Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris

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Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris is a book that strives to challenge today's Christian to hold the truth of God high without putting people down. While I completely agree with this direction of thinking I am just not sure that Mr. Harris accomplished the task.

I do have to admit from the beginning of this review that I am not a fan of Joshua Harris. After reading his book I Kissed Dating Goodbye and seeing the trouble it has caused in some religious circles I decided to treat this author with kid gloves. I tried to give this author a second chance with this book Humble Orthodoxy because the topic is something I strongly believe in. It was very near the beginning of the book when I realized that this book may not be what I had hoped.

When Joshua Harris begins talking about his friend who was a new Christian and an author and how his book received some negative feedback from Christians I started to cringe. It seemed to me that Joshua Harris backed a book written by a friend without really checking for content or Biblical accuracy. Then when Christian started voicing their concerns to the author about the problems with the book Joshua Harris took the stance of defender because he believed these voiced concerns to be personal attacks. Joshua Harris freely admits that the content of his friends book is indeed theologically flawed yet this author backed it anyway. Why?

I do agree that the Christian community has a problem when it comes to holding the truth of God high while not putting others down but standing and saying when something is wrong is not the same as putting someone down. In this case of Joshua's author friend and even Joshua himself I believe that often times when we get called on our mistakes we get our feathers ruffled and pride gets in the way of true growth. We take the stance of someone being attacked and read things with a tone that reflects our wounded pride rather than the tone that may have been intended. From holding press conferences to do damage control from his dating book because people were taking the book to literal and using it as a guideline for their lives to this book where Joshua blurs the lines between personal attacks and standing up for your faith it seems to me this author is still very immature in his faith.

While this book does make some valid points about a very serious issue in the American church I believe that Mr. Harris' viewpoint on speaking out about your faith and orthodoxy as it pertains to today's church may need further refining.

I do want to say though that while this may not be one of my top ten favorite authors that doesn't mean that reading this particular book won't give you some points to start thinking about when it comes to your own faith and how you portray it to the world around you. Just remember to read with a discerning eye and be clear about what motivations may have prompted or clouded this author's thinking for this particular book.

Read an excerpt from this book and decide for yourself.
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http://www.amazon.com/Humble-Orthodoxy-Holding-Without-Putting/dp/1601424752#reader_1601424752

“I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”.