Christianity and culture

Review: You Are Not Your Own

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Cover image of "You Are Not Your Own" by Alan Noble

You Are Not Your Own

You Are Not Your Own, Alan Noble. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514010952) 2025.

Summary: Challenges the modern understanding of identity as autonomous self-belonging and what it means to belong to Christ.

“You are your own, and you belong to yourself.”

This statement is a basic premise of modern life. Many will see this and say, “But of course! You do you.” This sense of self-belonging, of radical autonomy is basic to our idea of human freedom. Any claims upon us denies that freedom. In this book, Alan Noble wants to contest this premise. Not only does self-belonging come with the dark sides of having to generate one’s own meaning and living under the tyranny of one’s desires, the truth is, we were not made for this. Rather, he will argue that we were made to belong to another and are not meant to be our own.

Noble begins by arguing that the society where each of us is our own is an inhuman society. He likens us to the animals in a zoo. When we exalt self-belonging, we treat others merely as instruments for our fulfillment. And others treat us the same way. But the panacea of autonomy turns out to be a burden of justifying oneself. Furthermore, we even determine our values. In the end, Noble argues that this is wearisome.

However, society props up the self-belonging project. Social media enables us to express and project an identity. It offers us stories through which we justify ourselves. While there are no universal values, efficiency help us us choose values, and then abandon them for new ones that prove more efficacious. In the end, though, society is failing us. Noble points to the prevalence of pornography as an indication of that failure. It is one manifestation of the depression, anxiety, and insecurity with which we live and the consumptive strategies that we use to self-medicate. In fact we all self-medicate, whether with drugs, food, shopping, or peak experiences. Consequently we witness widespread burnout, exhaustion, and fatigue.

But we are not our own. If one accepts that God made us, we understand that. But humans have rebelled against that, bearing the burden of self-ownership. In Christ, restoring our relationship with God is possible, As Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (NIV)

Noble explores what it means to belong to another, both the joy of belonging and our fear that it will be abused. The reality of belonging to Christ is belonging to one who gave his life for us. We belong to God, to a people, and to a place. We no longer need to justify ourselves. In addition, we find our meaning in God and our worth in being his unique creations.

How does this change the way we live? Noble begins with grace. We recognize God’s gifts in the midst of life’s challenges. We still exercise agency, not to create ourselves. Rather, “we can act to do good without deluding ourselves into thinking we will change the world.” We live in hope, “with palms turned upward.” We live in our cities, seeking their peace and prosperity. Christ is our comfort in life and death.

Noble reveals the dark side of our society’s assertion that we are our own. Our greatest freedom comes in belonging to another. For those who think a relationship with Christ is stultifying, Noble portrays the purposeful freedom of the Christian under grace. Likewise, for those see life’s ugly underbelly, Noble portrays belonging to Christ, not as freeing us from an ugly world, but rather taking its measure and living with hope in the darkest places.

The belief that we are our own is one inside as well as outside the church. The churches torn apart by disagreements during a life-endangering pandemic provide ample evidence of that. Sadly, we often act as a collection of private entrepreneurs checking in for weekly inspiration, rather than as a corporate body committed to one another, mission, and service together. How different we might be if we understood that we are not our own; that belonging to Christ means belonging to each other!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Star Trek and Faith, Volume 1

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Cover image of "Star Trek and Faith, Volume 1" by Mark S. Hansard

Star Trek and Faith, Volume 1, Mark S. Hansard, foreword by Michael W. Austin. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385235193) 2025.

Summary: How various iterations of Star Trek explored religious and philosophical ideas vis-à-vis a Christian worldview.

I am something of a Star Trek Fan. Not a diehard like another member of my family. I was in my early teens when The Original Series was first on the air. It was the most unusual thing on television, and it dared to explore interesting ideas like the encounters of civilizations and interracial relationships, including the famous kiss. The series reflected the humanism of Gene Roddenberry, yet religion was never off the table. Sometimes it was viewed as benighted beliefs humans would grow out of. And sometimes…

We spent Saturdays in our early years as a family watching the Next Generation. It was pizza night and we gathered around our little black and white TV to watch the latest episodes. Once again, the ideas behind the episodes were often thought provoking. Ideas ranging from the sentience of AI to mandated euthanasia. After this series and the early movies, we grew more sporadic in our following of subsequent series, which, according to that family member mentioned earlier, continues to this day. It’s a franchise that has been going for six decades.

