Mark Hart is Rural Dean of Chester and Rector of Plemstall and Guilden Sutton. He teaches on the ordination/readers training course for the regional partnership covering the southern North West dioceses. He has first class degrees in Mathematics and Theology and a PhD in Aerodynamics from Cambridge, and was ordained after ten years of aerodynamics research in the automotive and power generation industries.

'With beautiful clarity and calm passion, Mark Hart sets out a Christian understanding of living in the world. The joyful centre of Christian faith is that the world is pointless: it is made out of God's love, not out of God's need. As Hart works his way systematically through the major headings of Christian doctrine, he draws the reader into an enthralling quest to receive our freedom at God's hands and so to find that our purpose in life is to be an unexpected, undeserved, astonishing gift to ourselves, to one another and to God'Jane Williams, St Mellitus College London and Chelmsford

• Introduction \ 1 Straight to the Pointlessness \ 2Intimations of God \ 3Faith & Reason \ 4Growth of Faith \ 5 God & Creation \ 6 Jesus of Nazareth \ 7 Recognising Jesus \ 8 Jesus - God & Man \ 9 Freedom through Jesus \ 10 Models of Atonement \ 11 The Holy Trinity \ 12 Why the Church? \ 13 The Church \ 14 Baptism \ 15 The Bible \ 16 Prayer \ 17 Christian Living \ 18 The Eucharist \ 19 Heaven \ 20 Suffering & Joy \ Notes

Mark Hart is Rural Dean of Chester and Rector of Plemstall and Guilden Sutton. He teaches on the ordination/readers training course for the regional partnership covering the southern North West dioceses. He has first class degrees in Mathematics and Theology and a PhD in Aerodynamics from Cambridge, and was ordained after ten years of aerodynamics research in the automotive and power generation industries.

'With beautiful clarity and calm passion, Mark Hart sets out a Christian understanding of living in the world. The joyful centre of Christian faith is that the world is pointless: it is made out of God's love, not out of God's need. As Hart works his way systematically through the major headings of Christian doctrine, he draws the reader into an enthralling quest to receive our freedom at God's hands and so to find that our purpose in life is to be an unexpected, undeserved, astonishing gift to ourselves, to one another and to God'Jane Williams, St Mellitus College London and Chelmsford

• Introduction \ 1 Straight to the Pointlessness \ 2Intimations of God \ 3Faith & Reason \ 4Growth of Faith \ 5 God & Creation \ 6 Jesus of Nazareth \ 7 Recognising Jesus \ 8 Jesus - God & Man \ 9 Freedom through Jesus \ 10 Models of Atonement \ 11 The Holy Trinity \ 12 Why the Church? \ 13 The Church \ 14 Baptism \ 15 The Bible \ 16 Prayer \ 17 Christian Living \ 18 The Eucharist \ 19 Heaven \ 20 Suffering & Joy \ Notes

Mark Hart is Rural Dean of Chester and Rector of Plemstall and Guilden Sutton. He teaches on the ordination/readers training course for the regional partnership covering the southern North West dioceses. He has first class degrees in Mathematics and Theology and a PhD in Aerodynamics from Cambridge, and was ordained after ten years of aerodynamics research in the automotive and power generation industries.

'With beautiful clarity and calm passion, Mark Hart sets out a Christian understanding of living in the world. The joyful centre of Christian faith is that the world is pointless: it is made out of God's love, not out of God's need. As Hart works his way systematically through the major headings of Christian doctrine, he draws the reader into an enthralling quest to receive our freedom at God's hands and so to find that our purpose in life is to be an unexpected, undeserved, astonishing gift to ourselves, to one another and to God'Jane Williams, St Mellitus College London and Chelmsford

• Introduction \ 1 Straight to the Pointlessness \ 2Intimations of God \ 3Faith & Reason \ 4Growth of Faith \ 5 God & Creation \ 6 Jesus of Nazareth \ 7 Recognising Jesus \ 8 Jesus - God & Man \ 9 Freedom through Jesus \ 10 Models of Atonement \ 11 The Holy Trinity \ 12 Why the Church? \ 13 The Church \ 14 Baptism \ 15 The Bible \ 16 Prayer \ 17 Christian Living \ 18 The Eucharist \ 19 Heaven \ 20 Suffering & Joy \ Notes