The User-friendly New Testament: Finding Ourselves in the Stories of Jesus

by Marilyn Green Faulkner

Wake up your scripture study with this fresh and fun companion to the New Testament! The characteristically witty Marilyn Faulkner discusses New Testament stories like you've never heard them before. Use the parable of the sower to evaluate your use of social media, get directions as you scale the Sermon on the Mount, and learn how grace helps you be born again (and again and again).

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2018

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book in January to go along with reading the New Testament, but didn't like it for some reason. It took me 4 months to read 60 pages and then I set it down and didn't pick it up again until December. And then I IMMEDIATELY loved what I was reading! Did the book get that much better starting on page 61? Or did something change in me and my circumstances that made such a difference? I suppose a good experiment would be to reread those 60 pages now, but I don't know that I will because I want to move on to some holiday reading.

While I have a number of things highlighted in those first 60 pages I don't remember much. I have a lot more things marked in what I have read now. There are some things that really made me stop and think or reconsider how I have viewed something previously, like prayer.

I loved chapter 7 - "Luke: Jesus and the Hero's Journey." And chapter 21 - "A Sacred Space: Finding Jesus in the Temple" is a beautiful section on the temple. It had a few things for me to ponder.

Other than those first 60 pages that were hard for me, I have only one thing that I didn't 'like' about this book. It was how little quotes were placed in the text. They were outlined and randomly placed along a margin in a chapter, like a little cutout, not going across the page. It is probably just my personality quirk that found this 'bad.' I liked the quotes, but stopping in the middle of a paragraph to read a separate quote, or between paragraphs, really messed with the flow for me. I would have much preferred them place directly below the chapter title or under the section heading or at the section end.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not really finished but will read it along with The Church curriculum. Like her other two "User Friendly" this is such an interesting book, and Marilyn uses such amazing examples that all can relate to in a way you've never read before. With the NT being the 2019 course of study and people needing to teach their children these lessons at home because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is changing their meeting length to two hours you can get some great new ideas from her book.