Reviewed Book: Styles, Frederick A. A Faith to Live By: A Resource for Adult Study. Toronto: United Church Pub House, 1991

Weigel, Arnold D.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 19Issue 2 Liberation Theology Article 2611-1-1993A Faith to Live By: A Resource for Adult StudyArnold D. WeigelFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationWeigel, Arnold D. (1993) "A Faith to Live By: A Resource for Adult Study," Consensus: Vol. 19 : Iss. 2 , Article 26.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol19/iss2/26Book Reviews 165A Faith To Live By: A Resource for Adult Studyr Frederick A. Stylesi: Toronto: The United Church Publishing House, 1991I 142 pages]Much of what is in this book was originally a series of sermons oncontemporary faith issues and was published under the title Developing ACredible Faith. The current edition, A Faith To Live By^ is an updatedand revised version including several chapters with additional issues beingaddressed.The author, Frederick A. Styles, is minister at St. Andrew’s UnitedChurch in Markham, Ontario. Supplementing each chapter are reflective,probing, stimulating questions and discussion-starters as provided by Mar-Iion Pardy, senior minister at Gower Street United Church in St. John’s,fNewfoundland.What do I believe? What do we believe? What informs those be-liefs? What are the words and/or actions through which those beliefs aregiven expression? How prepared are we to discuss what we believe? Theseiquestions are central as this study document leads the reader and/or group' participants into the depths of their beliefs about God, Jesus the Christ, theIHoly Spirit, Humanity, Sin and Salvation, the Church, the Bible, Baptism,: Holy Communion, Life after Death. Included in the subjects explored inthis revised edition is also a chapter on Sexuality, as well as one on Leaving,and on Being my Brother’s/Sister’s Keeper and on Ecological Matters.With what belief system and with what perspectives do I/we approachthese subjects? Do we do so from a perspective of tradition in which theApostles’ Creed in its original version is central? Or do we do so from amore contemporary stance, realizing that things have changed, includinghow we express our beliefs? The author claims that these axe importantquestions to explore.In the book itself. Styles explores the United Church of Canada 1968version (revised and made inclusive in 1980) of the Creed. It reads:A New CreedWe are not alone, we live in God’s world.We believe in God:who has created and is creating,who has come in Jesus, the Wordmade flesh, to reconcileand make new,who works in us and othersby the Spirit.We trust in God.We are called to be the Church:166 Consensusto celebrate God’s presence,to love and serve others,to seek justice and resist evil,to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,our judge and our hope.In life, in death, in life beyond death,God is with us.We are not alone.Thanks be to God. (viii)The author notes that the way this creed expresses beliefs takes intoaccount that we live in a time of history different from the apostles in Jesus’day. Yet we need to be in dialogue with how beliefs were expressed thenin order better to understand our own beliefs and their impact on how weapproach “life-and-death” issues. But we also need to claim a freedom toexpress our beliefs in current figures of speech. “Developing a faith is likeembarking on a journey that takes a person from one place to another place.No one can embark on a real faith journey without being different at theend of it than at the beginning” (139). Indeed!This is a stimulating study document for personal refiection, group dis-cussion and classroom use. Both Styles and Pardy explore the topics withan engaging sense of history and contemporaneity. Although situated pri-marily within the United Church of Canada, this text has much ecumenicalsignificance. I can readily see it supplemented in discussion with Faith is aVerb by Kenneth Stokes (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1989).Arnold D. WeigelWaterloo Lutheran Seminary

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