Paul Louis Metzger - Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths

PRAISE FOR CONNECTING CHRIST

Many times evangelical treatments of new religions (pejoratively labeled cults)and at times world religionsconsist of doctrinal comparison, usually followed by apologetic refutation. Paul Louis Metzgers volume moves beyond this template to consider new and world religions on their own terms while also relating them to the Christian faith. Not content with mere description, contrast, and rebuttal, Metzger invites representatives of the religious traditions he engages into conversation that includes critique. This dialogical approach is a refreshing addition to evangelical treatments of religion that should be of value to Christians in the academy, the pulpit, and the pews.

John W. Morehead, director, Western Institute for Intercultural Studies; and director, Evangelical Chapter of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy

In this wise and stimulating discussion, Paul Louis Metzger calls for evangelical Christians to pursue relational, incarnational apologetics in our engagement with a religiously and culturally diverse society. Drawing upon his extensive personal relationships with those from very different perspectives, as well as his experience in teaching theology, Metzger presents a fresh approach that listens carefully to Christianitys critics while also pointing others to Jesus.

Harold Netland, professor of philosophy of religion and intercultural studies, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

In Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths, my good friend Paul Louis Metzger writes on a topic he daily lives out connecting Jesus to our post-Christian culture. How can we join the most important conversations of our time, rather than retreating to the comfort of our own subculture? Metzger has labored hard to build bridges here, in very progressive Portland, Oregon, making this a work deeply rooted in real-life experience. In this timely and compelling read, you will learn how to engage the culture more effectively for greater kingdom impact.

Kevin Palau, president, Luis Palau Association

I have trusted and respected Dr. Paul Louis Metzger so much that over the past several years we have asked him to periodically teach an apologetics course to our Young Life staff in the Northwest. His book Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths is consistent with why our staff loves his teachinghe weds a message of biblical orthodoxy together with the compassion of incarnational witness. Dr. Metzgers book reads like a field manual for engaging disinterested and even hostile people with both the truth and grace of Jesus Christ.

John Franklin, senior vice president, Young Life Western Division

Paul Louis Metzger is among a select group of Christian apologists who correctly understands three counterintuitive missiological realities:

the United States is a mission field;

presenting Christianity as a religion reduces the gospel to just one possible choice in an over-saturated religion marketplace;

our most effective mission strategyperhaps our only effective mission strategyis to talk about Jesus of Nazareth.

This is the best book available for instructing us all in how to talk about Jesus to people of other religious traditions. Christian witnesses must read it.

Terry Muck, dean, E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, Asbury Theological Seminary

We all desire to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers. Yet to share the profound, life-changing message of Jesus Christ effectively, we must first understand these individuals: their beliefs, their questions, and their presuppositions. In short, we must learn to dialogue, to listen, and to respond in a respectful, winsome, God-honoring way.

In Connecting Christ Paul Louis Metzger allows us to eavesdrop on some profound conversations, giving us a glimpse into the mind-set of others from differing faiths and a better understanding of how to share with those who have yet to respond in faith to Jesus Christ.

Luis Palau, world evangelist

I find Connecting Christ to be as robust and clear a statement of evangelicalism as I have recently seen.

Phyllis Tickle, founding editor [ret.], Publishers Weekly, religion

Paul Louis Metzger loves Jesus, and this book shows that his love for his neighbors is just as palpable. Connecting Christ presents the kind of witness to Jesus that participates in the power of the gospel to change the world. The development of a viable and winsome evangelical apologetic in the twenty-first century receives a huge boost in the book you hold in your hands.

Amos Yong, J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology, Regent University School of Divinity

Paul Louis Metzger has given us a remarkable expression out of Gods very heart. His proposal for a relationally authentic pursuit of engaging others needs to be heard by everyone. In his writing he is clear while not being simplistic, and he is courageous without being arrogant. A relational-incarnational apologetic model will challenge and release all of us to seriously live out of Gods heart, to love unconditionally with humility, repentance, and confession.

Dr. Randall Y. Furushima, dean and executive officer, New Hope Christian College

Whats glaringly missing from Connecting Christ is anything hypothetical: no hypothetical conversations, no hypothetical questions, no hypothetical worldviewsthis is real-world apologetics. What is not missing from this book: a Christ-centered approach to apologetics, compassion and empathy for the lost, a commitment to truth, and a thorough knowledge of competing worldviews, not as we read about them but in the nuanced manner that we encounter them. This is the manual for evangelism and apologetics for the next decade.

Rick James, publisher, Campus Crusade for Christ; and author, Jesus Without Religion and A Million Ways To Die

The variety of religions and philosophies across the globe is dizzying. The common way to account for such diversityfrom the worlds perspectiveis to say either all of it is false or there are many paths to fulfillment and the hereafter. Paul Louis Metzger, a leading expert on Christ and culture, gives us another perspective, a better way. Connecting Christ is a must-read on how to live Christianity in a world of diverse faiths.

Michael O. Emerson, Allyn & Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and cofounding director, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University; and author, Divided by Faith, United by Faith, People of the Dream, and Transcending Racial Barriers

In this wide-ranging trinitarian apologetic, Paul Louis Metzger gently but firmly addresses people of various Christian denominations, other religions, and no religion from an evangelical perspective of solidarity with them, presenting the good news that because God is gracious to us in Jesus Christ, God will not let any of us go and will not let Christians separate themselves from anyone, even their enemies, because those who trust in the crucified Savior cannot let anyone else go either. Among other intriguing issues the relation of theology and science; the problem of universalism; how to understand Christianity in a pluralistic market-driven, consumer culture; and how to relate with others over divisive moral issues are also discussed.

What makes this a very compelling read and an unusual one today is the fact that Metzger never wavers from pointing readers to the only One who can make us truly one and give us genuine hope for the future of humanity, namely, Jesus Christ himself. Anyone reading this book will see just how everything really does look differently in light of a theology of the Trinity.