Mark S. Hansard is a collegiate minister with an MA in Philosophy and a huge Trek fan. I can’t help but believe that some of the discussions in this book arose from viewings with some of the students and faculty with whom he works. He draws on episodes in The Original Series, The Next Generation, Discovery, and several of the films to explore the humanistic worldview of the series and its references to religion and Christian themes. And as a Christian, he interacts with those themes. Most helpfully, he identifies some of the logical fallacies and caricatures of faith perpetuated by the series. At the same time he explores with candor the challenges the series poses for Christians.

He begins with introducing us to Gene Roddenberry and the high tech, humanist perspective of Roddenberry. Yet he notes how Roddenberry, perhaps to please his audiences, put Christian themes into Trek. After the first section, Hansard uses a different episode in each chapter to explore a number of tough questions. For example, using “The Brightest Star” episode from Discovery, he explores questions like “Is Christianity manipulative?”. “Is God a cosmic policeman?”, and “is it wrong to doubt your faith?” Then subsequent chapters explore questions like Christianity and superstition, the character of God, free will, and pacifism.

I especially enjoyed some of the later chapters, particularly the two in Section IV. Specifically, Hansard explores messianic themes in “The Empath,” who must decide whether she will sacrifice herself to heal others. Likewise, we consider the death and resurrection of Spock in the second and third movies and the plausibility of belief in Jesus’ resurrection.

Each chapter after the introductory ones follows a format. Firstly, Hansard offers a brief plot summary, followed by a worldview analysis of the episode. He will then explore philosophical issues. For example, considering the Discovery episode, “The New Eden” he discusses the rationality of omnism, the interaction of faith and reason, then considers another part of the episode, the violation of the Prime Directive. Then some chapters include more Christian material ranging from Augustine’s theory of just war (“Bread and Circuses”). to a discussion of ideas of heaven in the Star Trek Generations movie and the biblical idea of heaven.

This is a great book for the Christian who loves the Star Trek universe and wants to think Christianly about the questions various series and movies raise. I can see it as highly useful for Christians with friends who don’t share their beliefs but love Star Trek. Hansard models an approach that can be taken with other episodes. However I wondered how someone who does not share Hansard’s beliefs would receive the book. While Hansard is explicit about what he is trying to do, some might be surprised by how much Christian discussion Hansard introduces. I’d suggest a read of the table of contents to decide if this is the book one wants to read.

The great strength of this book is Hansard’s philosophical background. He mirrors that apostle of reason and logic, Mr. Spock, using these at times to challenge fallacies Roddenberry’s outlook, including such things as how easily his characters violate the Prime Directive. He helps us think critically about Star Trek. Equally, he sets forth a reasonable faith able to meet the advances in science and technology. I look forward to Volume 2!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Faithful Politics

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Cover image of "Faithful Politics by Miranda Zapor Cruz

Faithful Politics, Miranda Zapor Cruz. IVP Academic/Missio Alliance (ISBN: 9781514007495) 2024.

Summary: Ten ways of approaching the relationship between pursuing God’s kingdom and engaging in politics.

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen? Is it possible to participate in politics while remaining faithful to pursuing God’s kingdom? And to what degree ought one try to realize the vision and values of God’s kingdom in the laws, policies, and practices of one’s country? These are some of the questions Miranda Zapor Cruz unpacks in Faithful Politics. However, if you are looking for the approach to Christian politics or a recommendation on choosing between political parties, you won’t find that here.

In all, the author considers ten approaches Christians have taken toward political engagement. Before considering these, she makes a clear distinction between the United States and the kingdom of God. Specifically, she argues one cannot conflate kingdom and country. Then she observes how Christians have always understood themselves as dual citizens, although what that meant in the first century under imperial Rome is very different from our geopolitical context. Finally, she argues that clearly recognizing these distinctions and having a clear vision of the kingdom allows us to be “salty” Christians in society.

