PRINCIPLES OF BELIEF AND PRACTICES OF FAITH

An illuminating guide for Christian living based on a compelling reading of the Bible, Principles starts slowly but ends well.

In his intricate book, Adams tries to answer a basic but compelling question for Christians: How can Christians act on their faith? Or, put another way: What must Christians do? The author’s thesis–that intangible biblical notions like belief and trust can and should be translated into actionable practices–is a simple but valuable message for the religious. However, the author sometimes loses the raw power of that message by getting tripped up in his jargon: “Since faith is accepted essentially as independent of our intellect and reasoning, if we could positively define faith, it would hardly be faith.” In doggedly cycling through these and other abstractions, including hope, trust, belief, intellect, reason and principle, in his introduction, Adams risks losing his audience. But it would be a painful loss, because what follows is quite good. After such a hermetic opening, the author launches into a carefully structured, 12-chapter close reading of Hebrews 11 that makes his case. At the core of his argument is a practical expansion of typology, a biblical-critical theory that exploits similarities between similar moments in the Bible, the classic example being the close resemblance between Isaac, nearly sacrificed by his father Abraham, and Jesus, actually sacrificed by his divine Father. Adams implies that by carrying out “practices of faith” Christians can become “types” of the biblical heroes mentioned in Hebrews. The author, educated at Princeton, has a knack for clearly explaining difficult theological principles, and though his prose demands careful attention, such attention delivers real insight. Further, his reading of the Bible–though traditional–is both sensitive and comprehensive. For Adams, Christian scripture is a unified story, and he handles the text like a veteran exegete.

A penetrating and pragmatic interpretation of scripture.