written in an accessible style, this timely book is a small catechism of the Christian faith which can guide preachers and teachers, in the service of the triune God, to help those they serve know how to speak Christian."--Mark S. Medley, associate professor of theology, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky
"The church today exists in an often bewildering situation: attacked from without and dispirited within. In a time when the normal patterns of thinking about the faith ring hollow for many, Adam English offers the church ways of recovering the deep wisdom of the Christian tradition. He does so with a helpful mixture of astute theology, pastoral sensitivity and an unfailingly irenic spirit. Wearing his erudition lightly, English proves himself a trustworthy guide through a range of large and perplexing ideas and issues. Along the way, he models the wisdom of the faith he commends."--Philip E. Thompson, Sioux Falls Seminary, South Dakota