With this in mind, she turns to different approaches Christians have taken to politics. First she considers separatist approaches that keep kingdom out of country. She distinguishes between isolationist separatism and prophetic separatism. One just keeps its distance while the other keeps distance but also speaks truth to political reality. Churches (like mine) in the Anabaptist tradition have taken this approach. The next approaches keep country out of the kingdom. This includes the Baptist separation of church and state and the two kingdoms separation of Martin Luther. Both have helped frame the historic separation of church and state in the United States.

Then we turn to the approach of “Bringing kingdom into the Country” reflected in the nineteenth century social gospel approach. This approach sought through social and moral reform to transform the country into a Christian society, an approach reflected in the civil rights movement. One thing I missed in her treatment, which includes direct action, is the role of non-violent civil disobedience. Discussion of the question of when Christians should resist unjust laws would have been helpful. Next, the author outlines two Calvinist approaches to “Keeping the Country Under the Kingdom.” One is the principled pluralist approach emphasizing God’s sovereignty over different spheres of life. The other is the direct Christian influence approach, which seeks to bring the country in line with certain Christian values and convictions.

For each of the above approaches, the author outlines strengths and shortcomings for each approach. Her next two chapters considers approaches contemporary Christians have adopted she argues are incompatible with Christian faith. The first of these is dominionism both in its Christian Reconstruction and New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) forms. She critiques the biblicism of Christian Reconstruction and the gnostic and Montanist tendencies of NAR. She notes how both apply messianic language to earthly political figures. Finally, she notes the unhealthy fruit of these movements including vigilantism and political violence.

Turning to Christian nationalism, she notes its “closed American exceptionalism,” its equation of America with Christian nationhood, and the privileging of Christianity above other beliefs. Very simply, one cannot be a faithful citizen of the Kingdom of God that breaks down every dividing boundary and be a Christian nationalist. And like Reconstruction and NAR, the endemic physical and rhetorical violence of Christian nationalism is incompatible with the way of Christ.

Cruz concludes that Christian political engagement at its best draws on the first eight approaches at their best. That is, it is salty, prophetic, separationist, social and principled pluralist. Above all, it centers faithfulness to Christ. I appreciate the historical treatment of different traditions, particularly because many Christians are unaware of the good political thought of those who have gone before them. And I appreciate her efforts to synthesize the best of these different approaches and to learn from them all. Still, I wonder if this would have been a different book if written post-January 20, 2025. Cruz notes the differences of political engagement with imperial Rome from our present day. I cannot help but wonder if there is less of a difference, and whether there might be more to learn from the first Christians.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Way of Christ in Culture

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Cover image of "The Way of Christ in Culture" by Benjamin T. Quinn and Dennis T. Greeson

The Way of Christ in Culture, Benjamin T. Quinn & Dennis T. Greeson. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087775111) 2024.

Summary: How those walking in the way of Jesus might live faithfully in all aspects of our cultural life.

It is not uncommon to hear Christians speak of Jesus as the Lord of all of life. But what does that mean? How does the biblical story intersect with all the ways we live life everyday? That is the question addressed in this book.

The authors begin by articulating the way of Christ in the biblical story. Then they ask the question of what is culture? Their simple definition is that “culture consists of the ways and products of creatures in creation.” This reflects an approach that sees culture as an expression of our God-created creaturely existence. Culture exists because God created humans in his image. But since the fall, culture can go either with or against God’s ways.

What was once a single story became divergent stories. Thus the question is how to relate to ways and products that do not always correspond to the way of Christ. The authors consider the classic typologies of how Christians have approached culture. After assessing various typologies, they draw upon Herman Bavinck to articulate a “Grace Infuses and Restores Nature.” approach. This means God is already at work in the world impelling Christians to join him in his restorative work.

In “Creator and Creatures,” the authors elaborate a theology of how we relate to the Creator. This means considering both who God is and who we are as God’s imagers. They conclude, “our purpose, our vocation, is to walk wisely in the world, at all times and in all places.” The following chapter considers the idea in scripture of walking in wisdom, concluding with loving obedience to Christ in community with his people.

