"5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth In Minimum Time"
Rick Cornish
Buy Here: www.amazon.com
By the end of this week, I will be at Panfork for my summer job as a media staffer. To commemorate this upcoming event, I decided to finish a book that I had begun reading while I was down there last year. "5 Minute Theologian: Maximum Truth in Minimum Time" by Rick Cornish soon became part of my daily devotional routines during the summer, and while I was on my recent El Paso mission trip, I decided to finish it.
The format and content of this book lives up to the title. Rather than follow most theology books and treat each subject under a chapter or two, Rick breaks down what would otherwise be a systematic theology textbook into 100 essays that you can easily read in 5 minutes or less. The structure of the essays begins with introducing theology to the Bible, God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Church, and closes with the last days. Each essay pertaining to those sections focuses on one topic or issue that falls under that domain, so you will get an adequate survey of the topics in bite sized portions.
My highest praise for this book comes with how it is written; Rick is a great writer and knows how to get to the point in a short period of time. He writes on page 21 that "I have tried to make these brief minutes count by communicating maximum truth in minimum time". I would say that he accomplishes this goal very well. While you won't become an expert of these topics with this book, people who are unfamiliar with them will walk away far more knowledgeable about their faith than they did before. To quote Craig Blomberg's endorsement of the book, "I have found these readings to be clear, accurate, well-chosen, and personally stimulating, covering the topics appropriately." I could not agree more
I should give a disclaimer that, while the book tries to treat each topic with a neutral stance (and does a good job at it), there is a slight slant to the Reformed perspective. Being a 5 point Calvinist, I have no problem with that, and I don't think the slant is strong enough to turn people off to it; nevertheless, in a handful of places, it is there.
This book is an invaluable tool to give to Christians who are wanting to get deeper in their faith, for youth ministers who are looking for material to teach theology in a way that is accessible, and for people with busy schedules who want to be able to read a little each day. I cannot recommend this book enough for those who are wanting an accessible yet helpful introduction to theology. Rick also has a church history version and an apologetics version of this book, so I will hopefully get around to those at some point in time.
8.5 out of 10
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