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Playing in the fields of heresy and ambiguity might offer short-term kicks, but only sound doctrine can supply a lifetime of thrills.
Over a century ago, G. K. Chesterton wrote his famous book Orthodoxy, a defense of plain, historic Christianity as the only compelling way to make sense of the world and its mysteries.
Trevin Wax stands firmly in Chesterton’s tradition with his new book, The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith. Wax, a Southern Baptist whose wife hails from Romania, is a far cry from Chesterton’s Anglo-Catholicism. In his own way, however, he is attempting to emulate Chesterton’s defense of the truth and goodness of Christian orthodoxy for our own age.
Earlier this year, Wax came out with his own annotated edition of Chesterton’s classic, meant to introduce it to beginners while bringing fresh insights to longtime admirers. It makes sense, then, for Wax to plot his own path, showing why historical Christianity—what C. S. Lewis called “mere Christianity” and Thomas Oden called “consensual Christianity”—is the farthest thing from a relic of the past.
Digging down, not digging in
The book’s foreword, written by theologian Kevin Vanhoozer, is an elegant reminder that Christian orthodoxy is about realism—what is real and what is true. It is there to help believers stay true to their Lord Jesus Christ. Wax builds on this insight in his first chapter, arguing that defending the orthodox faith matters urgently today because we live in an age of fads, fabrications, and fragmentation.
Orthodoxy is what keeps us rooted in the faith, ensuring that we do not forget our first love. The spiritual malaise of our age needs to be cured, Wax says, with “confidence in the truth and goodness of the Christian faith.” By anchoring ourselves in the historical ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
Umn ministry
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