I conducted a review of Exploring Christian Theology: The Church, Spiritual Growth and the End Times by Nathan Holsteen and Michael Svigel for Bethany House Publishing. I was given a copy of the book to review. This was written for the lay person, not the theology student and was, overall, an enjoyable read. Here is a copy of my review on Goodreads:

This was an interesting theology book. It was written for the average church member who wants to grow deeper in the faith, but doesn’t want to take a seminary theology course. For the audience it was written to, this book does an admirable job, especially in the first part on the church and spiritual growth. The second half of the book, on the end times, was not as clearly written and I fear it will just make people all the more muddled. Overall though, I must say I enjoyed the writing style. It was refreshing to see theology written in a relevant way, with a sense of humor thrown in. As a pastor, I believe that this book would be helpful to any congregation, especially as it would give me (or another pastor) even more opportunities to dialogue with our (my) congregants about why they believe what they believe.

While I have quibbles in some areas (who doesn’t?) I do appreciate the effort they made.The best part about the book? The quotes and shelf space sections where they list a library of books for further study. If this gets more congregants interested in theology I am all for it.