The final two chapters offer practical questions to offer a framework of how we engage with our culture. They propose three questions that help us “triangulate.” First, we ask “When are we?”, understanding how we live between the times. Second, we ask “Where are we?”, discerning what is true, good and desirable. Third, we ask, “How do we get there?”, discerning how we walk and who we can follow. In particular, they offer examples of several figures who have engaged culture.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book is the approach to culture. Specifically, grace infusing and restoring nature means God is at work in culture as well as in the Christian. He can guide us in the way of Christ, the way of wisdom. This book is the first in a “Christ in Everything” series, offering a solid and concise foundation for those that follow.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Cultural Sanctification

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Cover image for "Cultural Sanctification" by Stephen O. Presley

Cultural Sanctification, Stephen O. Presley. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802878540) 2024.

Summary: How the early church pursued cultural engagement through holy discernment rather than fight or flight.

How ought Christians engage a post-Christian, secular culture? Some opt for a strategy of flight, a retreat into communal Christian life exemplified by Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option. But others opt to fight to recover what they believe is a lost Christian cultural hegemony, as described in James Davison Hunter’s Culture Wars. Stephen O. Presley argues for a third way, which he calls “cultural sanctification.” Instead of turning to Benedict or Constantine, he turns to the early church of the first centuries, making its way amid the Roman empire, and many competing religious options.

Presley argues first of all that Christians exhibited a distinctive identity that began with baptismal catechesis, formed through distinctive liturgy in worship. There were doctrinal distinctives to be embraced in a rule of faith. And there were moral distinctives to be practiced in everyday life. Conversion marked a turning point between two ways–one of death and one of life. Baptism dramatically marked that turn, a dying to the way of death and a rising to the way of life.

Christians had to define what it meant to be citizens within the Roman empire. God’s transcendent sovereignty and providence framed all. Specifically, this included their belief that God bestowed political power for the purpose of promoting peace and security, enacting just laws that curbed sin, and to protect free exercise of religion. Christians walked a tension between appropriately honoring and obeying Caesar while worshiping God. This included praying for rulers, paying taxes, promoting virtue, while defending religious liberty.

Christian apologists and theologians actively engaged Roman intellectual life. Theophilus of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Origen are important examples. They had to meet the likes of Celsus, who wrote On True Doctrine, an early example of the ridiculing of Christian belief. Apologists brought together Greek education and biblical training that “plundered the Egyptians,” offering an indigenized defense and proclamation of the faith. They argued for the uniqueness, antiquity, and public good of Christianity.

In addition, the early Christians faced discernment decisions concerning their participation in everyday, public life. For example, what occupations could they pursue and how did they deal with the religious rituals associated with many of them? Likewise, were there leisure and entertainment activities in which they could partake? Also, could the growing number of converts among soldiers partake in military service? In response, Presley argues that the Christians brought a response involving contingency, sanctification, and improvisation. By this, they sought not only to preserve their own purity but to have a redemptive influence through acts of love and pursuing justice.

The faithful presence of cultural sanctification did not always transform society or even result in a peaceful life. During various periods, it meant martyrdom. Rather than losing heart, most Christians persevered because of their hope in God’s coming kingdom and the resurrection. Neither did they lodge hope in the political structures and personalities of the day. As a result, Christianity subverted the established order rather than becoming captive to it.

In concluding, Presley argues that our current, post-Christian culture is not unlike that confronting the early Christians. He argues that their example of engaging the culture, while not perfect, is worth consideration. They fostered robust catechesis and formative liturgy that shape a distinctive identity with society. They engaged intellectually, as citizens, and in public life. And they sought to live holy lives in society, honoring and obeying the authorities while giving ultimate allegiance and worship to God. Thus, Presley makes what I think a persuasive case that we may learn from the early fathers as we seek an approach to culture that is neither fight, flight, or assimilation. Rather, the way of Jesus offers a distinctive path, reflecting our distinctive identity in Christ.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Disarming Leviathan

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Cover image for "Disarming Leviathan" by Caleb E. Campbell

Disarming Leviathan Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, Caleb E. Campbell. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514008515) 2024.

Summary: Focuses on how we discerningly engage people who embrace Christian nationalism with grace and truth.

There is our political discourse. And then there are our relationships with family, neighbors, co-workers, and those who provide us goods and services. Maybe they are people who are part of our church community. For example, they say things that would identify them with Christian nationalism, the idea that America should be run by Christians and protect and promote Christian concerns over those of others (author’s definition). We may think that is off, both theologically and constitutionally. But why, and how do we engage with people we love who hold these views.

