Book Review: Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris

Joshua Harris could be called "The Christian relationship guy." He's written about how not to date (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), how to build a strong Biblical foundation for marriage (Boy Meets Girl), and how to build firm relationships in the body of Christ (Stop Dating the Church!). In his newest book Dug Down Deep (Multnomah, 2010), he takes a look at another relationship: his own with God. Instead of eying the horizontal, Harris takes a look at the vertical, and how he's come to cultivate and cherish the relationship in his life that is the most important.

Dug Down Deep, a title that takes its name from the parable of the builders, could also be called An Enjoyable Introduction to Systematic Theology. This book is definitely not Calvin's Institutes, but neither does it skirt around the facts of God, centering on feelings, relativism, and the "self-help Christianity" that so many modern books portray. Instead, Harris faces the basics: Who is God? What is the Bible and why is it important to study? Who is Jesus Christ and what did He do? What is the atonement? What is salvation? What is sanctification? Who is the Holy Spirit and who is He not? What is the responsibility of the church? And when it comes down to it, these elements are what we as Christians should be looking at ourselves on a daily basis.

"This book is the story of how I first glimpsed the beauty of Christian theology. These pages hold the journal entries of my own spiritual journey - a journey that led to the realization that sound doctrine is at the center of loving Jesus with passion and authenticity. I want to share how I learned that orthodoxy isn't just for old men but is for anyone who longs to behold a God who is bigger and more real and more glorious than the human mind can imagine." The book really does read like journal entries; instead of lecturing on each topic, Harris presents the basics of each doctrine, and then relates to the reader how he himself came to learn about it. In the chapter on the Holy Spirit he talks about his different experiences in conservative and charismatic churches. The chapter on the work of salvation is the testimony story of his father. Harris is able to, with amazing maturity, reflect upon his life and pinpoint the places where the Lord led him into learning. He, with even more maturity, is able to articulate wrong thinking he had in the past, and how that corrected thinking, based upon what the Lord says of Himself in His Word, enriched his relationship with God. As he admits, "The deeper I delved into Christian doctrine, the more I saw that the good news of salvation by grace alone in Jesus, who died for sin - the gospel - was the main message of the whole Bible. I suppose it might seem completely obvious that this is the center of the Christian faith, yet it felt new to me. I began to see orthodoxy as the treasuring of truths that point to Jesus and His saving work. ... Yes, it involved opening books and learning sometimes awkward words. But it was the key to truly knowing Jesus."

Dug Down Deep follows Harris' other books with weight of maturity, words written from a man actively seeking to knowing God. And as he seeks to know God, not shying away from issues of suffering or justice, wanting to lay hold of the truth, his words read like worship.