With chapter titles like “How Do We Know God Exists?” and “The Hiddenness of God,” Murphy touches on some of the most difficult and faith-challenging questions for believers.

The book’s first chapter, which centers on a direct challenge to atheism, serves as a great tool for any Christian who is either engaged in discussions with atheists and agnostics or is intellectually struggling with the idea of God’s existence.

Throughout the book, Murphy challenges postmodernism and our culture’s seemingly endless search for meaning in everything but God.

For example, in one of the book’s best passages, Murphy writes: “And we seem to inoculate ourselves with some sort of cultural morphine drip against the possibility that meaning itself may not be a matter of unbridled democracy, but objectivity; that purpose and meaning are grounded in a Truth outside of ourselves; that we do not choose our identity, it chooses us.”

While the book is suitable for laypeople, readers with some background in philosophy and theology might be better equipped to follow some of Murphy’s arguments and references. The book not only offers resources for those engaged in discussions with unbelievers, but also for those struggling through various faith issues related to God’s existence and suffering.

For more information on the book or to order it, visit www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com or www.christianfocus.com.


“The Teaching of the 12: Believing and practicing the primitive Christianity of the ancient didache community” by Tony Jones
Paraclete Press, Brewster Mass., 2009, 125 pages
Local speaker and author Tony Jones spent more than a year researching and writing this small book (125 pages), but the extended time was worth the effort. Many Christians are unfamiliar with the short Christian handbook called the Didache (DID-ah-kay), which was, according to Jones, penned sometime around the time the biblical books of Matthew, Mark and Luke were written.

The Didache is just short of 2,200 words and was written in Greek. Its aim was to guide early Christians in the faith. Jones summarizes the book’s four main sections as: Training in the Way of Life; The Rhythms of Community Life; Visitors Welcome; and The End is Nigh.

In addition to describing this unique book, which was re-discovered in 1873, Jones unpacks some of its teachings and then describes how one small contemporary Christian community has incorporated the book into its community life.

Jones is a good writer, and the book’s 125 pages can easily be digested in one or two sittings. He provides good insight into how this small, early Christian community saw the world and their place as believers in it.

It’s a good read for those interested in learning more about early Christian practices and beliefs—and how one religious community has tried to emulate those teachings.     

The book can be purchased at local bookstores or at major online retailers.