Books to Enrich Knowledge On The Christian Life

Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century: On Heaven and Earth.

Before Jorge Mario Bergoglio, became Pope Frances on March 13, 2013, he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.  During this time of public service he became friends with Rabbi Abraham Skorka. This friendship resulted in many long talks on subjects such as: God, devil, atheists, religions, leaders, disciples, etc. It is interesting to see how such topics are contrasted between these two men. Growing up a Christian I never heard the take the Jewish faith took on such subjects. 

Here is Chapter 1,  I found interesting and could see that Pope Francis has a desire to relate to everyone.

On Heaven and Earth by Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and Abraham Skorka - Chapter 1 & 14

  

One Author to Look at. Joshua Harris

Joshua is senior pastor of  Covenant Life church in Maryland. He is the author of quit a few books. Among the list is Dug Down Deep. Here he discusses Boy meets Girl.

Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris

Joshua Harris got the idea to write on the subject humble orthodoxy from a specking engagement that he did on the subject. At first it would only be a chapter in his book Dug Down Deep. After he got so much response on the topic he decided to partnership with Eric Stanford to write a book on it. Stanford used the chapter on humble orthodoxy from the book along with Harris’s sermons to create this book, complete with a study guide.

The definition Harris gives for orthodoxy is, “right thinking about God. It’s about teaching and belief based on the established, proven, cherished truths of the faith.” These are the basis for Christianity such as: There is only one God. He is triune; the father, son, and Holy Spirit.  His only begotten son, Jesus is our savior.  He was born of a virgin, etc.  According to Harris the word orthodoxy sometimes gets a bad rap when people use it as a tool to reprimand.  Harris questions if, “good doctrine necessarily lead to being argumentative, annoying, and arrogant?”  He makes it very clear if we are going to teach like Jesus, then we need to love like Jesus. This is why we need to humble ourselves.  Mean spirited people teaching the word of Christ; have been the reason so many leave the church. Harris is able to parallel’s these types of attitudes to the ones of the Pharisees in his day.  We need a equal portion of both humbling and orthodoxy, “ We must care deeply about truth, and we must also defend and share this truth with compassion and humility.”   Stanford intergraded scripture along with stories in the discussion. This is the perfect book for a discussion group.

I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for doing this review. I was not required to write a positive review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.