THEOLOGY FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS

A Christian provides life and theological lessons from Genesis geared toward children in this debut religion book.

As the pastor of a small church and director of a private Christian school, O’Reilly wrote this work to provide Sunday school instructors and parents suggestions on how to teach Genesis to kids, with an emphasis on understanding both “ancient” contexts as well as contemporary “applications” that “will inform their day-to-day lives.” To this end, each chapter concludes with discussion questions and “hints” for adult leaders on how to best guide conversations. The book naturally begins with the Creation story and includes a lengthy analysis of the debate between scientists and creationists. While the author claims a “natural reading of Scriptures leads to the conclusion that the earth is not older than 10,000 years,” he leaves room for debate, noting that there is space for Christians to disagree. As the volume continues to work its way through Genesis, often chapter by chapter, it offers mostly standard conservative interpretations. Many of these readings link accounts in Genesis to other biblical stories and to broader Christian themes. The book ends, for instance, with the death of Abraham in Genesis and the fulfillment of God’s promises to the patriarch in the New Testament. Written in a conversational style, with dozens of kid-friendly illustrations by Long and text-box vignettes, the work is approachable but also does not shy away from difficult theological topics, from the nature of sin to the original Hebrew meanings of specific biblical terms. Not only are children exposed to pantheism and other religious systems (which, from the author’s perspective, do not reflect God’s “truth”), but also different denominational views, such as Calvinism. While well versed in fundamentalist Protestant interpretations of the Bible, the volume too often ignores Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox allegorical readings of Scripture as well as more liberal appraisals found outside the realm of evangelicalism. Many in the liberal camp will be put off by not only the book’s literalist approach, but also its devotion of an entire section to characterizing gay sexuality as “the infamous crime against nature.”

An informative religious educational resource limited by its narrow view of Christianity.