Letter to a Christian Nation

I was directed to a colleague's posting at his online journal.

We've had some very entertaining lunch-hour conversations in the past, and I couldn't help but be rude and take up his offer (which was not directed to me) to read Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris in exchange for a book of my choosing of roughly the same length. I will post a review on my blog while my colleague does the same.

I opted to select the books of Luke and Acts from the Bible. Neither of these books focus on apologetics, but were selected because one might as well know what one does (not?) believe. Both Luke and Acts do a wonderful job of recounting the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as continuing on with the history of the (very) early Church. Any of the four Gospels would have been suitable, but selecting Luke provides some continuity between the two books as they were authored by the same individual (tradition ascribes them to Luke).

I look forward to reading Sam Harris' book. Without having read a review or knowing the content of the book, I assume most of his criticisms are directed at the disconnect between what Christians believe and how they act, especially in first world nations where wealth, consumerism, politics, hypocrisy, and ignorance have done much to undermine the credibility of the Christian faith. Hence my recommendation of Acts instead of one of the Epistles, which tend to focus on theology. Acts demonstrates how the early Church operated, and is a good indicator of how the Church should have operated over the intervening centuries.

I'll purchase the book this week. I'll be interested in seeing if my premonitions of the book's contents are substantiated.