In Chapter and Verse: A Skeptic Revisits Christianity Mike Bryan, a lapsed Methodist and self-described "shaky atheist," reports on his experiences while spending a semester at Criswell College, an evangelical Bible college in Dallas, Texas. Although the dogmatic Christians there find themselves at war with secular culture, liberal Protestantism and Catholicism, the author was impressed by "the unadorned joyful piety of the place."
Most of Byran's jibes are directed at the idols of the marketplace and the efforts of mainstream Christians to accommodate the gospel to the world. His reports on the classroom teachings come across with more insight than the descriptions of a pastor's revival in Florida, a Southern Baptist convention in Las Vegas, or a missionary trip to El Salvador. The students and faculty at Criswell are probably rejoicing — although they didn't convert Bryan, they did convince him that being a zealot for Christ doesn't mean you are a close-minded fool.