The Definition of Christianity: Exploring the Original Meaning of the Christian Faith

by John C. Lennox, David W Gooding

Who gets to determine what Christianity means? Is it possible to understand its original message after centuries of tradition and conflicting ideas?Gooding and Lennox throw fresh light on these questions by tracing the Book of Acts’ historical account of the message that proved so effective in the time of Christ’s apostles. Luke’s record of its confrontations with competing philosophical and religious systems reveals Christianity’s own original and lasting definition.

Genres: Christian, Theology

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

John Carson Lennox is Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University and at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and is a Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum. In addition, he teaches for the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at the Executive Education Centre, Said Business School, Oxford University.

He studied at the Royal School Armagh, Northern Ireland and was Exhibitioner and Senior Scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University from which he took his MA, MMath and PhD. He worked for many years in the Mathematics Institute at the University of Wales in Cardiff which awarded him a DSc for his research. He also holds an MA and DPhil from Oxford University and an MA in Bioethics from the University of Surrey. He was a Senior Alexander Von Humboldt Fellow at the Universities of Würzburg and Freiburg in Germany. He has lectured extensively in North America, Eastern and Western Europe and Australasia on mathematics, the philosophy of science and the intellectual defence of Christianity.

He has written a number of books on the interface between science, philosophy and theology. These include God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (2009), God and Stephen Hawking, a response to The Grand Design (2011), Gunning for God, on the new atheism (2011), and Seven Days that Divide the World, on the early chapters of Genesis (2011). Furthermore, in addition to over seventy published mathematical papers, he is the co-author of two research level texts in algebra in the Oxford Mathematical Monographs series.

Reviews

[Bojan Ostojić · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, it shows how although Luke wrote Acts with orderliness in mind, ir appears that the Spirit decided to use his endeavor to highlight how the early Church dealeth with different social and cultural issues that we even face today. Most controversy was resolved back then, yet we face same questions today.

[Erisson Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um livreto simples, de fácil leitura, que visa expor uma definição do cristianismo baseado em alguns relatos contidos no livro de Atos dos Apóstolos. Com a prerrogativa de que ao longo do tempo "acréscimos supersticiosos" foram incorporados ao verdadeiro cristianismo, os autores retornam aos primeiros fatos da história da Igreja para apresentar aos leitores uma versão essencial da religião cristã. É um livro prático e um tanto apologético, que pode ser útil para apresentar o cristianismo em meio a um mundo secularizado.

[Leandro Couto]

Gooding and Lennox offer a pithy lesson on Luke's book of Acts, showcasing defining elements of Christianity in the order they appear in the text, uncovering Luke's subtle and interesting thread of reasoning and highlighting the powerful and unadorned historicity of the New Testament. A short and delightful read!

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on Christianity

[Theo Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

- This book is designed to grasp the historic facts at the heart of the gospel, and to understand its original message and centuries of tradition and conflicting ideas. It includes topics such as: the world's fatal flaw, "magic" and the gospel, and christ and philosophy.
- What I liked
- Good explanations
- The book explained what it was trying to explain very well. The chapters were fairly useful, although I think more could have been said about proofs of God or Christianity. The language wasn't engaging, but it wasn't hard to understand either.
- I think this book helps answer a really good and important question around what the "definition of christianity" is. I don't this this is designed to convert anyone to christianity, but would work as well as a starter to a course on christianity, or as a beginning book to someone interested in discovering more about what Christianity is actually about, and answering some common questions or misconceptions about it.
- What I disliked
- I thought the book was a bit dry and not very engaging. It wasn't that it was hard to understand, but that I got bored very quickly reading it and I think I definitely missed some of the information.
- I would recommend this book to people interested in God and Christianity, and what it means to be a christian.

[Frank Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book uses the book of Acts to introduce the spectrum of what is Christianity. Since the book is so short, it is only able to highlight a few key points. In this regard the book is really good, and I greatly appreciate and respect the main points that were made. This book (and I expect the others in the series) is a good resource for preparing material designed for those who are new to Christianity, or new to Christian doctrine.

[Sam]

Breve pero contundente enseñanza del libro de Hechos.

[Dustin Tramel · Rating 5 out of 5]

These guys are excellent writers. They do fantastic at putting academic knowledge into easy to read words.

[Irvin Sales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as powerfully packed compared to the 3 other books of this series. Nevertheless, contains a lot of truth and nice perspective towards Christianity.