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Book Review: Dug Down Deep

Joshua Harris’s Dug Down Deep is an attempt to motivate the church at large to engage in serious theological study. Many folks have written off this work as dry, academic, and irrelevant. Harris paints a beautiful picture of coming to know God better through good theology, and does a great job motivating his readers to want to learn about God, rather than relying on guilt or obligation.

By the way, the book has a really good trailer video on YouTube:

The first chapters were excellent: making the case for theological studies. The beginning is two thumbs up, five stars, A+++ will buy again.

The following chapters form a mini-systematic theology study. These chapters are good for those who have never undertaken a systematic theology — and I suspect this is the target audience of the book. If you have more than a base familiarity with theology, you’ll find these chapters a little bit unfulfilling.

I’d like to see a book like this used in a high school or early college setting with young people discussing these theological issues.  I wish the first part of the book were longer, and the last part of the book were shorter — with pointers to other, more detailed and in-depth study materials.

Overall — I’d recommend for young and growing Christians, or for anyone who hasn’t considered a systematic theology. Harris and I disagree on several points — his Calvinism runs a little too strong for this church of Christ preacher, but you’ll enjoy the process nonetheless.

I reviewed Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris as part of Waterbrook/Multnomah Press’s “Blogging for Books Promotion.” I did receive a review copy free of charge.