Real Christianity by Bob Beltz
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Book Reviews of Real Christianity
Book Review: The Book That Changed the Course of History
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a gripping and challenging book, holds your attention all the way through. It was the book that saved England from destruction and resulted in turning the tide of popular opinion and abolishing slavery altogether, even though slavery had been a way of life in many countries for millennia.
This book is totally relevant for today and is a wake up call, very challenging and life changing, individually and for our country.
It really touches the deep concerns of one's heart and makes God real.
Book Review: A Great And Life Changing Book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book relates to modern American Christians as well as it did to England in 1800's. With 80% of Americans claiming to be Christians but not knowning what this means the books focus on "cultural Christianity" really makes an impact. This book challenges every one of us to really think about what it means for faith to work through love.Book Review: Exceptional
Summary: 5 Stars
Most definately the BEST book I have ever read on living authentic Christianity. I cannot recommend it highly enough..Book Review: William Wilberforce
Summary: 4 Stars
Wilberforce forces us to assess our actions with a higher standard. He wants us to conform to what God's will is for us and not our misguided sense of what is "right".
My favorite sentence is: "Our behavior is so conformed to cultural standards that if we were put on trial as a Christian, the case might be dropped for lack of evidence." pg 89.
Book Review: I Expected Better
Summary: 2 Stars
Perhaps the problem is me; perhaps my expectations were too lofty. But I had higher hopes for this book. It turned out to be a standard exhortation to believe wholly, and to live in that belief. While I embrace that thesis, in our modern plural world, we need to push harder and further than that. And I also have issues with the adaptation in front of me.
Wilberforce states that Christianity has been hijacked by a warm, fuzzy, abstractly noncommittal set of practices that let "believers" live their same old lives without having to change. He calls on Christians to reject this nebulous religion for true faith based on prayer, Bible study, and self-sacrifice leading to more Godly lives. So far I fully agree.
But the application he proposes unnerves me, especially as his argument nears its culmination. His naïve belief in the pious potential of the rich and powerful, coupled with his patronizing attitude to women, rings hollow. Maybe I read too much Borg and Crossan or Jacques Ellul, but I can't reconcile Wilberforce's hierarchical conservatism with Biblical Christianity.
The later it gets in the book, the more Wilberforce's ideas make me squirm. He makes totalizing statements about anybody who disagrees with him, including youth, foreigners (especially the French), and secularists. He is guilty of seeking simple solutions to complex problems, putting too many people in too small a bucket. It's too pat for the real world.
Though most of his principles are stated in generalities, they're the sort of generalities that serve as code for his fellow evangelicals. When he speaks of liberal theologians who "have gutted the faith of [its] theological foundations," Wilberforce's contemporaries probably knew that was a wink to his fellow abolitionists. Modern readers likely will rush to homosexuality and other hot-button issues.
To top all this off, I have problems with the adaptation. I see why Bob Beltz wanted to update the language. But his chapter notes indicate that he took material out, such as one point where Wilberforce name-checked a list of 18th-century theologians we wouldn't recognize. At another point he also added in a quote from C.S. Lewis which he thought succinctly encapsulated Wilberforce's point.
So I have to wonder: how much else did Beltz add in or take away? How much of the book in my hands is really William Wilberforce, and how much of it is Bob Beltz? This is a major concern for me, if Beltz is trying to co-opt Wilberforce for his current concerns. Barring time and energy to read through the original text, I can only wonder at the answer to this question.
Most of the book isn't bad. In many places, it says what many self-proclaimed Christians need to hear. But his lapses into dogmatism and his right-wing tendencies may alienate as many readers as they attract. And the adaptation is problematic. Maybe I let Wilberforce's legend loom too large in my expectations, but this isn't the book it should have been.