Thursday, January 21, 2016

Review - What We Believe: Understanding and Confessing the Apostles' Creed by R. C. Sproul

I'll be honest, I haven't finished this one. Though usually I can get through a book, even heavy ones, quickly, this is one I having to take my time with to savoir and ponder. This is apparently the 4th edition of this book where Sproul walks us through the ancient confession of faith we call the Apostles' Creed. The Apostles' creed is on of the oldest and most widely agreed upon creeds of the Christian faith. It spans centuries of the church as a most basic confession of what we believe. I've had the privilege of standing in the room where one of the councils that discussed the creed met and I felt a connection with those church leaders wrestling through what it meant to believe.

Though the creed seems simple enough in its brevity, every word in it was carefully discussed, debated and chosen. Sproul walks us through the creed in great detail, going over each phrase in detail. It is this level of detail that is making me take my time to digest each section. When one considers the painstaking work it was to put the creed together, I believe one should put the effort into digesting it properly.

I'm sure that the earlier editions were just as deep but what is obvious in this 4th edition is that Sproul has taken the time to update his illustrations and examples. As he communicates the meaning of the creed using language and examples are clearly appropriate to a 2015 audience. This is refreshing as too often I find later editions make very few changes are not completely current in the way they read.

I am enjoying my slow journey through the creed in this book and will continue to do so. If you are wanting to really understand what we believe through the lens of the Apostles' Creed I highly recommend you get this book and go through it yourself, or even better with others. The creed was worked out in community and really should continue to be worked out in community.

(I received this book from Baker Books in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own)