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February 2015 Vol. 52 No. 6


Baker Academic


The following review appeared in the February 2015 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.

Humanities
Religion

52-3054
BX8068
2014-10595 MARC
Schwarz, Hans. The Christian faith: a creedal account. Baker Academic, 2014. 218p index ISBN 9780801049644 pbk, $21.99.

Schwarz (Univ. of Regensburg, Germany) offers a lucid and compelling introduction to Christian theology and belief.  As a Lutheran theologian, he relies on many of the theological insights of Martin Luther; nevertheless, this book draws on and examines a wide variety of Christian theologies.  An introductory section lays out three necessary presuppositions for the Christian faith in subsections titled "Theology," "Revelation," and "Scripture."  The remaining ten chapters are organized thematically under sections whose titles reflect the three classic divisions of the ecumenical creeds: "God the Creator," "Christ the Redeemer," and "The Holy Spirit as God’s Efficacious Power."  Though the book was written by a distinguished academic theologian, it is readable and accessible for many different levels of readers.  The author writes from a definite Christian position, but makes his own case.  In doing so, Schwarz invites readers to begin the task of thinking about the nature of God and the implications of that nature for human beings in the world.  The prose is simultaneously engaging and serious and always articulate.

--M. A. Granquist, Luther Seminary

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.