Pastor and author Martin Thielen has compiled a list of ten things people need to believe, and ten things they don't, in order to be a Christian. This lively and engaging book will be a help to seekers as well as a comfort to believers who may find themselves questioning some of the assumptions they grew up with. With an accessible, storytelling style that's grounded in solid biblical scholarship.

Don't let the title mislead you. If you are a Christian, it is easy to think that a book like this would be cheapening your faith, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. If you are not a Christian, but you are curious about faith or think you believe in God or know you believe in Jesus but don't really live it, this book is for you. United Methodist pastor Martin Thielen writes this book to the seeker, but there is much of value in here to remind us all of the foundations of our faith and what really matters in the life of a Christian.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section tackles some sensitive subjects that non-Christians often list as their reasons for not being a Christian. Things like the role of science and women, care for the environment, homosexuality, and the overall judgment people feel from Christians. Thielen reassures readers that you do not need to tow the line of self-righteous conservative Christians in order to be a Christian. He gives fair assessments of the range of ideas that Christians hold on these issues with biblical support for moderate, mainline positions.

The second half of the book is the most important, uplifting, and undeniable part of the book, and it cuts right to the heart of the glory of Jesus Christ. Thielen lists ten things that all Christians do need to believe - that Jesus is the Son of God, that relationships are His priority, that we are accepted as His children, that He uses people for His work, that true fulfillment comes from service, that He is with us in our suffering, that there is hope, that we need church, that the Holy Spirit is with us, that we strive to bring His kingdom to the world, and just what it means to be saved. These chapters are touching, encouraging, reassuring, and convicting. At the end, Thielen tells readers what it means to be saved and how to profess one's faith.

Thielen writes like a preacher. The short chapters are full of heartwarming stories, illustrative parables, pop culture references, and funny jokes, but they are all very pertinent to the main point of the chapter that is quoted in scripture at the beginning and summed up in a "bottom line" sentence at the end. This book would make an excellent study for new believers and groups interested in evangelism. It lays out the foundations of Christianity using a Methodist worldview in a friendly tone with biblical support. However, this book is not for your apologetics class or your conservative Christian neighbors. It is not out to prove anyone wrong or argue biblical exegesis. It is out to reveal the basics of Jesus's message and open the door to faith for all. ( )

Don't let the title mislead you. If you are a Christian, it is easy to think that a book like this would be cheapening your faith, but you couldn't be farther from the truth. If you are not a Christian, but you are curious about faith or think you believe in God or know you believe in Jesus but don't really live it, this book is for you. United Methodist pastor Martin Thielen writes this book to the seeker, but there is much of value in here to remind us all of the foundations of our faith and what really matters in the life of a Christian.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section tackles some sensitive subjects that non-Christians often list as their reasons for not being a Christian. Things like the role of science and women, care for the environment, homosexuality, and the overall judgment people feel from Christians. Thielen reassures readers that you do not need to tow the line of self-righteous conservative Christians in order to be a Christian. He gives fair assessments of the range of ideas that Christians hold on these issues with biblical support for moderate, mainline positions.

The second half of the book is the most important, uplifting, and undeniable part of the book, and it cuts right to the heart of the glory of Jesus Christ. Thielen lists ten things that all Christians do need to believe - that Jesus is the Son of God, that relationships are His priority, that we are accepted as His children, that He uses people for His work, that true fulfillment comes from service, that He is with us in our suffering, that there is hope, that we need church, that the Holy Spirit is with us, that we strive to bring His kingdom to the world, and just what it means to be saved. These chapters are touching, encouraging, reassuring, and convicting. At the end, Thielen tells readers what it means to be saved and how to profess one's faith.

Thielen writes like a preacher. The short chapters are full of heartwarming stories, illustrative parables, pop culture references, and funny jokes, but they are all very pertinent to the main point of the chapter that is quoted in scripture at the beginning and summed up in a "bottom line" sentence at the end. This book would make an excellent study for new believers and groups interested in evangelism. It lays out the foundations of Christianity using a Methodist worldview in a friendly tone with biblical support. However, this book is not for your apologetics class or your conservative Christian neighbors. It is not out to prove anyone wrong or argue biblical exegesis. It is out to reveal the basics of Jesus's message and open the door to faith for all. ( )

What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?
By Martin Thielen
Published by Westminster John Knox Press ISBN 9780664236830
This book was supplied to me by the publisher via NetGalley in return for the promise of a fair and honest review if I chose to review the book.

What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?
A Book Review

This title offended me. I believe that a Christian should learn all he can learn about Christ and then believe it if it is true. This title sounds to me like weaseling.

So I was very relieved to get into the book and find out it wasn’t that way at all. The source for the title is a long-ago discussion between him and a self-described atheist. The atheist and the pastor continued to be friends, and finally the atheist, having gone through various phases of belief and non-belief, asked for a formal meeting with the pastor. This was the question he asked, and this is the answer the pastor gave him.