Caleb Campbell, as a pastor has struggled with this. He identified 300 people who were no longer friends because they parted ways on these things. This changed when a representative of TurningPointUSA told him that while politics was important, she just wanted to follow Jesus. Then he asked her how she had met Jesus. And she shared that it was at a TurningPoint USA rally. Then his whole paradigm shifted from seeing her as an “enemy” to to a mission field. She was a sister in Christ who had been discipled into a distorted version of Christianity.

In the pages that follow, Campbell first addresses understanding the mission field of Christian nationalism. He differentiates it from patriotism and conservativism and considers it under three I’s: Ideology, Idolatry, and Identity. He uses the image of leviathan, the sea creature symbolizing chaos and evil opposed to the peaceable, good rule of God. By contrast, leviathan works through distorting scripture, fostering anxiety and rage, creating an “us versus them” culture, demanding ultimate allegiance, and making false promises. Then he exposes how the leviathan of Christian nationalism harms us. His most memorable image, describing the syncretic tendencies of mixing nationalism and Christianity is to describe it as the “poop in the brownie mix.”

If we understand leviathan, how do we disarm it? How do we engage with our neighbors? The question is how we steal past watchful dragons and build trust. And how do we set tables instead of flip them? Campbell enumerates several steps: 1) Start with hospitality; 2) Lead with questions; 3) Connect on shared values; 4) Use shibboleths (passwords) and avoid red flags; 5) Honor the good; 6) Engage in humble subversion; and, 7) Offer open invitations to future conversations. Then he offers models of what conversations on various topics would look like, practicing these principles. I would have loved to also hear stories of those who had turned from Christian nationalism to authentic Christian faith through such conversations.

He concludes with hope–not in argument but in Jesus and his power. What is valuable in his approach is that he combines clear eyed discernment of what is wrong with Christian nationalism with love for people that looks for common ground, doesn’t insult their intelligence or motives, and lovingly engages with them, asking questions and exploring ideas rather than offering diatribes.

This is hard work. At times, the sections unpacking Christian nationalism seem harsh. But I would argue that this is necessary. What is wrong in false teaching and those who expound it as teachers must be met with firmness and clarity. Yet those misled by such teaching to stray from the truth of the gospel of king Jesus must be gently helped back onto the path of discipleship. Perhaps the example of the good shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine for the one lost sheep should capture the attention of all of us who care for such things.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Towards an Incarnational Spiritual Culture

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Cover image for "Towards an Incarnational Spiritual Culture" by Gordon E. Carkner

Towards an Incarnational Spiritual Culture, Gordon E. Carkner (Foreword by Iain Provan). Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385203772), 2024.

Summary: The Incarnation and our quest for identity, addressing the rootless identities of modern gnosticism and expressive individualism.

We expressed it as “finding ourselves” in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. But the quest for identity didn’t end with Baby Boomers. Over the course of my life, I’ve witnessed a succession of “quests” to find identity in acquisitiveness, political causes, one’s ethnicity, sexuality and gender, and in a kind of designer spirituality cobbling together beliefs and practices drawn from diverse source into a personal enlightenment package. Yet, as Charles Taylor has observed, the fragility of our identity is evident in the ways we wall ourselves off from others as “buffered selves.” We find ourselves at times alienated even from our embodied life let alone an objectively existing Transcendent.

Gordon E. Carkner, drawing on the insights of Taylor, Christopher Watkin and others identifies this fragile identity as rooted in modern forms of Gnosticism and articulates a robust alternative rooted in the Incarnation. He begins by contrasting both ancient and modern forms of Gnosticism with spirituality rooted in the Incarnation. He notes the disdain of Gnosticism for the body and for the Transcendent entering our embodied existence. It is an attempt to achieve a spirituality both apart from the body and a God who created bodies.

Carkner proposes instead that identity may be rooted in a God who has spoken, in an I-Thou relationship brought to its height in the incarnate Christ, marrying the spirit and embodied life. Thus, he gives dignity to our embodied lives. Going on, he explores the idea of Christ as the Wisdom of God. Jesus embodied wisdom, the fulfillment of our quest to live well. Specifically, Carkner draws on the work of Hans Urs Von Balthasar in elaborating six pillars of incarnational wisdom. He points to James Davison Hunter’s idea of “faithful presence” as an example of how Christians incarnate that wisdom in culture.

