Review by David McKay

If you are one of those people who hate watching a football match after somebody has blurted out the result, or if you never saw the Titanic movie because you already knew the ending, you may want to hold off reading Introducing God until after you have been to a course. Dominic Steele’s book, released in 2006, is a faithful rendering of most of the talks that are shown during this ten week evangelistic program.

This opening disclaimer is not intended to turn you off the book, but to let you know that you may get more out of it if you use it as a way of reviewing the talks after you’ve already heard them in their originally intended context. Our church has just finished reviewing the program by meeting together on a Sunday evening at our minister’s place and watching one session, having some of his wife, Lesley’s delicious soup together, and then returning to the lounge room for a second session.

On reading the book after hearing the talks once, I realised how much thought had gone into putting the course together. The Christian message is presented in an attractive way, but the prickly bits are also included. The method of attack is to begin by painting a picture of Paul in Acts 17 introducing the Athenians to the God they don’t know, and then following the plan of Two Ways to Live.

Dominic Steele introduces us to God as he has revealed himself in the bible: a loving Creator who is utterly holy and just and who cannot allow evil, but who has provided for us to have our relationship with him restored through the voluntary death of his Son. He has been careful to faithfully present the multi-faceted riches of the Christian teaching. This is done, for instance, with the concepts of Original Sin and the Trinity. In the talks and in the book, Dominic doesn’t focus on these, and certainly doesn’t use those words, but he has ensured that we see that sin stems from Adam’s fall and that Jesus is God and willingly suffered for us. He does not leave the door open for the Pelagian idea that each of us begins afresh with a clean slate. And Dominic’s explanation of the cross does not allow for the accusation of cosmic child abuse, because he correctly presents it as Trinitarian. This may have been expanded a little in the book, or maybe I missed it the first time round!

He goes to considerable lengths to avoid the use of Christian jargon, and uses words which he carefully defines to explain concepts which may not be clear to those unfamiliar with the bible’s message. And those of us who are already believers benefit too, because the words we use may lack bite through overuse, and through a lack of understanding what is meant by them.

An example of this defining of terms is the way that he explains sin through telling us about Prince Leonard who declared autonomy from Australia and set up his Hutt River Province. Dominic further illustrates this by telling us about his own feelings about wanting to be autonomous and drive at the speeds he chooses, and not those of the Roads and Traffic Authority. Throughout the course and book, Dominic personalises the gospel by telling us of his own struggles, his own desire for autonomy from God, and importantly, the change that came into his life when he laid down his claims for autonomy and surrendered to God.

The DVDs come with helpful extras, such as short segments of a pseudo-1950s sitcom called The Lemmings and a few testimonies from men and women of diverse ages and backgrounds. The book includes a short snapshot of someone’s journey to freedom in Christ at the end of each chapter. We all love stories, and these accounts are highlights of the book.

I enthusiastically recommend this entertaining and challenging book , but hope you will take the opportunity to attend a course first.

David McKay is an overseer at Bathurst Evangelical Church.
Originally posted on the Culture@Home forum of SydneyAnglicans.net.