The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity

Olson's conclusions in each chapter strive for unity for the universal church, but his solutions sometimes call for great compromise (or they expose Olson's bias). I am all for Christian unity for the sake of the lost and the love of the church, but true unity takes work and sometimes a willingness to live in the tension of the varied hermeneutical conclusions of our brothers and sisters in Christ.However, Olson's systematic approach is predictably welcome and quite fair. Even if I disagree with a few of his conclusions, I still respect and admire his insistence on the difference between opinion, doctrine, orthodoxy, and heresy. We live in a world full of folk theologians who don't even realize they are spreading false ideas about God, His creation, His Church, salvation, and the eschatological realities that lie ahead.Therefore, Olson is definitely on the right track. I wish more authors had the courage to call for the authority of Scripture, orthodoxy and the Great Tradition. I cannot justify less than five stars.

I am only on the 2nd chapter of this book. So far, my opinion of this book is that it's easy reading and informative.

Olsen takes the "either/or" arguments and presents them in a "perhaps both" format that made it easy for me to understand WHY "either/or" was important or not. Sometimes the going was tough, but always worthwhile.

This book was used for a college course. It was in great shape and did the job necessary.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the foundations and diversity of Christian faith. The book is very clearly written (i.e. very readable, does not plod or get bogged down in minutiae) and easy to understand. Dr. Olson follows a regular pattern in each chapter to help explain different key aspects of the Christian faith. He gives Biblical and historical reasons for orthodox faith, as well as reasoning for why certain strains of thought fall beyond orthodoxy, explaining the diversity within orthodox Christian belief without forcing his own beliefs or a single set of beliefs upon the reader.I highly recommend this book - it's a keeper for anyone who is interested in theology, or needs to have a reference to help provide answers to those who might have theological questions.

good reference

There are few good chapters but too many light weight chapters and hanging theology. The book is written from an Arminian worldview. There’s plenty of central subject matter here that the author chooses to broadly elucidate following a middling course. The book lacks a Christian theological boldness.Anyway, I assume, that might be why it was called out as one of several better texts in a grad level Systematic Theology course. It’s OK but … I prefer a weightier thesis

This is a good treatment of the tensions of a both/and Christian world-view/theology.

a bit too heavy for me, expecting more but ok

A very good book, I am currently studying theology, and this is my text book. I would recommend for those that are studying, or those that want to brush up on theology

A very useful book , helpful study guide, easy to read. Would recomend for bible study both personal and academic

A very helpful book for anyone interested in learning more about the foundations of Christian belief in a way that is understandable, complete in it's understanding of all doctrines and highly relevant to contemporary Christian life.It encourages mature thinking and offers a strong backbone to personal faith.