Letters from a Skeptic

Customer Reviews

• 5 out of 5
  
  
  by Jason from Upton, MA | Aug 12, 2009
  

  How many times has someone asked you one of the "difficult questions" of Christianity, or have you yourself asked and not received a very clear answer? Usually, it is in conversation and I know that I have a tough time being clear and articulate during a conversation...however, Greg Boyd decided to get away from that obstruction, from the issue of getting personally heated perhaps as one can in a conversation and simply write letters to his Dad to explain his faith. Over the course of 3 years, they explored many of the more difficult questions around Christianity...acknowledging when there aren't easy answers and making a solid case for why the Christian worldview really is the only one that reconciles with the historical narrative as well as with our own creation. Greg's father brings to light many of the issues that people have with the church, with religion and even with the character of God...and I think that Greg is able to answer them all with a clarity that was enabled because he had time to write out his response in a letter. It was fun to see the back and forth as well as to watch how the questions changed over time...
  I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who has questions on the Christian fatih and to those that already hold to the Christian faith but have difficulty answering "hard" questions to friends and family around why you believe what you believe.

  
  
   1 people found this review helpful
  
  

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• 5 out of 5
  
  
  by Paul from Columbus, OH | Aug 21, 2009
  

  Greg and Edward Boyd have have given us a great blessing in publishing their correspondence on the nature of Christianity. This book is unique among the many apologetic sorts of books I have read for a few reasons:
  
  1)It's honest. Ed Boyd doesn't go easy on his son about Christianity. The questions are thoughtful, penetrating and genuine, not straw men set up to be easily knocked down. Greg Boyd's answers are equally thoughtful and well stated. He doesn't overwhelm with theological language but does a very good job of explaining difficult ideas in simple language. He honestly admits to uncertainty in places, but does a fine job of showing that uncertainty need not be a serious impediment to genuine faith and rational belief. I have never seen so many difficult questions about Christianity answered so well in so little space.
  
  2)It's intimate. This is a discussion between a father and son who genuinely love and respect one another. It's a model for how important, ultimate issues can be debated in a very constructive manner.
  
  3)It's powerful. Ed Boyd's conversion is more than a mere acceptance of certain religious beliefs. It is a powerful testimony to the power of God to change a human life wonderfully "from the inside out."
  
  Many have objected to parts of Greg Boyd's theology. For example one review I read goes so far as to say this isn't really a Christian book because of Boyd's "Open Theism." (See his other books for a more detailed treatment of his theology.) Though I have some questions about this position myself, I think Boyd is a genuine evangelical Christian theologian who is wrestling honestly with how to make the best sense out of the whole Bible's portrayal of God. This reviewer's objections seemed one-sided. There are plenty of places in the Bible where God is portrayed as being shocked (even surprised?) at human behavior. He changes his mind. He is passionate and emotional (if the prophets are to be believed and Jesus is really God incarnate). God doesn't fit in a neat little conceptual box and Greg Boyd is honest about that. He deserves a fairer more open-minded reading than many of his critics give him.
  
  If God is the most powerful being in existence, he can do anything; even limit himself in some respects (not all) with regard to his knowledge of the future. To some people this implies a diminshment of God. If so, it is a self-diminishment--no other being has done it to him--and he is still is the most powerful being in existence--no one else has more foreknowledge than he. So how is God diminished? Is God unable to right any wrong just because he didn't "know" it would happen beforehand (because it wasn't part of reality before it happened)? I don't think so. I think Boyd makes a good point when he suggests that the conception of God that many Christians have may owe itself more to the ancient Greeks than to Christianity (or the Judaism from which it sprang) and biblical teaching.
  
  Greg Boyd is a passionate, whole-hearted Christian with the Highest regard for the Bible. That comes out very clearly in this book. I highly recommend it.

  
  
   1 people found this review helpful
  
  

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• 3 out of 5
  
  
  by Ki from The United States | Jan 19, 2009
  

  I have to say I really, really liked this book. It covered a lot of basic questions and handled them well. At the one or two points where the author disagreed with common Christian understanding, he made sure that the reader (his Father and then us) understood this: honesty is good quality.
  
  The only trouble is that because of it's unique format--as a question and answer from a believe to a non-believer--it's not a fabulous tool for an organized study of apologetics. More to the point, some of it can be a little confusing for someone who hasn't wet their foot in it before. You definitely don't have to be anymore than a beginner, but you ought to have at least begun.
  
  I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in a more casual read, or the answers to the specific questions addressed by the author.

  
  

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• 5 out of 5
  
  
  by Phil from Forest Hills, NY | Feb 22, 2008
  

  This book was incredible! I've never seen anything like it. This is a true correspondence between a Christian (theologian Gregory Boyd) and his 70 year old skeptic father. In his initial letter, he invites his father into a dialog about Christianity and asks him to voice every objection that he has to the Christian faith. What follows is three year exchange where the father basically lays everything on the table--every one of his major objections to Christianity--and the son patiently and effectively provides answers. His father's objections are slowly chipped away, and at the end of the book he becomes a believer. Almost every letter addresses major issues that people tend to have with Christianity, and Boyd gives his father real answers that he thinks about, which lead him to more questions.
  I loved the honesty and sincerity of both parties of this exchange. The father is a thoughtful and gracious non-believer who voices his concerns bluntly and articulately. Boyd's simultaneous boldness and tenderness in effectively addressing his father's concerns is very Christlike. Boyd is convinced that God has lead him into this exchange and that his father will be converted, and at a certain point ceases to be shy in declaring this. Though he acknowledges frequently how many of his real objections have disappeared, until very close to the end the father remains skeptical of his son's claim that he will actually be converted.
  Boyd writes a bit at the end about his father's final 11 years as a Christian, where he witnesses God's transforming love in his life, all the way up to his death. It's very touching. I loved this book--it gave me lots of hope to really see that people's minds and hearts can genuinely be changed, that no one is far from God's redeeming grace.
  The book is a quick read (I read it in less than a day!) and will probably leave you wanting to read it again.

  
  

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• 3 out of 5
  
  
  by Mont'ster from Mcallen, TX | Oct 2, 2007
  

  There are several things that I really like about this book:
  1) It is not a "fictionalized account" (its the letters, not "about" the letters)
  2) This book is exactly what it claims to be (is that redundant? Perhaps - but books that claim to be one thing and then turn out to be something else *really* annoy me.)
  3) The correspondences between father and son are not "over-edited". If I sit down to read a book of letters I don't want to read some stylized or white-washed version of the letters.
  4) Nobody pulls punches - If dad feels the son is inconsistent, the dad tells him about it. If the son feels the dad is inconsistent in his reasoning, the son tells the dad about it.
  5) Because these are real correspondences, the sometimes irrational reasons for our beliefs are brought out. (it cuts both ways)
  6) There is a logical flow in the course of the discussion (with some minor rabbit trails).
  
  Both the flow of the book and the fact that the father is not a professional theologian really made the book more "accessible" for me [also not a professional theologian]. We were able to use this book as our discussion starter in an adult Sunday School class and it worked really well. We had planned to take one set of correspondence a week but (if memory serves) on one or two occassions, we spent more time on something.
  
  In the interest of full disclosure I must admit that I do not agree 100% with Greg Boyd (the "Son" in the title and a professional theologian) but I still found the book worthwhile.

  
  

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