Whereas Gnosticism is evident in a “will to uniqueness” or “expressive individualism,” Incarnational spirituality leads to embodied communities, expressed in “one-anotherness.” The quest for autonomy truncates the self, leaving people open to manipulation while embodied communities provide stability, perspective, and resilience. And finally, the Incarnation brings a Transcendent connection to our ethics and understanding of goodness, rather than the individual defining and sourcing their ethics within themselves.

In summing up, Carkner has distilled extended philosophical discussions into a vision for incarnational spirituality. Consequently, every sentence is loaded with meaning, requiring close reading. He offers an alternative to the fragile and fragmented identities of post-modernity. All of this is rooted in the ancient Christian belief in the Incarnation. Carkner frames our contemporary quest for identity in terms of the classic contrast between Gnostic and Incarnational spirituality. That God became man addresses our alienation from ourselves, from others, and the Transcendent. And it provides a basis for community and the pursuit of the good.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Claiming the Courageous Middle

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Cover image of "Claiming the Courageous Middle" by Shirley A. Mullen

Claiming the Courageous Middle, Shirley A. Mullen. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540967046), 2024.

Summary: Claiming the courageous middle in a polarized time as a risky and redemptive adventure of pursuing a hopeful future.

Since 2016, and perhaps far longer, I’ve lived in the middle. I cannot identify with either of the extremes in our polarized society. I’m not a moderate. I describe myself as a “third way” person, whose life is shaped by Jesus and his kingdom. And neither the left nor the right encompass what I believe is the Bible’s vision for a flourishing society. I’ve often felt lonely in that place and wondered what I have to contribute.

Shirley A. Mullen gives me hope that I am not alone. She even uses the “third way” language I’ve often used to describe the role of Christians in society. She describes a home not unlike my own that fostered both devotion and a love of learning. But she was encouraged early to step boldly and not defensively into both. Her grandfather told her that if something showed Christianity not to be true, he wanted her to know. She traces her journey through academia to the college presidency at Houghton College. There, she found herself often in the middle of groups that wanted her and the college to take their side. And she discovered the power of staying in the middle, and the courage, and risks that involved.

The Power of the Middle

Mullen contends that the middle is a place of courage and not a place for the wishy-washy. Firstly, it is courageous to remind people of their finiteness and fallenness, to adopt the posture of a humble learner. Secondly, the middle calls for a willingness to explore complexity and ambiguity to find better solutions rather than settle for the simplifications that substitute for solutions. Finally, the middle seeks the common good rather than defining the world as “us/them” and “winners/losers.”

But is the middle way biblical? After all, there are truths to believe or deny, commands to obey or disobey. And Mullen acknowledges this but also points to an underlying narrative of God working redemptively amid a fallen world where each person continues to have infinite worth before God. To illustrate her point, she highlights examples of Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Esther, Paul, and Jesus himself as those who worked in middle spaces.

However, the middle space is a risky space. It means the possibility of being attacked on both spaces. As a historian, she offers nine examples in history where this was so. And as a college leader, she speaks of the dangers of loss of trust, the loss of cohesion in one’s base, and creating unfulfilled expectations. But the other side of risk is benefits, and she sees a number of these. Among these are gaining a larger perspective on the issues, finding new options that serve both sides, and building new community on common ground.

Having cast the vision for the middle space, she gets down to the practicalities of claiming the courageous middle in a polarized time. Beginning with remembering our stories and framing one’s convictions, she encourages finding a community of kinship, apprenticing, and finding places to work redemptively in the church and the world. Toward that end, she offers a number of examples of individuals and organizations, both Christian and secular, working in the middle space.

Concluding Thoughts

I found this both a bracing and encouraging call to step into the work of the middle way. Mullen cites the many places in higher education, in civic affairs, and other places where good work may be done. Yet it seems like a “mustard seed conspiracy,” to use a phrase from Tom Sine, one that works in small and perhaps hidden ways.

But what about the powerful national interests battling each other? I sometimes wonder if the only way to change that is a subversive one of taking the air out of their efforts by grassroots efforts that engage citizens in a better way. Hopefully, they will demand better behavior from those who serve them in political office. Claiming the courageous middle in a polarized time seems like a long game. While Mullen offers a few examples of people who were in it for the long haul, like William Wilberforce, we need more examples and instruction on persisting over the long haul. That just might be a good idea for her next book!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Strange Religion

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Strange Religion, Nijay K. Gupta. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2024.

