The Christian Handbook [Paperback]

Skrade constantly refers to "stuff" in the headings of various chapters and that gives you a clue. This handbook is packed with lots of "factoids" that will illuminate and fascinate the reader, and a lot of "stuff" that will serve as pure entertainment.

Whether you are a seeker, a new believer, or well established in your faith, you'll find plenty of answers in this small volume. The charts comparing the various denominations are wonderful, as is the chart comparing the world's major religions.

Want to know how to find a church that fits you, or how to get to know your pastor? Checklists and guidelines do exactly that. As a matter of fact, it has more than sixty checklists for how to do almost anything that relates to the Christian life--including what to bring to a church potluck--by region!

And for those seeking to deepen their faith, there is useful discussion around how to pray, how to read the Bible, how to get the most from a sermon, etc. As a follower of Jesus for more than 35 years and a former pastor, I'm glad to have this book in my library.

Armchair Interviews agrees this book has great value.

Finally, someone has written a helpful guide to Christianity with a sense of joy and delight. The book has great content with excellent illustrations.

People remember topics if a bit of humor is used and this book does an excellent job. Paul would have loved it (in Greek of course).

Don't buy just one copy. You'll need extras to pass along to friends (especially seekers). Our church automatically shares this with those that are new to the faith.

Enjoy. Our whole family had fun reading it together!

Rev Dr Robert Driver-Bishop (biblical author)

P.S. Quite theologicaly, historically, & Biblically sound.

But that wouldn't be a bad guess because editor Kristofer Skrade clearly grasps the basic premise of that wildly successful series: combine useful advice with good humor and attractive illustrations, which are in fact provided by the very same artist, Brenda Brown. (Later books in this series specifically state that they are "based on the trade dress" of the more famous series which is "used with permission of and under license from" that series' publisher.)

Thus good common sense tips on how to stay alert in church and how to survive an un-air-conditioned church are combined with illustrated tips on how to tell sinners from saints by appearance (hint: you CAN'T) and how to identify possessed people, people filled with the Holy Spirit, and angels (with helpful diagrams).

I knocked off a star because I thought some of the attempts at humor approached the boy's-bathroom-wall level, which struck me as a bit inappropriate, and because in the info about Bible translations, the PRIMARY reason the KJV is still being used was completely ignored: a disagreement over textual criticism, the methods used to arrive at the correct text from a collection of hand-written copies, including both scribal errors and (possibly) deliberate changes. Up through the KJV, the underlying principle was "majority rules", that is all things being equal, the reading that is the most common is the most likely to be correct. However, all post-KJV translations have used a different underlying principle: "age before beauty", that is assuming that a handful of older by a century manuscripts rediscovered beginning in the 18th century contain the correct readings even though they represent only about 5% of the total. The problem is that if this assumption is wrong, all post-KJV versions are introducing more errors than they correct while after nearly 400 years the errors in the KJV have pretty much all been caught and either corrected or footnoted in modern editions. Since the total differences in the NT versions amount to no more than 5% and (arguably) change no major doctrines of Christianity, one might be tempted to dismiss this as Yet Another argument about the number of angels who can dance on the head of a pin, but conservatives point with some justification to the occasionally dishonest footnotes in some modern versions which falsely assert "majority rules" for what are in fact minority readings and call into question by enclosing within brackets text that there is no rational reason for questioning. At the very least it deserved a mention.

Note: this is essentially The Lutheran Handbook with the Lutheran specific material removed, while The Presbyterian Handbook and The Mennonite Handbook replace the Lutheran specific material with their own denomination specific material. The Lutheran Handbook II is also available. Thus members of those denominations might prefer their respective versions. Scripture quotations are from the NIV. The other books in this series are The Christian Handbook on Marriage and The Christian Handbook for Pastors.