Book Review: Back Side of Calvary

Title (as printed, surely a typo): The Backside of Calvary

Author: Rod Parsley

Date: 1991

Publisher: Harrison House

ISBN: 0-89274-897-4

Length: 110 pages

Illustrations: black and white graphics presumably by the author

Quote: “Sin-infected humanity needed the kind of transfusion that only God could provide. And the only way such a divine exchange could be made was if God Himself provided the blood.”

With “backside” in the title and a blurry rear view of a crucifixion on the cover, I wondered whether this was some sort of parody of evangelical Christian books. It’s not, although it contains some other infelicitous phrasing. Rod Parsley has not become a famous writer but he was apparently a real minister.

Well...if he’d put this work of soteriology on a blog, I would have read it without comments. Christian writers are always feeling a need to write the gospel message in our own words. I always think the Bible writers did a better job than I have. I feel that way about the gospel according to Parsley, too.

If you want a book to share with unbelievers, Mere Christianity and Basic Christianity are the classic summaries of what we believe. Backside seems to have been written for that purpose but I don’t recommend it for that purpose. It’s too easy for uncharitable, unchristian spirits to ridicule.

If you want a devotional book that lingers on the core of a faith you earnestly believe, you can read this one in the spirit in which it seems to have been written.

If you challenge, “How can you recommend a book about the Christian gospel that’s less than the best? Doesn’t such a sacred topic deserve the very best literary treatment?” you’re right, but this book has something to say to you. The next time you catch yourself wondering why some writers, who are Christians, write anything and everything but evangelical books...read Backside, and you will understand.