The Pharisees' Guide to Total Holiness

by William L. Coleman

The front cover of this book has a a sentence that sums up the description very well. It "A warm, witty and sometimes startling look at the little substitutions for genuine Christianity which shackle many in today's church."

Genres: Christian, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity

147 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Kari McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought—provoking and helpful. I felt like the ending was rather abrupt. Lots of good observations, though.

[Chuck Engelhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The tag line on the cover of The Pharisee's Guide to Total Holiness is "A warm, witty, and sometimes startling look at the little substitutions for genuine Christianity which shackle many in today's Church." Whereas it was a very good book; I can't say that I found it warm, and certainly not witty. Much of what William Coleman presents about the Pharisees is pretty well known, not startling; Jesus fought regularly with them, not all the Pharisees were a problem, there were originally good intentions behind the rules they created, etc., etc. However, this book isn't really about the Pharisees, it's about the Church and the Christians who comprise the body. Coleman expertly addressed that part of the cover's tag line.

I felt that author, William Coleman did an excellent job of taking the issues we often associate with the Pharisees and placing them squarely in the life of the Church and its members. The attitudes are not foreign to us at all, but by walking through how Jesus confronted them in His time brings to light just how damaging they can be. I bought this book a very, VERY long time ago and it has been collecting dust on the bookshelf now for better than 30 years. Funny how things really don't change all that much. Coleman's description in 1977 of how the Church substitutes rules for grace still holds today. I probably came across a dozen or ideas that stuck with me, but I believe they can be summed up in two statements:

It's a lot easier to direct traffic through enforcing rules than to really care about people.
Laws that prohibit compassion are laws that are being misapplied.

This was not the easiest book to read; perhaps the writing style is a bit dated. I read it a chapter at a time and that worked for me while allowing me to think about the material as well. I do recommend this book for those that aare looking for life lessons on graceful living.

There are "lessons" associated with each chapter that could be used for a small group study.

[Cimuchowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Offers a lot of solid insight into how the Pharisees thought and acted and how we can avoid doing the same.

John Andrianos liked the book.