Beyond Opinion

I knew better than selecting this book: Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith we Defend, by Ravi Zacharais, to review, because the worldview of the authors and my worldview are completely different. We both are Christians, but we understand the nature and role of Christianity in a completely different way. That said, if your worldview is the same as the authors, you will find this book to be very helpful as you develop the skills and comfort level to defend and promote this brand of Christianity.

It is a well written, at times engaging book designed to help Christians begin to become comfortable with the responsibility of defending the faith. They cover a large group of topics including:

• Postmodernism and their challenges to Biblical authority
• Atheism
• Islam
• Evil & suffering

Overall, since the book was written by 13 different authors, it reads very well. The quality of the chapters was uneven, but not surprising since each chapter was written by someone else. The editing is very good to keep the style consistent.

I have to admit. There were many times when I laughed out loud at the ridiculous arguments that they made. If you are reading this from a differing world view you will find the book rather trite. But I enjoyed reading the argument for this brand of faith from “the world’s leading Christian Apologist. It certainly gave me insight into the blinders that they put on, as well as my own.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”