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GROWING IN FAITH

A Guide for the Reluctant Christian

Growing in Faith (Regnery, $16.95; Penguin, $8.95), a popular yet comprehensive guide to Christianity, is a featured alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and Quality Paperback Book Club. Here is a selection from its pages:

What is religious faith? It is not a hunger that needs to be satisfied. God-seeking is neither a passion nor a compulsion. But once someone discovers God, religion gets to be a habit, one that serves a person well without becoming a preoccupation. In this respect religion is like marriage after the honeymoon -- something you cherish and preserve and act on, but not obsessively.

Christianity is not just a personal conviction to be cherished in private. It is a communal faith and is tested and supported by other men and women. The church provides such a community. People who believe find a congregation that supports and tests the faith that is within them. But it is counterproductive to begin exploring Christianity by concentrating on the differences among the churches. We do well to remember that Jesus spoke to only two categories of people -- Jews and pagans -- not to Christians. Thus we can start confidently by considering what these people made of what he told them.

I am not going to prove the truth of Christianity to the reader, but only its plausibility. Jesus worked miracles out of compassion, not as advertisements for himself. Most of those who listened to Jesus were attracted to him by the force of his character and message, not by his showmanship. Religious conviction in any case is not certitude; it is faith forever grappling with doubt. If Christianity could be proven without the shadow of a doubt, there would still be room for indifference.

(Copyright 1994, 1995 by David Yount)

Note: This book includes a bible study guide and a discussion guide for individual and group use.