Brian Cosby
Christian Focus, 2012, 112 pp., $8.99
With the New Calvinist buzz in many adult Christian circles during the past year or two, it’s no surprise that youth are showing an interest in learning what the tenets of the reformed tradition are. In Rebels Rescued: A Student’s Guide to Reformed Theology, Brian Crosby gives a simplified yet adequate treatment of the five solas that most evangelicals share and the five points of Calvinism (also known as TULIP) that are more unique to reformed theology.
Crosby is clearly gifted in the art of explaining intricate theological points in a manner that makes them engaging and accessible to a teenager. For example, to illustrate the totally depraved nature of man’s heart (the T in TULIP), Crosby describes a shopping cart with one bad wheel that constantly causes the cart to veer to the side.
Designed for individual or small group study, each chapter includes thought-provoking questions; and if your teenagers are similar to the ones I serve, there is plenty in each chapter that they will want to discuss and question. I look forward to sharing this text, especially with some of my intellectually hungry students. However, as with any study of theology, I’ll be sure to warn them of the dangers of knowing God in our heads alone.
