New Book — Rooted: Theology For Growing Christians

Last updated on: May 31, 2016 at 9:41 pm by Brandon D. Smith

New Book — Rooted: Theology For Growing Christians 2016-05-31T21:41:48-05:00 Brandon D. Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Follow @BrandonSmith85

As you may know, my friend Jeff Medders and I wrote a short, accessible book on the most important doctrines of the Christian faith. It’s called Rooted: Theology for Growing Christians, and it released this weekend from Rainer Publishing.

As two men who’ve served in church leadership in various ways, we kept running into laypeople who were accidental Universalists, Arians, mystics, and even worse. We’ve found that it’s often not their fault; rather, they spent most of their lives in churches where theology was treated as a professional discipline for a select few. They sat under the leadership of men who either didn’t care about theology, or thought their congregations couldn’t handle it.

But the truth is, theology is for everyone. Theology simply means “talk about God,” and we all talk about God. We’re all theologians–it just depends on whether or not we’re good theologians. So we wrote this book to give people a simple introduction to doctrines like the Trinity, Scripture, the metanarrative of Scripture, and eschatology. We’ve also included discussion/reflection questions at the end of each chapter, to help people apply these beliefs either individually or in a group.

We think Russell Moore‘s foreword really captures the heart of Rooted. Here’s a snippet:

This book assumes what I’ve found to be true: that theology disconnected from mission becomes archaic, abstract, and boring. It’s not that we don’t believe in justification sola fide or in the ordo salutis or in the hypostatic union—even those who aren’t sure what those words mean. We just often have trouble seeing how those old words and ideas are supposed to actually help us in our fight against sin, in the evangelism of our children, or in our advocacy for widows and orphans.

Theology separated from mission—that is, separated from the life that Jesus has called us to live in him—is not biblical theology. Christ Jesus said that his sheep hear his voice, and they run toward it. Hearing the voice of Christ makes us move. This is because theology isn’t ultimately about a “what” but about a “Who.” Theology is to show us how God patterned the universe after Jesus Christ, how he is summing up all things in Christ, how in Christ he as put together a plan to reconcile humanity to God and to one another, thus freeing the whole universe to be what it was created to be as the theater of God’s glory. This book is not for readers who want to play theologian for a few hours.

As the title implies, it’s for Christians who want to grow. The kind of theology in this book is the kind of theology you need when your children are rebelling, when your marriage is in trouble, when a new abortion clinic comes to town, or when a tyrant throws you into prison. Theology matters because theology is about Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the ground and future of the universe. My prayer as you read is that you would not only learn, but that you would long, not just for a way of life or for a set of truths, but for the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

You can also read an adapted excerpt here.

Get it on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, then buy one for a friend!

Previous Post

December 28, 2015

My 2016 Reading List

Next Post

May 31, 2016 Church Grammar: Theology as the Language of Christianity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academics Apologetics Baptists Biblical Interpretation Biblical Studies Blog News Books Christian Life Church History Culture Ecclesiology Eschatology Gospel Interviews New Creation News Politics Science Scripture Sexual Sin Social Media Spiritual Discipline The Smorgasbord Theology Trinity Word Matters Podcast

Select a Month September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who taught Apollos about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Select your answer to see how you score.

Timothy Aquila and Priscilla Paul Barnabas

Books by This Author Books by Brandon D. Smith

See All Titles »