The 40 Most Influential Christians . . . Who Shaped What We Believe Today

This book takes you on a brief journey through the lives and influence of 40 people important to the history of the christian faith. A chapter is devoted to each person, and that is broken down to the context (the time the lived, a little about their life, etc), their contribution and a brief conclusion summing things up. I found this book to be quite dry. I guess I expected it to be more biographical than theological. I would have liked to know more about their lives, as well as what they believed. There really wasn't enough information about the different individuals and too much of the author's opinion on what they believed and/or preached. I can see this being a good resource for Bible School students but it didn't hold my interest. This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Daryl Aaron spent fourteen years in pastoral ministry before coming to the University of Northwestern and he has been a member of the Biblical and Theological Studies faculty since 1996.  Daryl's recent book is The 40 Most Influential Christians Who Shaped What We Believe Today. I know even when I was in seminary, some of my favorite classes were that of church history. And I think the average lay person might get a lot of "bible history" from church, but to get any real "church history" one needs to look elsewhere.  Everything we teach in church today and even the right and the freedom to teach what we do today - comes from our church's forefathers (and foremothers) who have carved that path before us. Daryl has gathered these forty influential names and placed them in chronological order for you so that you can see first hand the impact that they had on Christian culture. Each one of the chapters is dedicated to one of these pioneers of the faith and Daryl has even graciously allowed each person to speak in their own voice so that the reader can get a sample of their contribution. At over 300 pages, this is not a quick read, but each chapter is short and contained, so one could easily read this book alongside another one and not have to worry about plowing through it. Daryl is a university professor, so at times you are reminded of that with his prose and grammar, but I don't think that makes this book unapproachable or "scholarly" I think the typical church-goer would enjoy such a book and as such. Thank you to Bethany House for a review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.