I am not a big fan of Neuhaus, with his magazine (First Things)'s defense of the Branch Davidians and conservative-reactionary tilt. In this book, though, I found little to disagree with and much to my liking. Neuhaus shows why religion should be integral to American life and does a good take on several key issues like abortion. Father Neuhaus avoids his usual political slant in this book, showing the intelligence and skill he is capable of when detatched (sp?) from his usual ideologue status. I would certainly recommend this book, no matter how much I may disagree with him on other matters.

Dunagin is right on target by giving us practical steps of outreach, renewal, and growth in the mainline church located in an area that has experienced demographical changes. With great programatic recommendations, he's right on target with United Methodists, Lutherans, Disciples, and others who want to get off the plateau.

With wonderful editorial and personal commentary running throughout the book, this text would be of great use for students, teachers and the general public interested in the sociology of religion. Its authors both lead us through the history of sociology of religion and show us new paths which are being explored today. I found it exciting to read, particularly the articles by Bell, Fenn and the one on feminism by Woodhead.

Richard Kew makes predictions about the future of the church by identifying current world trends and suggesting how they will impact the way we "do church." The author names ten trends, such as globalization, fiscal challenges, and moral dilemmas, and offers insights on how the church needs to revision its way of doing ministry in order to address the extraordinary challenges and changes that are sweeping our world. Each chapter is devoted to a "trend," complete with the author's analysis, study guide questions, suggestions for further reading, and websites to search for more information. Our church board is currently reading Brave New Church and we will be discussing the study guide questions in future adult forums. I especially appreciate the website references, and have found them to be very useful and practical. I recommend this book to any church leader who wants to be more effective in doing mission and ministry in our rapidly changing world.

An excellently written book which is straight forward and right to the point. If you're a novice to Catholicism this book is ideal, because it goes into all aspects of the Catholic faith and clearly defines what a Catholic is to believe. Very complete and extremely easy to read. His theology comes across as very open minded and not preachy. This book, I believe effectively conveys the right spirit and attitude that all Roman Catholics should have.

This book was truly the result of what happens when people take their blinders off and look at each other objectively. Having a shared Catholic/Evangelical authorship made the book very interesting indeed, especially for someone like myself who has deep personal ties in both of these camps.

The first part of this book discussed ECT, the Evangelicals and Catholics together pact, being careful to point out what it does NOT say, so that people don't get the idea that its false ecumenism. It does however go at lengths to explain the areas in which we do fully agree, and therefore can be said to have a common evangel.

The middle parts were interesting to me, as they explained sotierology from early and modern viewpoints. It didn't get too heavy, but it may not be of extreme interest to some readers. Next, church structure is discussed in a way that should help both Catholics and Evangelicals understand what each mean by "church" and the historical and Biblical reasons them.

Lastly was an essay by a man named David E. Bjork, an evangelical who tells of his experience evangelizing Catholics in France. What is so special about that? He encourages them to become better Catholics, rather than rip them away from a perfectly valid church, their roots, and their heritage! This was very heartening for me, as I've thought for some time now that this is how evangelism should be done in Central America and Western Europe. Further, his efforts seem to be having a good effect.

This is an encouraging book that I recommend all Catholics and Evangelicals read. For those endowed with open mind and a spirit of charity, there is much to be learned from the authors. I pray that all future cooperation and dialogue is as charitable as this.

As a catechist teacher I come across alot of text books. Thisis one of the better ones. Especially for those first and secondgraders just beginning to understand their faith and its traditions. Thank goodness our RE director chose this dictionary over others. The colorful pictures and clear explanations give valuable meaning to things that aren't always addressed during mass or other religious instruction. I highly recommend it.

As a Christian education major in college, I was steeped in traditional programming--Sunday school, children's church.

Shortly after I graduated, I discovered Larry Richards. And I ended up throwing out about 90% of what I'd learned in college and replacing it with the much more exciting--and biblical--approach I found in Richards' books.

A THEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION was my introduction to Richards in the 70s. The first edition of this book came out in 1983, and I think I read it the first year it was out. I was director of a small inner city ministry at the time, and we had been struggling for two years with the question of "What do we do with the kids?"

This book framed an innocent-looking question: Where were the kids in the New Testament church? Were they in Sunday school? Were they in children's church? No, they were worshiping in living rooms with their parents in house church. They were learning how to live the Christian faith by watching--and participating with--adults who were living out Christian community with the kids in the thick middle of it.

This inspired our little group (about five families) to commit to making our house church intergenerational. All our children at that time were age 6 and under. The kids didn't stay with us the entire two hours, but they were fully integrated into community life. It was absolutely the best experience of church we had ever had. For my six-year-old son, house church became the highlight of his week that he looked forward to all week long. The down side of this is that this was such a positive experience of church that my oldest children are seriously spoiled: "church as usual" now leaves them feeling really empty.

Since reading this book, I have been a champion of the idea that children are best discipled in intergenerational community among adults who love them and who are modeling in their relationships with each other and with the children what Christian community looks like--the hurting and forgiving, the serving and sharing, the fun and the tears. Next to this, traditional age-graded Sunday school can't hold a candle. Not that Sunday school doesn't do some good things. It's just doesn't come close to intergenerational Christian community. Most churches, in working with the children's Christian education program, ask questions like, "How can we improve our Sunday school?" or "How can we get more kids to come?" This book asks a much more basic question: "How can we best disciple children?" If you want to discover and implement the answer, not to the first two questions, but to this last one, you're not going to find a better starting point than this book.

Excellent inital review of an important theological & historical subject. Concise and covers most of the important early church writings of pertinence to said subject. Readable and contains some good referneces for further study.

This book is listed in the bibliography and extra readings list of most books about chaplaincy. Whether military, hospital, or prison chaplaincy, this book covers a broad range of material and is useful for all chaplaincy called individual. Too bad, it is out of print. The publisher shot themselves in the foot over this one.