50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith: A Guide to Understanding and Teaching Theology

Great book!

Item as described

This is a fantastic resource for going deeper. It’s also perfect for training leaders. I can’t recommend this highly enough.

The goal of Gregg Allison’s book, 50 core Truths of the Christian Faith, is that “this theological resource will help to form believers in sound doctrine and transform their lives for the glory of God” (Gregg R. Allison, 50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith, Baker Books, 2018, p. xv). He says, ”Christian doctrine is Christian belief based on Scripture.” His applications are “Doctrine is believed;… doctrine is practiced;…doctrine is confessed;…and doctrine is taught.” (p.1). Those four applications form the structure of this substantial resource. In each chapter, Allison includes the summary of one doctrine, the main theme of that doctrine, the key scriptures for that doctrine, the major errors in the West that exist about that doctrine, the way to live it out and the way to teach it. He also evenhandedly describes the differences in doctrine within the Western church on several issues. Intriguingly, he has a column in each chapter called “Perennial Questions and Problematic Issues”. But he gives no answers for any of the questions, so, he raises problems but does not answer them. That’s a shortcoming of the book that could have been remedied before publication. The other shortcoming of the book is that it is too western in a global world. There is almost no reference to any of Allison’s 50 doctrines as they are interpreted by people from other cultural and religious viewpoints. In other words, there is no contextualization of Christian doctrines outside the West. Even basic words like “sin” have different connotations in different cultures. One of the only global references I found was in the area of “enacting baptism”. In that chapter Allison says, “Churches in the West are coming more and more into contact with other religions. As churches lead Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others to Christ, converts’ baptism takes on an importance that is often overlooked, as they are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Entailed in this association with the Triune God is a renunciation of their allegiance to other gods (Allah, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi). That is, baptism in the name of the one true God signifies that these other deities are false gods” (p.326). All true and very important for western theologians and ministers to understand. The Western tendency has been to write discipleship and theology books like Allison’s and then simply translate them into other languages and assume that they will be rightly understood. It is a false assumption. The book is certainly a valuable resource for western Christians, and helpful for those who teach doctrine. But many more resources need to be developed that will contextualize these doctrines for Christians living in the midst of other world religions. Western-framed theological constructs do not easily fit into the worldview and needs of believers from the rest of the world.

This is a great, concise and useful tool for both preachers and non-preachers. The author is a veteran of the "classroom" and thus helps us answer questions he's already been asked multiple times. Each chapter is well thought-out and a great "jumping off point" for deeper study or all by itself as a foundation builder for our faith. I highly recommend this book, in fact, I purchased a copy for each of our elders and staff.

Concise - well explained - good aid when needing a quick reference guide

a group in our church go through this book a chapter a week. we love it.

God's gift to those who want to grow closer to Him.