Allen, Diogenes. Theology for a Troubled Believer: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010. xxiv + 223 pp.

Dr. Allen wrote this book in response to a letter from an intelligent and educated man, a life long member of the church, who asked hard questions about life and about the Christian faith. Dr. Allen realized that the man needed more information (knowledge about the Christian faith) and help with how to put that information together (theology to make sense of life and faith). So this book is for believers who want to know more and to understand more.

Here are a few excerpts:

"I seek to give an introduction to orthodox Christian teaching without being patronizing, and I assume my audience to be intelligent readers who want to understand Christian theology well enough to conceive of the world we live in today under God, people who want to direct their lives better. I hope that readers will find enough information and gain enough skill themselves to make more sense of a world as seen from a Christian perspective, more sense than they have hitherto been able to achieve." (p. xi)

Is that not attractive to you? Who among us could not be helped by that? And consider this:

"Our hearts and minds need considerable transformation or renewal not once but each time we seek to deal with God." (p. 14)

"Only those who recognize in their own hearts the harm we can suffer, the anguish of what it is to be a frail and vulnerable human being, paradoxically actually experience in their anguish the relaity of God's gift of absolute value by its very absence." (p. 25)

"It takes practice, discipline, and patience to be able to learn how to approach and to receive the life of God." (p. 47)

"From God's very essential hidden nature, we know something about God. We know that God is not a member or part of the universe, but transcendent, 'wholly other' than creatures." (p. 50)

"When we to any degree accept our status as a piece of matter, we paradoxically to that same extent transcend being merely a piece of matter. Any degree of humility means that one has performed an action that a piece of nonliving matter or nonhuman living matter does not perform." (p. 77)

"When we grasp even the idea of what a moral person is, we start developing the character and habits that can enable one to improve as a moral person." (p. 90)

"We may not realize that to become a human being is degrading for God. It means changing from one level of being to another, far inferior level." (p. 96)

"God decided that our situation would be one in which we would have to find God, learn to trust God and love God, while we are exposed to injury and destruction." (p. 111)

"God can be available to us by our sincerely responding to God's goodness in our creation, preservation, and redemption, a response that includes our community worship, personal prayers, and loving service of others." (p. 116)

"Neither before Jesus' coming nor after it has anyone had to bear the full effects of evil. That was his destiny. His greatness, his glory, is that he was able to accept it and endure it." (p. 125)

"To follow Christ is to desire to be like him and to strive to become like him. The more a Christian succeeds in becoming like Christ, the less suffering one inflicts on self and others." (p. 126)

"Our present life is a wonderful gift, and it is full of glories, but it is also seriously marred. Eternal life is a life utterly free of the burdens we now bear." (p. 132)

"We are to use Christian beliefs to gain understanding that otherwise we would not have. The illumination that the beliefs give us helps to convince our minds of their truth." (p. 157)

"To love righteousness or justice is a mark of genuine faith; to endure suffering and loss with faith and hope is the mark of mature faith." (p. 199)

These are just the tiniest excerpts, and I cannot even begin to communicate here the skill with which Dr. Allen holds all of this together and which he intends to teach to us as a way of doing theology. But I hope these few words are enough to interest you in wanting to read the entire book.