First, it lists ten things a Christian need not and in most cases, should not believe. These include exclusivity to the extent that even fellow Christians who follow a different denomination, are undoubtedly damned. They also include the belief that God causes accidents, natural disasters, and illnesses; fretting over occasional (or even perennial) doubt (“I believe; help thou my unbelief); women as slaves of men; the belief that God doesn’t care about social justice; the belief that God will send sinners ( category which includes most of the person’s relations and acquaintances) to burn in hell forever, even if they are people who never heard of Christ or who otherwise had no chance of learning to believe in him; the idea of The Rapture; the belief that everything in the Bible should be taken literally; the belief that God hates sinners, especially if they are homosexuals; and the belief that it is okay for Christians to be judgmental and aggressive over their disbelief. Christians should believe in Jesus’ identity (if you don’t know that Jesus is a part of the Godhead how can you worship him?); Jesus’ identity with God; Jesus’ priorities if they don’t include us and our pet beliefs; and Jesus’ grace.

I found that although there were things in the book that I didn’t belief; for example, in insisting that all Christians must believe in the Trinity—three in one, one in three—and that people who don’t believe in what the writer believes is a worse sinner than the ones the author condemns. He hasn’t the slightest idea that he is doing it; he is consciously welcoming all comers to the Church but then subliminally saying, ‘That doesn’t include you and your belief system.”

Christians must believe in Jesus’ resurrection and in his later resurrecting all of humankind. Christians must believe that the church in general is still relevant; that Jesus was wise but not as much the God he was before the World and the God he is now; that the Holy Spirit was sent to call us; and in general most of the same things I believe. He also believes that Christians must believe in the dogma of the Trinity, although he admits that it isn’t present in scripture, and that it was later extrapolated, and the arguments he uses in its favor support the Mormon view of the Godhead more than they do the Catholic and Protestant Trinity.

Finally, he states that Christians must believe in the Holy Spirit and in Jesus’ Vision: God’s dream for the world. He gets a little vague in this chapter, but it works all the same.

This, in my eyes, makes this well-written, short and readable, book well worth reading, especially for someone who has recently become, or is considering becoming, a Christian.

Anne Wingate
Author of Scene of the Crime and other works of fiction and nonfiction.
http://gardenwindow.me/2012/08/27/whats-the-leas…-a-book-review/
My blog, and it went active August 27, 2012.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1277I8MA91MTZ
Went active August 27k, 2012.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/whats-the-least-i-can-believe-and-still-be-a-chr...
Went live August 27, 2012
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10200625-what-s-the-least-i-can-believe-and-s...
Went Live August 27, 2012

Don’t let the title mislead you. If you are a Christian, it is easy to think that a book like this would be cheapening your faith, but you couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you are not a Christian, but you are curious about faith or think you believe in God or know you believe in Jesus but don’t really live it, this book is for you. United Methodist pastor Martin Thielen writes this book to the seeker, but there is much of value in here to remind us all of the foundations of our faith and what really matters in the life of a Christian.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section tackles some sensitive subjects that non-Christians often list as their reasons for not being a Christian. Things like the role of science and women, care for the environment, homosexuality, and the overall judgment people feel from Christians. Thielen reassures readers that you do not need to tow the line of self-righteous conservative Christians in order to be a Christian. He gives fair assessments of the range of ideas that Christians hold on these issues with biblical support for moderate, mainline positions.

The second half of the book is the most important, uplifting, and undeniable part of the book, and it cuts right to the heart of the glory of Jesus Christ. Thielen lists ten things that all Christians do need to believe – that Jesus is the Son of God, that relationships are His priority, that we are accepted as His children, that He uses people for His work, that true fulfillment comes from service, that He is with us in our suffering, that there is hope, that we need church, that the Holy Spirit is with us, that we strive to bring His kingdom to the world, and just what it means to be saved. These chapters are touching, encouraging, reassuring, and convicting. At the end, Thielen tells readers what it means to be saved and how to profess one’s faith.

Thielen writes like a preacher. The short chapters are full of heartwarming stories, illustrative parables, pop culture references, and funny jokes, but they are all very pertinent to the main point of the chapter that is quoted in scripture at the beginning and summed up in a “bottom line” sentence at the end. This book would make an excellent study for new believers and groups interested in evangelism. It lays out the foundations of Christianity using a Methodist worldview in a friendly tone with biblical support. In fact, a leader’s guide for a seven-week study including publicity materials is available at http://www.wjkbooks.com. However, this book is not for your apologetics class or your conservative Christian neighbors. It is not out to prove anyone wrong or argue biblical exegesis. It is out to reveal the basics of Jesus’s message and open the door to faith for all. ( )