Zealous (Servant Books)

Zealous is the latest book release from "Bible Geek" Mark Hart. In this book, geared toward teens, he and Christopher Cuddy walk use the book of Romans as a guideline for how to follow Jesus. The book begins with a foreword by Dr. Scott Hahn (instant credibility) and an introduction to the man who was Saul and became the greatest missionary, St. Paul. The first two chapters then seek to provide a basic understanding of two of life's greatest questions - 1. Who is God? and 2. Who is Man? We then see chapters focusing on man's relationship with God, man's relationship with himself, and man's relationship with his fellow man. The book then concludes with a plea and a challenge. The plea is for the reader to long for more than this earth and to long for heaven, and the challenge is a series of difficult questions related to your life. The questions build on each other, i.e., "Are you willing to be uncomfortable for God," and "Are you willing to trust God completely?"

The two sections I liked the best came at the end of the book. The first was the one I just told you about - the series of difficult questions. Even if you aren't able to answer yes to one of the questions? They are questions that you need to spend time thinking about and praying about, so that one day you can say yes to God about anything He asks of you. The other part I enjoyed was the appendix that detailed where Paul went and what he preached about. It is arranged in the order the books are ordered in the Bible but does provide the proper chronology for when the books are written. I think adding a map would have helped with this appendix and made it easier to follow/picture. With the approachable writing style and cultural references to music and movies, this is a book that is well-suited for the teenage audience, and perhaps early twenties. Will it stand the test of time with these references? Probably not, but it makes a great graduation present or birthday gift for the young Catholic looking to follow Jesus. Four stars.

This book was provided to me for free by Franciscan Media in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!