Christian Faith for Thinking People

In 29 chapters Stephen Hayes ranges widely over many of the key issues facing Christians today.

It is all too easy to run away from these issues and to hide behind slogans. But the issues are really present and include such critical questions as the amount of violence in the Bible including God represented as commanding slaughter, even of children. This violence is also seen in the traditional concept of hell representing, let's face it, the concept of God torturing people for all eternity. Hayes argues that the clash between these ideas and the central idea of the Bible, that God is a God of love, requires us to alter our views on these matters and that Christians today cannot get away with having it both ways. The Bible then is seen as both a divine and a human book. It is the word of God in the same way that the church is the body of Christ: it contains God's message to us and yet is at the same time a human book as well.

Yet facing all such issues can still leave us with an essential orthodoxy still intact.

In dealing with the atheist debate he argues that in fact the basic argument can be summed up in one sentence: the existence of God can be neither proved nor disproved. If true -- and it is true --then atheism is a religion based on faith. He also points out that past debates were much more polite than today. The modern books on atheism are marked by insults, rudeness and a surprising ignorance. Hitchens and Dawkins know little about modern theology or biblical studies.

The book also seeks to be practical and wades in heavily on the subject of modern spirituality. One chapter is titled "All Things Work Together for the Good. Or Do they?" Most spiritual issues have a theological basis and this one depends on the meaning of the idea of providence: how does the sovereign will of God intersect with our free will? Hayes argues that no one knows, and yet every page of the Bible presumes both and we must continue to presume both as well.

He has also chosen to include a chapter on Predestination which has the same concept at its basis. He accepts Karl Barth and Emil Brunner's criticism of the traditional doctrine -- that it is much in need of revision, but points out that the basic idea behind it is still intact, that God is active and powerful in history and in our lives.

Other chapters deal with the Sacraments, the meaning of the death of Christ -- did he really die for our sins? (the answer is "yes"). Others topics include Evangelism (under the provocative title of "Evangelism with a Gun to your Head"), Religious pressure ( in a chapter titled "Techniques of Religious Manipulation"), and even one on the book of Jonah (called "A Big Fish Story") in which Hayes argues that the book is all about a protest against narrowness. Many of these discussions deal directly with answering the question of what it means to follow Christ today. Some of the answers will surprise and even delight you.

Why did he write this book? The answer is that he felt there might be room for such a book, scholarly and yet not strictly arising from the academy. Here is a book that is easy to read, faces the issues, yet aware of the scholarly background to the questions. As a minister Hayes knows what it is to make himself comprehensible Sunday by Sunday and this book reflects that passion for clarity, yet at no point talks down to people. Here then is the fruit of a lifetime's reflection on these basic issues of theology and Christian living.

The Christian Faith is about life, a full life that is in touch with every part of the human personality. This cannot possibly mean leaving the mind out of it, as though our religious convictions can be separated from our common sense or intelligence. God is honoured as we face questions honestly and all truth is God's truth. "Christian Faith for Thinking People" is meant to help us in that journey towards truth and honouring Christ in all of life.