Summary: Roman society thought Christians weird for both their beliefs and practices, and yet oddly compelling.

The early Christians in Roman society were weird. Strange. They weren’t trying to be. But their faith resulted in them standing apart from others in Roman society. Their beliefs and practices broke with religious conventions. Yet some found them strangely compelling and their movement kept growing. nijay K. Gupta transports us back to first and second century Roman culture to help us see why they were thought so strange.

He breaks his study into four parts. The first shows how strange becoming Christian was. In Roman society, the gods just were, and there were lots of them. One didn’t choose to believe in a god so much as did the things to stay on good terms with the gods, pax deorum, or “peace with the gods.” There were regular practices to appease the gods. No one thought about friendship with the gods, just staying on their good side. Then Christians came along talking about believing–that there was one God, that Jesus came as the image of God in human flesh, and thus they made no images. Faith had both content and was personal–people trusted in God because of Jesus, saw them in a covenant friendship with God. What’s more, this Jesus who they worshipped as the image of God died a despised death on a Roman cross and his followers claimed that he physically rose and, because of this, they believed they would one day bodily be resurrected. Strange, huh? They also thought it was dangerous, not a religion but a superstition that could endanger the social order. It was innovative rather than ancient, ecstatic rather than ritualized, individual rather than corporate, and desperate, as in intense in devotion, rather than ritually effective.

Then there was the matter of what they believed–unbelievable things! They believed in the supremacy of Jesus as Lord over all, not one of a company of gods. There was no smoke and blood of sacrifices but simply worship. Rather than believing in shrines and temples as “spiritual hot spots” to connect with the God, they believed themselves indwelt with God through the Holy Spirit, enabling them to worship and connect with God anywhere. Finally, they thought differently about time, not as an annual calendar of festivals to the gods, but in terms of what has been fulfilled in time and what is yet to be fulfilled–is it time yet?

They were strange in how they gathered to worship–privately in houses rather than at appointed times in public at temples. It led to a lot of rumors. There was the language of family–brother and sister. Instead of priest, the were led by the head of the household, who presumably managed his own household well. And these gatherings broke social conventions with rich and poor, slave and free, men and women at table together. It was also a priestless gathering, with Christ their priest, whose sacrifice for them was remembered in the bread and cup of shared meals. They responded to him in offered lives, songs of praise, and prayers as he had taught them. All in these private household gatherings.

Apart from the mystery cults, Romans didn’t want to get too close to their gods. By contrast, Christians sought to become like Christ, to imitate Christ. And what they imitated stood out. They sought to follow Christ in his humility, his love, righteousness, and purity–not qualities sought after by the Romans. The status-toppling life of Jesus from Son to despised servant who died upturned all social hierarchies, leading to a radical equality, as already noted. But Gupta pauses at this point to observe their imperfections. They fought and split. They did not protest the institution of slavery. and they slandered each other and spoke judgmentally, making statements that would later be used to justify anti-Semitism.

So what made these strange people so compelling? Gupta speculates:

“Some say it was the promise of immortality. Some say it was the networking savvy of spreading the religion in an organized across the whole empire. Some say it was the attraction of monotheism. Some say it was the teaching on morality. I am sure all of these are factors. But I can’t help but believe it was the people, the Christians themselves. In the first century a Roman encounter with Jesus was probably going to happen through a small community of Christians. This community had to be compelling.”

One can’t help but reflect on the parallels and differences in our own social setting. It makes me wonder if we are thought strange and weird and dangerous and compelling in ways that reflect the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus. Are we thought strange because we impoverish ourselves to help those with even greater needs in our midst? Are we thought weird because renounce consumerism and unsustainable living on our planet as well as self-promotion for ways of hidden service? Are we thought dangerous because we challenge national pretensions to imperial greatness for the sake of the advance of God’s transnational kingdom, and because we welcome the “others” that our politicians consider dangerous? Are we thought compelling in a society of epic loneliness because we really function as family, especially for those who have none? What troubles me as I write this is that by and large, I don’t think these are the ways we are found to be strange, weird, and dangerous. And I wonder if we are found compelling in consequence?

