I really enjoyed Doug Pagitt’s first two books (he could have more), church re-imagined and preaching re-imagined and so it was a no brainer to go out and get his new book A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive and well faith.

My CP rating is 3.5/5, but let me say that I really enjoyed it and think there is a lot more to this book than at first glance. I know that Doug is having a book club online through his blog that you are welcome to join along with. The book reads more like a testimony at first, but then it dives into some good thoughts on how we view God based on Greek/ Roman understanding. What really connected with me was that Romans believed that the gods were angry and that they needed to be appeased and so an understanding of Jesus as an appeasement to the gods through his death on the cross was a reasonable understanding. But Jesus was Jewish and our reading of the bible should be more Hebrew in nature than Greek. Doug does give some ideas in how to read the bible in a more Hebraic way, which are helpful, such as understanding Jesus means Joshua (a Hebrew liberator) and that Jesus being the Messiah was his liberating title and not his “last name” (i.e. Christ) but he spends more time sharing how we shouldn’t read it in an entirely Greek way and begin to explore the Bible in a much more relational way.

Doug paints the Bible in a relational way and highlights the narrative thought behind it, which I really appreciate and if that is something that you have had trouble doing then I think Doug’s way of explaining this is very helpful. I also am very similar to Doug in our upbringing (church wise) and so I found myself really identifying with his story. The book also explores some more personal items of Doug’s, such as his family and his health, which soften the theological depth that he goes into.

I recommend that if you are interested in reading more theological books, but haven’t really taken the plunge, then read this one as a great primer before you start cracking the commentaries.

Tags: a christianity worth believing, book review, doug pagitt