{"id":238,"date":"2013-10-10T18:54:57","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T23:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/crywoof\/?p=238"},"modified":"2013-10-10T19:44:41","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T00:44:41","slug":"christianity-in-three-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/crywoof\/2013\/10\/christianity-in-three-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Christianity in Three Books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Rod Dreher has asked his readers to pick three books about Christianity to recommend to those who know little about it. In response to his fairly specific ground rules, Leah Libresco picked<\/a> Mere Christianity<\/a><\/i>, by C.S. Lewis, Orthodoxy<\/a><\/i>, by G.K. Chesterton, and The Brothers Karamazov<\/a><\/i>, by Dostoevsky. My favorite passage from her post:<\/p>\n

Ok, and my second choice is, also predictably, Orthodoxy<\/em> by G.K. Chesterton. If Mere Christianity<\/em> helps make Christianity comprehensible, Orthodoxy<\/em> makes it weird again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hadn\u2019t planned on responding to this question myself; my first response was, \u201cWhat? Only three books?\u201d But then I reflected that Leah\u2019s done two-thirds of the work for me. Mere Christianity<\/em> is the obvious starting point; and Orthodoxy<\/em> is delightful for the way it captures Christianity from the successful seeker\u2019s point of view, and I can\u2019t think of anything better to put in its place.<\/p>\n

The problem is the third book. Dreher\u2019s rules forbid choosing a book specific to some particular flavor of Christianity, but few books are written from a point of view that covers the Christian waterfront without slighting one flavor or another (which is, of course, why Mere Christianity<\/em> is the obvious choice). So I\u2019m going to take refuge in the fact that Catholicism is the largest flavor of Christianity, and pick the Catholic Youth Catechism, or Youcat<\/a><\/em>:<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been reading through the Youcat<\/em> with our second son who is preparing for his confirmation, and I find it to be an excellent and accessible summary of Christian theology, at least for those denominations who subscribe to the Nicene Creed. If you want to know what Christians in general have believed throughout the ages, start here. (I like the full Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em> also, but it\u2019s a bit daunting for a newbie.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rod Dreher has asked his readers to pick three books about Christianity to recommend to those who know little about it. In response to his fairly specific ground rules, Leah Libresco picked Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton, and The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky. My favorite passage from her post: Ok, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,18,28],"tags":[23,10,21],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-links-to-this-and-that","category-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-catholic","tag-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nChristianity in Three Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rod Dreher has asked his readers to pick three books about Christianity to recommend to those who know little about it. 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