Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : Why this book -- Knowing Christianity : seeing reality through the biblical story -- Ultimate reality is supernatural and personal (but not human) -- The biblical vision of ultimate reality retrieved -- Non-biblical, non-Christian views of reality -- The biblical-Christian view of ultimate reality : God -- The biblical-Christian perspective on the world -- Biblical-Christian humanism -- Appendix: a model for the integration of faith and learning.

Christians disagree on doctrine, politics, church government, certain moral questions--just about everything under the sun, it can seem. Yet a unity remains, centered around a core outlook on God and the world that is common to all believers. Or at least, such an outlook should unite Christians of all theological and church backgrounds. However, alternate visions of reality often infect and corrupt Christians' thinking. In The Essentials of Christian Thought, eminent theologian and church historian Roger Olson outlines the basic perspective on the world that all Christians, regardless of the place and time in which they are born, have historically held. This underlying metaphysic accords with all orthodox theologies, whether Calvinist or Arminian, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant, but it separates Christianity from other religious and secular perspectives. It is, quite simply, the essential requirement of a Christian view of the world. Bold and incisive, The Essentials of Christian Thought will prompt thoughtful readers and students to more consciously appropriate the core of their faith, guarding against ideas that subtly but necessarily invite compromise. -- Provided by publisher.