Christianity: A Guide for the Perplexed

by Keith Ward

A systematic guide to the Christian faith, taking a broad sweep from the big bang through the Old Testament to the New and beyond into the history of the faith and modern theological thinking. The hard questions posed by the Church's history are not ducked and the challenges of the enlightenment and modern science are given full weight. The book explores contemporary strands of Christian thinking and relates them sensitively and intelligently to world faith and non-faith viewpoints. It is a book that many thinking Christians and those thinking about Christianity will find invaluable in its rigorous, open and intelligent approach invaluable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

124 pages, Paperback

Published March 22, 2007

About the author

Keith Ward was formerly the Regius Professor of Divinity and Head of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford. A priest of the Church of England and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, he holds Doctor of Divinity degrees from Cambridge and Oxford Universities. He has lectured at the universities of Glasgow, St. Andrew's and Cambridge.

Reviews

[Roger Pettit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keith Ward is a theologian, a philosopher, an academic and a Church of England priest. As this book proves, he is adept at writing about the philosophy of religion and theology (they are different disciplines) in simple, clear terms that anyone new to either subject can readily follow. I recommend his later work ‘Why There Almost Certainly Is a God’ for its clarity of thought and expression. In my view, only Alister McGrath (whose short book ‘The Dawkins Delusion’ takes that well-known atheist Richard Dawkins to task for some of the nonsense he has spouted about belief in God) rivals him. Both have an ability to describe in an authoritative and accessible way the complex interaction between religion and science and whether the latter debunks the former and naturally leads to atheism (which is what Richard Dawkins thinks). In this brief book (it has just over a hundred pages), Ward provides a simple guide to Christian belief and contemporary Christian thinking. He begins with a description of the Big Bang that is a masterly summary in just a few paragraphs of that complicated subject. From there he goes on to discuss the Old Testament and the New Testament; how Christians perceive Jesus as a fulfilment of a Hebrew prophetic tradition described in the Bible; the development of other religions (such as Islam) and their relationship to Christianity; and modern Christian practice and beliefs. Indeed, there is much more than that, all in 112 succinctly expressed pages of very readable prose. ‘Christianity: A Guide for the Perplexed’ is a superb book that will fascinate anyone - whether believer, agnostic or atheist - with an interest in the history, the development and the tenets of the Christian faith.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like a short systematic theology of Keith Ward's Christianity. Taking the reader through the creation narratives, doctrines of God, Jesus, the miracles, the atonement, the Bible and prayer (and several I haven't mentioned). This book describes Keith Ward's understanding of his faith and to some extent his vision for its future.

Keith Ward sits in the liberal wing of the church - but he is what one must admit is a thinking liberal with a personal faith. For him the resurrection is still very much the defining event of the Christian faith. The experience Christ's disciples had with the risen Jesus being what makes Christianity more than the collected wisdom of a moral teacher.

However the book is perhaps too wide ranging, because it is therefore necessarily brief on each subject. As a handbook on Christianity, this is not bad - but I think it would leave someone brand new to the concepts of Christianity still somewhat perplexed. As a guide to what Ward believes, it does better - and is an interesting read. But anyone really wanting to understand Ward or any of the positions he describes in the book will want to wade through his list of further reading, and then quite a bit more!