The Rev. Dr. Marcus Braybrooke DD., is a retired Anglical Clergyman and a Peace Councillor. He was Executive Director Council of Christians & Jews 1984 – 87, and Chairman of the World Congresses of Faiths 1978 – 83 & 1992 – 99, and is its current President. He is the author of more than a dozen books. His Lambeth Doctor of Divinity was presented by the Archbishop of Canterbury in recognition of “his world-wide work for inter-religious understanding and co-operation.”
Published by Hodder & Staughton, London, Sydney Aucland, 1998. Used by permission. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.
SUMMARY
(ENTIRE BOOK) Marcus Braybrooke guides us through the various forms of Christian beliefs and practices. He asks for understanding of the vast differences between various Christian approaches. His hope is that this writing will be a doorway to the Christian world for the non-believer and the believer.
Chapters
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
Although the author writes as an English priest and from that tradition, he recognizes that the Church of Englad is but one among many, as is Christianity one among many religions.
- Chapter 1: Life-Changing Encounter
Throughout the centuries, famous and unknown Christians have longed for the presence of God and found it in Jesus Christ. The author presents a number of examples from both the past and the present.
- Chapter 2: Who is Jesus?
Jesus Christ means many things: the historical Jesus, the person of Jesus, the Jesus of faith, the living presence of Jesus. The author attempts to explain what the historical Jesus of Nazareth was like.
- Chapter 3: Is He the Christ, the Son of God?
The author discusses numerous ways Christian see Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and how the early followers and the early church developed the concepts of Jesus’ Divinity.?
- Chapter 4: God
For many Christians it is an experience of Jesus Christ that makes belief in God real. The author looks at the numerous concepts of the meaning of "God" in history.
- Chapter 6: A Changing Church in a Changing World
The author looks at the multitude of reformers especially in the sixteenth century and continuing to the present, and how the church has been scattered through these influences.
- Chapter 7: Love God
The devotional life of a Christian — prayer, devotions, fellowship, Eucharist. In this chapter, the author looks at the ways in which the disciple comes closer to his or her Lord.
- Chapter 8: Love Your Neighbor
How does faith in Jesus affects the way a disciple lives? How does he meet human need? He attempts to change the structures of society.
- Chapter 9 ‘Go, Post a Lookout’
The focus of this chapter is a positive look into the future despite the predictions of doom. There are signs of a new dawn as people of faith are renewed in their spiritual life and engage more actively with the problems and suffering of the world.
- Chapter 5: Many Mansions
The belief in the past was that there was only one truth, but today there is a bewildering variety, yet a continuity. In this chapter Marcus Braybrooke looks at the multitudes of ways that religion is defined and practiced.