How Wide the Divide?: A Mormon & an Evangelical in Conversation

How Wide the Divide is a superb debate between BYU Professor Stephen Robinson, and Evangelical scholar Craig Blomberg concerning Scripture, God Deification, Christ the Trinity, and Salvation Each of these four chapters contains initial statements of belief, comments upon each other s position, and a jointly written conclusion The authors are respectful in their disagreement, and are often surprised to find agreement where they thought they had none The format served well to expose misunderstandi [...]

Unfortunately interactions between Latter day Saints and their Evangelical counterparts have not been all fluffy white clouds and sunshine Rather the looming darkness of the atypical Utah thunder storm might be a better weather metaphor to employ This book is a refreshing break Although, in the words of one reviewer Blake T Ostler Judging from evangelical responses on the Internet and the refusal of several fundamentalist Christian bookstores to carry How Wide the Divide one would think that Ste [...]

What a strange book A fairly heavy theological tussle between a Mormon and an Evangelical Christian Some good stuff got put on the table but I think they may have both failed to be fair to the core of their religions I cheered on Craig Blomberg of course but i m not convinced he really rose to the full challenge But that was part of the agreement going in, they kept this discussion very focused and stayed out of some of the mud For instance they didn t discuss polygamy or the chaos of early Morm [...]

This book was at once enlightening and a bit frustrating Get out your dictionary and prepare to reread sentences a few times to really understand the intricacies of the dialogue Being a member of the LDS Church, and having recently had a personally unnerving encounter with a Christian Evangelical I was motivated to understand and internalize what this book had to offer The two lists at the very end 12 points we agree on and 11 points we part ways on were a helpful condensing of all the things di [...]

How Wide The Divide is a remarkable collaboration between authors Craig L Blomberg and Stephen E Robinson Blomberg is an ordained Baptist minister, and professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary Robinson is professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University and a well known and highly regarded LDS author Their book is a generally successful attempt to clarify language uses, and to compare and contrast the doctrinal beliefs of Evangelicals and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of L [...]

This is going to be a very long review I m really glad I read this book I learned a lot Some of things I enjoyed were 1 the definition of historical Christianity I ve heard it a lot in the media and now I finally understand why all those Evangelicals are telling me that I am not a Christian.2 the explanation that Mormons and Evangelicals often misunderstand each other because of our vocabulary They also defined a lot of things nicely I appreciate that a lot.3 the direct, but tactful way in which [...]

Horrible book from a Bible believer s perspective If trying to reconcile Biblical Christianity and Mormonism you should know it cannot be done By watering down and misrepresenting both, mainly Christianity, these authors attempt to do so or so it seems The problem comes from the fact that Mormonism is constantly changing and though the Mormon author may be sincere he is not necessarily teaching what his church has taught, is currently teaching, or will teach in the future The Christian author se [...]

How Wide the Divide A Mormon and Evangelical in Conversation attempts to identify just how wide the divide is between the Latter day Saint Christians and Evangelical Christians The conclusion they came to was the these two theologies were not as different as they had anticipated It consisted of four chapters discussing doctrines of each faith Both of the authors scholarship were frank and concise which would be a reason to give it a higher rating Neither of them shared any fears critiquing the o [...]

I think Bloomberg Robinson have struck a cord of inoffensive candor that really advances the relationship between amazingly similar and impossibly different christian views Their dialogue is direct yet amicable They make a tremendous effort to reconcile vocabulary so that the discussion can be meaningful to both parties an agreement on what we mean by what we say can only lead to greater understanding I love their conclusion that the divide is far narrower than we generally believe but we re not [...]

Wow What an intelligent and gratifying read Written by an Evangelical Christian and a Mormon on four of the main issues of Christian orthodox beliefs, the book attempts to discern the differences and significant similarities between the faiths Both are respectful, patient, and willing to work toward a common vocabulary of theological terms that would promote further discussions between Evangelicals and Mormons As one who has interacted with Mormons extensively and loves them to DEATH I was so pl [...]

I grew up surrounded by Evangelical neighbors and friends and found this book absolutely priceless It is a dialogue between two scholars of different religions, LDS and Evangelical I would have given this five stars, but for the fact that the Evangelical scholar incorrectly STATES what he claims to be Mormon belief Despite this, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from this in depth dialogue which, for a conversation on different religions, is civil and respectful The book is organized w [...]