What strikes me in Gupta’s account is that the early believers weren’t trying to be strange, weird, dangerous, or compelling. They were struggling, imperfectly to be sure, to follow Jesus, to become like him. Their lives, their practices, including their transformed social relationships, were shaped by what they believed, by who they believed. And this makes me ask, quite simply, are we?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Evangelical Imagination

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The Evangelical Imagination. Karen Swallow Prior. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023.

Summary: A consideration of the images, stories, metaphors that constitute the “social imaginary” of what it has meant to be an evangelical.

A number of commentators both within and outside evangelicalism have tried to make sense of the evangelical movement in North America at a time when it is in crisis and many are deserting churches or even the Christian faith associated with that movement. Karen Swallow Prior grew up in this movement, imbibed its culture, and taught at one of its flagship institutions for many years. She writes as an insider who has seen its strengths and flaws and has not given up or departed.

The premise of this book is that every culture has a “social Imaginary,” a term drawn from Charles Taylor, that refers to the shared stories, metaphors, and images by which a culture makes sense of the world and itself. In this work prior unpacks a series of terms and the stories and images evangelicals by which evangelicals have articulated both their own culture and its interaction with the world: awakening, conversion, testimony, improvement, sentimentality, materiality, domesticity, empire, reformation, and rapture. She uses the tools of her academic discipline of English literature to explore these ideas both in literature and in evangelical and wider popular culture.

Each chapter explores the development of the particular term or metaphor. For example, Prior traces the idea of “testimony” in both Dickens Hard Times (with Mr. Gradgrind’s “facts” about a horse a far cry from its meaning) and Scrooge’s “conversion” testimony in A Christmas Carol. She explores how testimony and the literate culture that acompanied it might be traced through Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and on to accounts by Thomas à Kempis, John Newton, Philip Doddridge, and William Wilberforce. And she chronicles the rise of “evangelically speaking” where telling a good story takes precedence over truth and the necessity of being able to tell one.

Part of the power of this book is to show how the distinctive imaginary of evangelicalism is double-edged, having elements that genuinely reflect the work of God as well as toxic distortions of those elements.There is both the awakening of conscience to sin of the great awakenings and the resistance to awakening to the systemic character of our nation’s racial sins in which “woke” becomes pejorative. Conversion reflects a concern that one not be a Christian in name only but be transformed through new birth into abundant and eternal life with Christ and yet becomes truncated if it does not lead to the continuing conversion of being formed into Christlikeness in all of life. Even empire might reflect the aspiration that “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun/does its successive journeys run” that fueled genuine advances of Christianity to many parts of the world, only to be co-opted by the empires of white nations that colonized much of the world, or even the entrpreneurial evangelical ministries that built their own empires, often around human personality.

At the same time, what makes this book a joy to read is Prior’s ability to move between literature, history, and popular culture as she does in her chapter on “sentimentality” in which she ranges English and Scottish philosophy to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to Sallman’s Head of Christ, and to the art and personal habits of Thomas Kinkade. All this is reflected in her intriguing subtitle “Uncle Tom, Sweet Jesus, and Public Urination,” the last part of which I will leave you the fun of discovering.

Prior’s point in this exploration is perhaps articulated best when she writes, “To be a product of a subculture–to inherit unthinkingly, uncritically, and assumingly all its images, metaphors, and stories–is to plagiarize a faith” (p. 218). In her chapter on reformation, she contends that evangelicalism is in a time of reckoning. We cannot unthinkingly parrot the metaphors that have shaped us without being re-formed in the way of Christ, shedding the accreted distortions of the evangelical imagination. Prior points the way toward this in her final chapter on “rapture” where she concludes that we should not focus on being caught up with Christ in some future “rapture” but be “enraptured by him, to be beholden to him, to be taken by him” (p. 258) here and now.

I’ve sometimes wondered if the problem of evangelicalism is a lack of imagination. Prior’s book suggests to me that it may not be a lack of imagination but what we’ve been imagining. Prior takes a critical step back, aided by both literary and cultural interlocutors to help us identify what is often assumed, to question it, and under God’s grace, to give up our feeble imaginations for the robust imagination of Christ and his kingdom.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.