What's the Point? [Paperback]

"I go to work, come home, eat, sleep, go back to work. Life is one dreary bore. What's the point of it all?"

Almost all people have at one time or another asked themselves this question. "Is there a point to human existence?" - this is, indeed, the most fundamental question a human being can ask. And it is this question that Norman Warren addresses in his little book What's the Point?

THE AUTHOR
Norman Warren was born in London on July 19, 1934. After studying in Cambridge, he was ordained in the Church of England in 1960. This set him on a course of ministering in the church for the rest of his life. Starting as a curate in Warwickshire, he soon became a vicar, then, after several years, a rector, and finally Archdeacon and Canon of Rochester. He received these two positions in 1989 and kept them until his retirement in 2000.

Apart from being a church leader and gifted musician, Norman Warren has also been a productive author. His best-selling work is an evangelistic booklet entitled Journey into Life, which, according to the Jubilate Group Web site, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

THE BOOK
What's the Point? should perhaps be called a booklet instead of a book. It consists of short answers to twenty-nine questions, underlined by several colored photographs. This makes the total of eighty pages very quick to read.

The short answers and easy reading are no doubt intended by the author. It is, after all, a book written for non-Christians who wonder about the point of their lives and might be interested in reading the Christian answer to their questions-provided that it is presented in an easily accessible way. As the author states in the beginning of the book: "This book has been written so that you can know that there is a God and that he does care for you and has a purpose for the whole of life that is slowly and surely being worked out."

In this review I shall not repeat all twenty-nine questions Norman Warren addresses. What I shall do instead is divide the questions into several categories. Here is a possible way of categorizing the overarching themes of Mr. Warren's book:

1. The Identity of Human Beings
2. The Existence of God
3. The Beginning of the World
4. The Problem and Origin of Evil
5. The Identity and Work of the Person of Jesus Christ
6. The Importance of Making a Decision for Christ
7. The Life of a Christian

The book's view on these issues is summed up in the following two statements. Norman Warren writes, "Here is proof that God does love us and he does care. He came himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that he came to seek and save the lost. He did not come just to show us what God is like. Nor did he come just to teach and live a perfect life. He came to save us and this meant losing his own life to rescue us." Another passage in the booklet contains the same idea, only that here it is expressed more concisely. Speaking about Christ, the author says, "Because he is human he knows the sort of problems we face. Because he is God he is able to help us."

MY THOUGHTS ON READING THE BOOK
Considering the small size of the book, I thought that Mr. Warren did an excellent job at giving answers to very fundamental questions. The scope of the book did of course not allow him to answer objections to his answers, but doing so was probably not his intent in writing the book. It was written to introduce people to Christianity: to present the basic doctrines of Christianity to people who ask the all-essential question, "What's the point?" The book would likely not convince an intellectual non-Christian already familiar with Christian doctrines, but it does do a good job for its size.