What Christians Believe: The Story of God and People

Anna Wierzbickas new book takes a radically novel approach to the task of communicating what Christians believe to a wide audience. The Story of God and People at the heart of the book sets out these essentials in narrative form, in 40 mini-chapters. It is unlike any other introduction to Christianity, in that it systematically uses simple words and does not assume any previous familiarity with Christian faith or vocabulary. The words used in this Story are also universal: while it is written in English, it is not phrased in full English, shaped by history, culture and tradition, but in Minimal English, in words which, evidence strongly suggests, correspond to the shared core of all languages. The Story of God and People demonstrates the effectiveness of Minimal English as a tool for global understanding, and as such will be of interest to anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, those interested in education, communication studies, translation studies, as well as linguistics. Above all, this Story, together with the 40 commentaries on the 40 mini-chapters and the introductory background chapters, hopes to articulate what Christians believe, making this clear for anyone interested, regardless of their background, religious or non-religious.