Handbook for the Christian Faith: Essential Beliefs and Practices for Twenty-First-Century American Methodists and Like-Minded Protestants. A Book about Extraordinary People

Handbook for the Christian Faith is a compendium of reflections on the Christian faith—explicitly Protestant, fundamentally Methodist, and contextually American—representing the things James Dawsey feels are most important for members of United Methodist local churches to know as they face the challenges of the twenty-first century. Dawsey is Professor and Wolfe Chair of Religious Studies at Emory and Henry University, where he has taught undergraduates for a number of years, and he is also a retired United Methodist minister. He has published widely in the areas of biblical studies and theology, as well as releasing several novels.Dawsey’s book is divided into five sections: an opening section, which discusses preparation for the gospel through awareness of our own sin and the moral law; a section called ‘The Door of Religion’, which explains the process of becoming converted and pressing on toward perfection; a section on epistemology, which describes how we know the truth about God and the world, most especially through becoming better readers of the scriptures, but also through understanding church history, using reason, and finding a proper place for the lessons of Christian experience; a section about the history of Methodism as an inclusionary movement, touching on issues of gender, racism, and sexuality; and a final section on the Church’s mission and the United Methodist Church’s structure.It is hard to pinhole the book into any one theological discipline; it lives up to its name in being a handbook to many of them. Dawsey leads readers through the history of the Church, especially the Methodist movement, exegetes the scriptures at length, reflects continually on Christian doctrine, and tells modern-day anecdotes that would not be out of place in a sermon. Sidebars give illustrative stories, definitions, excerpts from Christian writings, and questions to ponder; occasional illustrations illuminate the text (although I sometimes wondered why they were placed in the specific locations where they ended up). Each chapter ends with a section called ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’, which lists practical lessons to be learned for modern local churches from the particular aspect of history, doctrine, or polity under discussion.Dawsey intended the work to be used most profitably as a basis for group discussion (15), and he includes study questions aimed at helping local churches process the information, as well as short bibliographies with additional reading suggestions. The longer bibliography at the end, being completely alphabetical rather than topical, is of more limited use by the layperson. The overall impression is one of having sat down at a good fireside with Dawsey and sharing a cup of tea while he saunters through 2,000 years of the faith and picks out the gems most likely to inspire, challenge, and educate a modern congregation.It is clear from the Handbook that Dawsey hoped his book could help ward off the United Methodist split that was looming while he was writing, inspiring his denomination to come together in mission, catechetical activities, discipleship, and social action, even while holding differing views on sexuality. His extraordinarily centrist book—socially forward-looking, doctrinally and exegetically traditionalist—actually lands in post-schism United/Global Methodism, and I am afraid that it may not find the audience he hopes for. If a local church (presumably one in the United States given the book’s Americentric focus) does decide to use it for study and discernment, they will find many helpful reflections as they consider how to minister to their context in the days ahead.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.