Product Description

Michael Tenenbaum's book "Blessed Assurance?" Revised and expanded. This book is an excellent challenge to dogma and the idea of biblical infallibility, but it's also so much more. It explores the sort of questioning and reasoning that goes on within a person facing the possibility that what he or she has believed isn't true. Sometimes even the most diehard believers come to realize their faith has been misplaced. What's involved in that process? Sometimes the most diehard non-believers assume that even though they don't believe Christianity is true, it can't be proved with certainty that it's false. But what if it can be?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1445178 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-25
• Released on: 2007-08-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 231 pages

Customer Reviews

A respectful guide out from christian faith and beyond
Are you a christian who thinks there might something wrong with your religion but you do not dare to ask the questions you need to ask? Have you dared to read atheist books but left unsatisfied or maybe even offended? Are you a spiritual person who are considering if christianity is the religion for you? Are you an ex-christian who have not been able to give up the feeling that you might be wrong? Are you an atheist who cannot understand why a christian seem unaffected by your, by your opinion, perfect arguments?

Then this book is for you.

Blessed Assurance? welcomes the reader to discover the secrets about the christian religion and why fundamentalism is simply false. The book is easy to read and approach the reader in a friendly and respectful manner. All it asks you is to read the book with an open mind. Then begins a journey where you are guided through the deepest secrets of the bible and the christian doctrine. Unlike other books that promises the same thing, Michael manages to put Christianity against Christianity and the bible against the bible. You do not need to trust external sources you never heard of before, Michael simply show you the things within the bible that you can read for yourself and then add 1+1 together. He also reveals the truth about "faith" and what it means to truly believe.

Blessed Assurance? speaks from the heart. As someone who was once a christian, Michael Tenenbaum knows what it's like. He knows what things go through the mind of a believer. When he tells the reader about his own story I could connect with his experiences very well. After reading this book you might be able to enjoy the bible with new clarity and you might also have discovered a few nice things about yourself. And you might have easened a huge burden from your shoulders and grow as a person.

Needs an editor and a balanced viewpoint
This book is so poorly edited that I am ocasionally offended by the lapses in spelling, meaning, and incoherent grammar in it, to say little of the arbitrary punctuation. Such slovenly practice does not enhance the credibility of the author. His manner is often conversational and even vernacular; a poor mood for such an engaging thesis. The pages are poorly organized, with frequent lapses in the "text wrap", and paragraph insertions intrude for no apparent reason. What index???
As for content, I was put off by his harangue on small points. What a reasonable person might consider casuistry is hammered home repeatedly and vehemently. I am a confirmed atheist, with no tendency to theism of any sort, but this thing is not as convincing as it might have been. I recommend that potential readers try Jim Gardiner's book, Jesus Who, as a comparison. Or maybe Hitchens...
Herb

Covers a lot, goes into detail in key places
Good stuff. It doesn't just present contradictions. Explains typical Christian answer and tells why they're wrong. He's kinder to the Christian reader than most books like this. Sympathetic. Covers a lot also. Biblical Contradictions. Tricking ourselves and calling that "faithfulness". Good reason why someone shouldn't be a Christian if its not true. He takes down a lot of unspoken assumptions that Christians have.