Book Review - Courage: How the Gospel Creates Christian Fortitude By Joe Rigney

Courage: How the Gospel Creates Christian Fortitude By Joe Rigney

With Brave as my 2024 word of the year, I usually seek out several books that are topically related. This book came available through the Crossway advance reader program, and it seemed timely. The ideas and thoughts expressed hereafter are my own and I have not been compensated for my review.

Courage Review

Rigney presents the biblical information about courage by defining it generally and then calling out the difference between common courage and biblical courage. This moves to understanding courage when contrasted to its opposite, cowardice, using numerous biblical examples. He then moves on to discussing biblical boldness before closing with a discussion of how courage is expressed differently by the genders.

Open Questions

I struggled to make a connection between boldness and courage, though the two are clearly related, the text did not draw that connection together for me. The examples given included times of courage in which boldness was expressed, however one does not necessarily require boldness in times of courage, I think. The chapter ‘Courage and the Sexes’ additionally drew upon literature as well as biblical examples of courage by men and women, seemingly with the attempt to say that courage is often assigned to men in battle and Christianity has broadened the term to apply also to women, but not in battle. I am perhaps oversimplifying, but I think we could find examples of courage in men and women inflected in similar ways given that few of the population have seen war. Perhaps I would have preferred the same information be delivered in a manner which said that we have expanded the use of the term from strictly battle connotations and simply given examples.

Excellent Parts

The biblical examples, especially beginning in Genesis with cowardice was powerful, showing how the opportunity for either bravery or cowardice, the choice we have has been there all along. As a virtue, we have the choice to cultivate courage or to let it shrink. As a virtue, cultivating it would please God. I appreciated the definition of fearful and fearlessness as well, distinguishing that fear is God-given and healthy and it is if we allow ourselves to be filled with it or conquer it (fearlessness) that determines our courage as well.

Overall 4/5 Stars

Courage is needed for the “fighting without and fear within”, so it is necessary to recall Jesus as ‘the greatest good in the face of looming danger or death.” While the book references many Bible passages, it feels like a bit of a survey of the topic. Additional depth would be beneficial in understanding biblical courage and common courage.