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Uncovered
Book by Carswell, Jonathan
- GenresChristian
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 18, 2010
This book tells the story of ten people (plus one who wrote a rather iffy poem), most of whom had some revelation about Christianity around university time. Each person has some particular background (one is dissatisfied with Hinduism, one is gay, one becomes paralysed, and so on). Some stories are told in the first person, some in the third person. But they all reach the same conclusion, that Christ is the Lord, He came to save us, etc etc. You've probably heard it all before.
This is a short book. I mean really short: you could probably read through the whole thing in two or three hours. Quality doesn't equal quantity though, and if each person's story was much longer the book would have dragged on for too long. But the brevity of the book in some places really holds the book back.
This book covers most of the main issues surrounding religion (in fact, perhaps the only two issues not mentioned are abortion and sex before marriage), so points for trying to cover all bases. But the trouble is that none of these issues are covered in very much depth. Take, for example, Umesh's story: he was brought up in a Hindu family but was dissatisfied with Hinduism. However, exactly why he was dissatisfied with Hinduism is not made very clear: it is established that he's not convinced by the religion, then eventually he starts experiencing all things Christian and decides it much better.
And there are echoes of this throughout many of the stories. Kate the lesbian explains that she's come to realise God wants her to remain celibate her whole life - why God wants this is not really explained. Eileen's story starts as a critique of Catholicism. It's not quite as shallow as some of the other stories, but I thought there were some gaping holes in the criticisms of Catholicism (for instance, the Pope was not mentioned once). The last story I'll mention is Adam's, who starts of believing that science (specifically evolution) has disproved religion. I was expecting his views to change through the story to show how he accepted science as well as religion, but no. He ends up dismissing evolution and the Big Bang as "ridiculous". As a physics student and Christian who accepts the Big Bang because of the overwhelming evidence for it, I find this borderline insulting. (As an aside, I don't know enough about the evidence for evolution to have a solid opinion on it, but if I did decide not to believe in evolution it would be on scientific grounds, not due to religious convictions.)
Each story is roughly ten pages long, and the general format is mostly the same. The "issue" each person had is explained in the first one or two pages, but is cast aside while their conversion to Christianity is described. Sometimes the "issue" is mentioned briefly at the end. Sometimes it never appears again, apparently only appearing to serve as a nice introduction. My problem with this is that in most of the stories, the conversion to Christianity is pretty much the same: the person has little or no belief in God, they start going to CU meetings, they start reading books about Christianity, they start reading the Bible, and eventually they pray for forgiveness after a particularly stirring sermon or talk. Given the samey nature of the stories, I think more time should have been given to discussing each person's "issue" and less time to their conversion.
All that said, some of the stories are quite stirring: the chapter dedicated to Craig (who becomes paralysed but continues in his faith) particularly sticks out in my mind.
Given its summary nature, this book is clearly intended for someone who is either new to the Christian faith or unfamiliar with it. But if I weren't already a Christian, I think this book might persuade me to consider Christianity some more, but it definitely wouldn't change my perspective on religion (I've yet to be convinced of Creationism, for instance). This book would only be worth reading alongside some material which discussed Christianity in greater depth. As it is, I'm quite glad I only paid £1 for it.
This is a short book. I mean really short: you could probably read through the whole thing in two or three hours. Quality doesn't equal quantity though, and if each person's story was much longer the book would have dragged on for too long. But the brevity of the book in some places really holds the book back.
This book covers most of the main issues surrounding religion (in fact, perhaps the only two issues not mentioned are abortion and sex before marriage), so points for trying to cover all bases. But the trouble is that none of these issues are covered in very much depth. Take, for example, Umesh's story: he was brought up in a Hindu family but was dissatisfied with Hinduism. However, exactly why he was dissatisfied with Hinduism is not made very clear: it is established that he's not convinced by the religion, then eventually he starts experiencing all things Christian and decides it much better.
And there are echoes of this throughout many of the stories. Kate the lesbian explains that she's come to realise God wants her to remain celibate her whole life - why God wants this is not really explained. Eileen's story starts as a critique of Catholicism. It's not quite as shallow as some of the other stories, but I thought there were some gaping holes in the criticisms of Catholicism (for instance, the Pope was not mentioned once). The last story I'll mention is Adam's, who starts of believing that science (specifically evolution) has disproved religion. I was expecting his views to change through the story to show how he accepted science as well as religion, but no. He ends up dismissing evolution and the Big Bang as "ridiculous". As a physics student and Christian who accepts the Big Bang because of the overwhelming evidence for it, I find this borderline insulting. (As an aside, I don't know enough about the evidence for evolution to have a solid opinion on it, but if I did decide not to believe in evolution it would be on scientific grounds, not due to religious convictions.)
Each story is roughly ten pages long, and the general format is mostly the same. The "issue" each person had is explained in the first one or two pages, but is cast aside while their conversion to Christianity is described. Sometimes the "issue" is mentioned briefly at the end. Sometimes it never appears again, apparently only appearing to serve as a nice introduction. My problem with this is that in most of the stories, the conversion to Christianity is pretty much the same: the person has little or no belief in God, they start going to CU meetings, they start reading books about Christianity, they start reading the Bible, and eventually they pray for forgiveness after a particularly stirring sermon or talk. Given the samey nature of the stories, I think more time should have been given to discussing each person's "issue" and less time to their conversion.
All that said, some of the stories are quite stirring: the chapter dedicated to Craig (who becomes paralysed but continues in his faith) particularly sticks out in my mind.
Given its summary nature, this book is clearly intended for someone who is either new to the Christian faith or unfamiliar with it. But if I weren't already a Christian, I think this book might persuade me to consider Christianity some more, but it definitely wouldn't change my perspective on religion (I've yet to be convinced of Creationism, for instance). This book would only be worth reading alongside some material which discussed Christianity in greater depth. As it is, I'm quite glad I only paid £1 for it.
March 17, 2014
Any transformation story by Jesus's grace usually brings me to tears. I wanted some more out of these stories. I guess I was expecting too much of this little book.
June 2, 2024
As someone who has been involved in CU during my time at uni, this was a really encouraging read and it’s great to hear how the Lord uses university as a time to speak to people.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews