Christian Education

Cardoza, Freddy, editor. Christian Education: A Guide to the Foundations of Ministry. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019.

Christian education has changed quite a bit over the years, but it has also remained the same. The discipline itself has expanded to include many new ministries, and many of us witnessed the development of these ministries. Designed to serve as an introductory textbook for Christian education courses in Christian universities, this book demonstrates the hybrid nature of Christian education today. It draws from philosophy, psychology, business, religion, sociology, and other disciplines to emphasize the importance of ministering to all persons. With chapters by leading Evangelical Christian educators, the book emphasizes personal evangelism in spreading the Gospel and encourages training all believers to share their faith. Some writers developed their topic better than others who seemed to give only superficial treatment to the topic. With more topics to cover than textbooks of forty years ago, the editor's challenge in creating a volume suitable for a foundation course is understandable, but the coverage given some topics which used to garner more attention in courses of this nature is disappointing. This book should serve well as an introductory text for years to come when supplemented by additional content addressing weaker portions of the text. I received this advance review copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review. Although I worked as a seminary librarian when some of the chapter authors attended my institution, I did not allow my friendship with the authors to influence my review.