My American Christianity professor gave us a list of books that we could read that he suggested, but they weren t required This was one of them I kind of feel like this should be required reading for all Mormons and all Evangelicals I know that s not possible, but I learned so much I learned about my faith Mormonism , I learned a lot about Evangelicals that I did not know, and I learned about the root of a lot of the problems I have had with Evangelicals, because essentially, we re speaking a di [...]

In this book the authors take 4 subjects of heated disagreement between Mormons and Evangelicals and debate them openly and honestly Evangelicalism is home to some of the most outspoken anti mormon sentiments and both groups harbor many misconceptions about the other s faiths In each chapter Robinson author of other very popular books in Mormonism like Believing Christ and Blomberg a conservative Evangelical scholar both present their beliefs, respond to each other, and then come to a joint conc [...]

I thought this book did a good job showing how ridiculous Mormonism is, and how much ridiculous evangelicals are for not realizing how ridiculous their criticism of Mormonism are I mean, really, you want to criticize if God has a body or not, when evangelicals believe some man God came down and got nailed to a tree and now your naughties can disappear I thought it was an interesting book, and I can imagine evangelicals get annoyed when they can t frame the other party s argument At the end of t [...]

A book written by a Mormon scholar and an Evangelical scholar I ve known some evangelicals personally, but I m living in Bible Belt country now so I thought I d get acquainted with how their theology lines up with mine It starts out with a very polite, let s compare our beliefs note, but then does get a little oppositional later on However, the debates happen with the utmost respect and I think the oppositional approach ultimately fleshed out issues and brought the salient issues to the surf [...]

This book is actually written by two individuals, Dr Blomberg, an Evangelical and Stephen Robinson, an LDS Scholar The book is written to give both the oppotunity to have a dialoge and discuss the misconceptions of their faiths The point is for both to gain a greater understanding of where each are coming from in their biblical backgrounds It was a great help to me in understaning the councils and creeds that help to define the traditional Christian Churches and their doctrines.

An absolutely outstanding book by two very capable scholars I was glued to it and read it in one sitting I have read it three times so far, and plan to read it many times in the future There are no winners or losers, however, there was a resounding feeling that there are certain misconceptions about each of our faiths, not to mention a few inconsistencies.

This book was suggested to me by Alonzo Gaskill when my son decided to volunteer for a mission, and really helped me to understand, appreciate, and respect the beliefs, as well as the people, of the LDS Church I m glad I read it.

I find this discussion of religion between a baptist leader and a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints very interesting Having belonged to other churches several prior to being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints I have seen the similarities and wondered why the divide This open discussion is very well done.

This book makes an attempt to foster understanding between the long embattled evangelical vs lds perspectives and also helps to establish our common ground It makes for an interesting read and does a good job of representing each side as it is authored by both an evangelical and a lds writer I would recommend.

I am about a third of the way through this book So far I wouldn t recomend it It is interesting to learn about the Evangelical faith however the mormon author is often incorrect about mormon doctrine which makes me wonder about the evangelical author.

As a person who has recently moved to Salt Lake City, I found this book very helpful in understanding the culture here, and it made me think about my own theology and worldview as I read the discussion of critical issues.

This book contained an excellent dialogue concerning Evangelical and LDS beliefs Prof Blomberg and Prof Robinson candidly discussed differences and similarities of faith without the extreme emotional communications that generally accompany such discussions.

Through my study of Mormonism, I found this to be a great guide in clarifying the differences and similarities between Christianity and Mormonism Though I felt a bit of tension in some of the answers, it was enthralling for those who have insatiable curiosity about the other side.

Really great for those discussions I have had many a discussion with members of other Christian faiths this book helps me understand the beliefs of others as well as to help them understand me.

A little like a bland research paper in the middle Worth making it through to the conclusions at the end.

It gets a bit repetitive but I learned some good stuff about what Evangelicals believe and how I can do better to explain my beliefs in common terms and contexts.

If one is interested in the Mormon vs Christian debate, this is a vital read As I m not so interested

Great book The good faith and honest discussion between these two is encouraging and has helped in my own discussions and my own contemplations of faith.

interesting comparison of Christian churches and Mormonism