This thoughtful, uniquely formatted volume takes a serious look at the need for accessible, pastorally relevant theological reflection on the chief mysteries that inform Christian living today. The book addresses four specific Christian doctrines: creation, Christology, sin, and church, offering historical background and systematic framework for understanding what is at stake in each for contemporary Christians. Further, each chapter presents the reader with a discussion, and an example, of a basic tool used in thinking through the Christian faith theologically. The chapter on creation involves biblical hermeneutics; the chapter on Christology explains systematic theology; the chapter on sin describes differences between Protestant, Roman Catholic, and liberation theologies. The overarching framework of the text also introduces the reader to postliberal narrative theology and then moves into how this type of theology can be developed in current pastoral settings into a vision of theology as performed within the lives of Christians.
