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And Now for Something Completely Different: The Outline of My New Book

April 14, 2017 by Randal

Today I finished the final draft of my 11th book. At this point I switch from heavy editing mode into light copy editing mode. The typesetting stage should follow soon thereafter.

This book is unlike anything I’ve done before. At 86,000 words, it is one of the longest books I’ve written. It is also most surely the most personal: while I’d be reluctant to call it a memoir, it does draw on multiple instances from my own life to weave a narrative of evolving understanding as regards matters theological and soteriological (that is, pertaining to salvation).

Currently the title is: Do You Know Where You’d Go If You Died Tonight?: Forty years of seeking salvation. 

And here is the table of contents: ten parts, forty short(ish) chapters, and one long journey:

* * *

Introduction: What does it mean to be saved?

Part 1: Conversion

Chapter 1: Dear Jesus, please come into my heart. Amen

Chapter 2: A minister of the Gospel

Part 2: Doubt and Assurance

Chapter 3: Blaspheming the Holy Spirit

Chapter 4: Miracles

Part 3: Getting the Gospel Right

Chapter 5: The Four Spiritual Laws

Chapter 6: The Fifth Spiritual Law

Chapter 7: Street witnessing

Chapter 8: The Sixth Spiritual Law and playing “Stairway to Heaven” backwards

Chapter 9: Peter Gabriel or Jesus Christ

Part 4: Grace and Works

Chapter 10: Variations on the Sixth

Chapter 11: Don’t sin, be perfect, et cetera

Chapter 12: Serial killers who love Jesus

Part 5: Highway to Hell

Chapter 13: Going to hell because somebody goofed

Chapter 14: Hell by way of a gingerbread cookie

Chapter 15: Hell and noble intentions

Part 6: The B-I-B-L-E, Yes That’s the Book for Me

Chapter 16: Beyond the Bible Bread Loaf

Chapter 17: Interpret the Bible literally where possible?

Chapter 18: Leaving the King James Bible behind

Chapter 19: Why did Petra want to kill their old man?

Chapter 20: Jesus and the Disney Bible

Chapter 21: How I learned to hate my enemies

Part 7: In Search of a True Church

Chapter 22:  Mormons and other people who believe the wrong things

Chapter 23:  Speaking in other tongues (or not)

Chapter 24: On adding lightness

Chapter 25:  Is “evangelical” a guarantee of quality?

Chapter 26: When you doubt can Mother Church believe for you?

Part 8: The Devil’s in the Doctrinal Details           

Chapter 27: Did Jesus teach his disciples about the Trinity (and does it matter if he didn’t)?

Chapter 28: Do the requirements of belief change over time?

Chapter 29: Beliefs, doubts, and a healthy faith

Chapter 30: Maybe all dogs (and babies) go to heaven, but what about toddlers and teenagers?

Part 9: The Gospel Comes into Focus

Chapter 31: Love God or neighbor?

Chapter 32: The greatest story ever told

Chapter 33: God became meat?

Chapter 34: God was murdered?

Chapter 35: What’s this about taking up our crosses?

Part 10: The Gospel is Bigger and Better than I Ever Dreamed

Chapter 36: Caught between a dark and a dull place

Chapter 37: I’m still going to die, but at least I have hope

Chapter 38: Grace at the Gospel Mission

Chapter 39: You are awesome. Really, you are

Chapter 40: Looking for love in Las Vegas

Conclusion: The Gospel in a nutshell

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist

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