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Book Review: Wrestling with an Angel

August 13th, 2009 at 11:37pm Albert McIlhenny

What Bothers Me Most about Christianity: Honest Reflections from an Open Minded Christ Follower – Ed Gungor Howard Books (June 2009) Topic: General Apologetics Summary: Wrestling with some of Christianity’s most troublesome ideas Rating:

An unexamined life is not worth living…so said Socrates long ago. Perhaps we might also add an unexamined faith is not worth believing. Anyone who has wrestled with moments of doubt or even periods of unbelief can at least understand the serious questions that believers face in their doubting moments and why these are serious questions and not just personal weakness.

Ed Gungor confesses the things he does not like about Christianity. In fact, in What Bothers Me Most about Christianity, he devotes a whole book to outlining those things about the Christian faith that he finds most bothersome. The hidden nature of God, the problem of evil, the scandals of the Church, and the idea of eternal torment all come up for scrutiny in his close look at the troublesome ideas that exist within the Christian religion.

But before you get the idea Gungor is just some whiner trying to sow doubt, it needs to be said that he doesn’t just complain. He wrestles with these questions the way many Christians have and tries to come to understand the conflict between God’s perspective and our own. This is not a laundry list of God’s supposed mistakes but an honest attempt to reconcile his own understanding with God’s will. For those Christians who have wrestled with their beliefs, it will all seem very familiar territory.

The view of life from this side of eternity is not always a clear one. For those who find themselves struggling to integrate their belief in God with their lives as educated members of a highly technological civilization, What Bothers Me Most about Christianity might let them know they are not the only ones who have been down this path before. It might also just let them see how the path can lead back to God.

Entry Filed under: Essential Books, General Apologetics, Gungor, Ed