Rowland Croucher. Coventry Press (p132) ISBN 9780648323310
Questions & Responses is a book I should like very much: itu2019s written by a Baptist pastor from Australia, who was also a staff worker with the Aussie equivalent of our Kiwi TSCF university student missionu2014roles mirroring my own.
The book also starts on a great premise, seeking to address what Croucher says he believes u201care the most common/complex/urgent of the issues people raise with meu201d (page 4). The issues are diverse, covering topics such as abuse, social justice, Pharisees, the biography of Dom Helder Camara, Godu2019s existence, heaven, grief, and the biography of Billy Graham.
However, there is no discernible thread or flow through the book, and this lack of flow grates after a while. It is not clear what the author is trying to achieve in his writing. It feels like some of his notes on various topics have been made into a book. Indeed, he states in one place: u201cHere are my notes on the various classical routes from non-theism to theism/Christianityu201d (page 87).
Croucher is at pains to point out that the title of his book is Questions & Responses not Questions & Answers, clearly seeing this as a positive. But I feel that leaves the reader adrift, without any direction. Consequently, itu2019s hard to agree or disagree with anything substantively, because it reads like a chat with a mate at the pub rather than a book with flow. Thatu2019s of course fine, and itu2019s a good chat, but I had hoped for more.
Instead of recommending this book to believers and non-believers alike, Iu2019m much more likely to give friends (and have done so!) a Kiwi resource, from here in Selwyn, Canterburyu2014Finding the Forgotten God: Credible Faith for a Secular Age, by Ron Hay. This coherently seeks to deal with questions about the Christian faith in a clear and compelling way, something that Croucheru2019s Questions & Responses attempts, but in which he doesnu2019t quite succeed.
Review: Tim Hodge
