Book Review The Art of Turning

I had meant to inclue this review which I wrote for EN towards the end of last year

THE ART OF TURNING From sin to Christ for a joyfully clear conscience

Kevin deYoung

10Publishing

40 pages. £1.00 ISBN 9781911272212

This briefest of books can be read in no time but its five short chapters are crammed with good things. It looks at the rather neglected subject of conscience.

It begins topically enough in this this anniversary year of Luther nailing the 95 theses to the door of the church of the castle of Wittenberg. We are taken four years further on to Worms and Luther's stand for the truth before Emperor Charles V. He famously said there that his conscience was captive to the Word of God, raising the question for all of us as to whether ours are too

Chapter 2 takes a further step backwards, to the Scriptures themselves, and especially to 2 Corinthians 1:12 and a dozen other places where Paul talks about conscience. Our author points out that Paul like Luther treasured his conscience and so should we.

In Chapter 3 we come to a definition: the moral faculty within human beings that assesses what is good and what is bad. We should recognise the role conscience plays both for the prosecution and the defence (or defense as it is here, the book uses American orthography). The chapter closes with an almost irresistible reference to Pinocchio.

Chapter 4 deals with misfiring consciences. It keeps to four examples only – the evil, the seared, the defiled and the weak conscience. It deals with these very cogently. The closing chapter is on the way to a clear conscience. It calls for repentance, faith and for Christians to live the life they were meant to live. The final point is to remember that conscience should be our friend.

The only possible slight criticism of the book would be that it may appear to give a higher position to conscience than the New Testament warrants. One would have appreciated more on the importance of love. In such a brief book, however, it is difficult to avoid some measure of imbalance. This really is a great little book, one that everyone should read.

Gary Brady Pastor of Childs Hill Baptist Church and author of Candle in the wind on the conscience