Zealous: Following Jesus with Guidance from St. Paul

Zealous is a page turner and it had me turning to many pages in the Bible. Mark Hart provided great references to scripture and asks you to look some of them up as you read along. Reading Zealous along with the Bible made it an extra special spiritual journey.I filled up the book as I read with notes, highlighter marks and page flags.

Zealous provides an insight guide to connect to St. Paul. After reading this book I have a better understanding of Paul, his struggles and triumphs. I have a new appreciation and view of Paul's letters at Mass.

Zealous has many levels of thought, insights and direction to make you think, reflect and pray. There are a few points where Mark even asks the reader questions... even says put down the book and prayer about those questions. This was as if I had a spiritual director jump off the pages of the book to help me along.

I was stopped in this reading journey by the end of the book when I hit chapter seven, "Choose Your Own Adventure" The Practicality of St. Paul. Mark Hart asks, "How far are you willing to go?" The questions are too easy to say yes and move on. I couldn't do that. If there was a no to a question, Mark Hart encourages the reader to stop reading and spend some time in prayer about it.

 An unexpected spiritual and faithful adventure for sure. Mark Hart doesn't leave you hanging, as he provides additional commentary to help the reader through those questions.Take on this book Zealous! It will open you up to a new, tuned up or refresher about St. Paul's faith journey... also a peek into your faith walk.

I recommend this books for adults, candidates in the RCIA and anyone wanting to learn more about St. Paul, his walk to follow Jesus. This book will enrich your faith life.Dream Big Always,Judy

I love St. Paul and I got so much out of this book. It is great to get more insight into his writings, it has given me a much better understanding who he was.

I absolutely loved this book! I especially enjoyed learning some of the history of St. Paul.

A very clearly written book that will helpany person know how to improve themselvesby following the teachings and examples ofJesus Christ.

The most beautiful, understandable explanations of Paul's most questioned lines in his letters, I will be reading this book over and over again.

Excellent insights to Saint Paul and inspiration to how to live a life as a fully committed Christian

Very inspirational.

Zealous is the latest book release from "Bible Geek" Mark Hart. In this book, geared toward teens, he and Christopher Cuddy walk use the book of Romans as a guideline for how to follow Jesus. The book begins with a foreword by Dr. Scott Hahn (instant credibility) and an introduction to the man who was Saul and became the greatest missionary, St. Paul. The first two chapters then seek to provide a basic understanding of two of life's greatest questions - 1. Who is God? and 2. Who is Man? We then see chapters focusing on man's relationship with God, man's relationship with himself, and man's relationship with his fellow man. The book then concludes with a plea and a challenge. The plea is for the reader to long for more than this earth and to long for heaven, and the challenge is a series of difficult questions related to your life. The questions build on each other, i.e., "Are you willing to be uncomfortable for God," and "Are you willing to trust God completely?"The two sections I liked the best came at the end of the book. The first was the one I just told you about - the series of difficult questions. Even if you aren't able to answer yes to one of the questions? They are questions that you need to spend time thinking about and praying about, so that one day you can say yes to God about anything He asks of you. The other part I enjoyed was the appendix that detailed where Paul went and what he preached about. It is arranged in the order the books are ordered in the Bible but does provide the proper chronology for when the books are written. I think adding a map would have helped with this appendix and made it easier to follow/picture. With the approachable writing style and cultural references to music and movies, this is a book that is well-suited for the teenage audience, and perhaps early twenties. Will it stand the test of time with these references? Probably not, but it makes a great graduation present or birthday gift for the young Catholic looking to follow Jesus. Four stars.