Skip to main content

Review: Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth about God by Tim Challies and Josh Byers



Review: Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth about God
Tim Challies and Josh Byers
Zondervan
2016

Interesting concept book.  I’ve not seen anything quite like it elsewhere and suspect that for some this one would be quite helpful.  And that is why I find myself in a love/hate quandary over this one.  Challies narratives present the 101 theology basics to the reader.  The last section Live for Christ being the best of the lot as far as readability goes.  The others are the reason theology has such an uphill climb with most people.  Accurate, factual, categorized.  Dry as the bones Elijah saw in the desert.  The same ones that as they acquired meat and sinew and skin came to life.  Theology is just one of those areas that need more than skeletons to make it palatable.  
Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth About God 
Challies, to his credit, says as much in his introduction.  It takes more than looking at the equipment in the gym.  You gotta work it.  And this book just scratches the surface, almost.  Hence, the love/hate relationship with this book.  

Yes, there are some things we need to know and learn and practice.  And this is the crash course.  I felt as if I was reading the script that went with a very sophisticated power point presentation.  I nearly lost it completely with the flowchart, How to put sin to death (96-97). 
As you can see, this book, even though the graphics are great, just isn’t for me.  For the person that can relate more fully with a business or updated classroom style it may be just what you need.  Overall even though I don’t like this book I can also recommend it as a starting point.  It will not help the cause of theology for the novice and that is a shame.  The study of God can be the most amazing study ever.  

I received this book form the publisher in exchange for a review.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense by Dr. Larry Crabb

Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense Dr. Larry Crabb Baker Books 2018 I chose this book because the title intrigued me.   When God’s Ways Make No Sense.    There have been plenty of times when that seemed truer than I’d like to admit.   Are we even allowed to say something like that?   Even if we think it.   So, an author willing to take on that topic had my attention. And mostly because I wanted his take on what to do about it? As it turns out Crabb pretty much gave away his case very early on in his book with a single scripture quote.   The basic idea is God is GOD and we are not.   His motives and actions are incomprehensible to mankind and He owes no explanation for them either.   Crabb admits near the end of his book that he is not a theologian which I knew going into this book, but his arguments are theology.   Or at least I think so.   I found his repeated circling the topic a bit frustrating. ...
1 comment
Read more

Buntings and Books

Time to blog says the calendar. So OK let's blog. What about? Oil spills? Court nominees? Euro problems? Weather? The last one is the easiest to go with it looks like. Cold and windy again. What is this about? Not more than a week ago it looked like summer. Even needed fans to cool the place. Well, the fans are off now. Nature has provided some pre-cooled forced air for a few days now, complete with humidity adjustments ie rain. Keeps the ground cold and the urge to garden at bay. Protection for those of us who aren't in the best physical condition. The weather has the birds on the feeder more often and that included a new one in the area. We've decided to call it an indigo bunting. Matches the picture in the book so that's got to be who he is. Pretty little guy, all decked out in his breeding plumage. Haven't seen those colors since the last peacock came around. Just read that cowbirds like to use them to raise their chicks. Yet another reason t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Anatomy of the Soul

Anatomy of the Soul Curt Thompson. M.D. Salt River, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2010 This is the most helpful,insightful book I’ve read in a long time. There’s advice, guidance, explanations and examples to illustrate discussion offered by the author. Best of all, for me anyway, it explains some of what I had suspected about how things work all along. Dr. Thompson links human anatomy and physiology to the spiritual part of our being throughout the text. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And God uses His creation of the physical body in amazing ways. The author does a great job showing God’s wisdom found in research and the discoveries that science has made recently in neuroscience. Whether science wants to or not, it is describing the wonders of creation. Read this book. The text will require thought, evaluation, and time to go through. The author’s writing style is quite readable and he covers the material well. While this isn’t a how to or self help boo...
4 comments
Read more