Know the Truth

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A useful, readable (very conservative) book on Christian theology - Rated
Bruce Milne's `Know the Truth' is a very good volume on Christian theology, but the title implies he has "discovered" truth that has somehow escaped every Christian and theologian for twenty centuries. The subtitle is preferred: `A Handbook of Christian Belief'.

Milne divides this work into seven parts, usually of four or five chapters each:

Part 1: The final authority of matters of faith
Part 2: The doctrine of God
Part 3: Humankind and sin
Part 4: The person and work of Christ
Part 5: The person and work of the Holy Spirit
Part 6: The church
Part 7: The last things

After Milne introduces the themes in each part he spends a maximum of four chapters exploring and expounding them. Each part then ends with a few pages of `Application' were he seeks to apply his understandings to real life. As the next reviewer down notes, each part also contains a reference page of: `Scriptures', `Questions' and a concise `Bibliography'.

The subtitle, `Handbook of Christian Belief', emphasises that this is a biblical theology book. Milne explores the interesting (and often thorny) Christian doctrines (which combine to make `a theology') making frequent and extensive use of biblical quotes. Over all, his writing style is comfortable and clear, even when the topics are confusing or challenging.

This work is comparatively short for a theological text book, which encourages clarity of expression, but the cost is avoidance of any extended reference to theology and theologians in history: this means many of Milne's arguments avoid exploring opposing views at any length. He certainly does not just gloss-over other views, but sometimes his treatment of them seems overly brief. Sometimes he also emphasises his own biblical interpretations without noting that they may be strongly contested elsewhere (such are the space restrictions).

As a very conservative, evangelical exposition of Christian biblical theology, this is an excellent work - and very cheap too. My second edition is well laid out with a large, bold type-face, and Milne's writing style is generally easy to read. While it is shorter than other theology books, it's more than just a brief introduction. If you've never read a theology book, or if you're short of cash and need another one, this represents excellent quality and value. Recommended.

An inspiring book that takes you back to Christian basics - Rated
Milne takes the challenge to present to us the fundamental beliefs of Christians. Not an easy thing to do, however, he acheives this by breaking down into topics and analysing the scriptural contexts.

Some subjects are harder to comprehend than others, but Milne presents a comprehensive bibliography at the end of each chapter for further reading on the subject. He also includes questions to provoke further thought on the subject.

If you would like to understand why you believe the things you do as a Christian, then this book will go along way to address that. For most of the time Milne presents the subjects well in an easy-to-read style, but occasionaly you may find some subjects heavy going! But who said faith was easy??