Safety

Review: The Pursuit of Safety

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Cover image of "The Pursuit of Safety" by Jeremy Lundgren

The Pursuit of Safety (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), Jeremy Lundgren. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514008010) 2024.

Summary: A theology of safety as creational good, tempered by what living by faith means in a world never free of risk.

If you’ve been a parent, it is an instinct to care for your child’s safety. You look out for physical danger, illnesses, and stranger danger. However, any honest parent will also admit that despite one’s best and most diligent efforts, our kids get cuts, bruises, break bones, get sick, and sometimes encounter harm from others. And what’s true for our kids is true for ourselves. In fact, the pursuit of safety is often a reflection of our sense of the precarity of life.

Jeremy Lundgren explores that tension and then does something not often done. He thinks theologically about the creational good of safety and the realities of risk and danger in our lives. Lundgren begins by noting the signposts or tokens of safety-consciousness in our modern culture and the tension in parenting between protecting children and helping them develop resilience and independence. He distinguishes between absolute safety, an ideal often striven for but found only in Christ, and ordinary safety.

Part Two considers the sources of risk throughout history. In the pre-modern era, the danger was posed by the various gods believed to inhabit the world, and life involved negotiating one’s way to stay on their right side. In early modernity, the risk was from nature, particularly as we moved from an enchanted to disenchanted world. Everything from micro-organisms to the laws of physics posed danger to be reckoned with. Finally, in late modernity, humanity becomes the risk. Examples include environmental, lifestyle, medical, interpersonal, economic, criminal, and political risks.

Part Three, then, turns to the avoidance of harm. These include probabilistic tools reflecting our ability to anticipate the future. Yet our faith calls us to live in light of God’s promises as we prepare, but without anxiety. In addition, we resort to technological tools (consider seat belts and air bags). Yet such means may also be idolatrous and can end up controlling us. In contrast, Lundgren explores the right ordering of technology under Christ rather than under autonomous humans (or even artificial Intelligence!). Third, he considers the rise of proceduralism in accident prevention, especially in workplaces. The problem is that proceduralism, while reducing the number of accidents, cannot eliminate them. We cannot always foresee what will cause an accident until it occurs. In contrast, Lundgren commends the wisdom of both Mosaic law and Ecclesiastes, along with means for forgiveness and reparation, when accidents occur.

In the final part of the book, Lundgren turns to reflecting on what safety means for disciples of Jesus. Fundamental to discipleship is the way of the cross. Jesus speaks of losing our lives to save them. Thus, safety can only be truly understood on the other side of the cross. The way of the cross means risk and danger–and the promise of life! So for Lundgren, we can only understand safety within the wider context of following Jesus. Safety is only a proximate and not an ultimate good. We live both prudently and by faith. We keep safety in its place.

I appreciate the tension Lundgren maintains throughout between the creational good of safety and the impossibility of absolute safety apart from Christ. Ultimately, following Jesus is more important than being safe. Christian faith offers a basis for prudent care for both our and others’ well-being out of love rather than anxiety or mere economic calculations.

As a former leader in a Christian ministry, we were trained to assess and mitigate risk in mission-related activities. A case study applying his theological analysis to a risk management scenario might have been helpful to many readers in similar real life situations.

That said, I appreciated this thoughtful exploration of our culture of safety and how we engage with this as disciples walking in the way of the cross,

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

The Illusion of Safety

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

safetyfirst

I’ve avoided endorsing particular candidates on social media, and I will continue to do so. I grew up in a context where who we voted for was our own business. Truth is, as I’ve commented elsewhere, I wrestle with whether I can vote for either of the presidential candidates in good conscience.

What I did want to engage is the idea from Monday night’s Republican convention of making America safe again. There is an element of truth underlying this advocacy. It is a legitimate role of government to provide for public safety which means protecting its constituents from harm from both external and internal enemies.

What is troubling in part is that we are tempted to trade liberty for safety. Fear for our safety can be used to suspend various civil liberties. The proposal of religious tests is one of these. While the fear is of a particular type of Islam, once the door is open to this, such tests might be applied to a particular type of Christian, Jew, or even atheist. Likewise, the loosening of restraints on illegal search and seizure (notably in both traffic stops and electronic surveillance) is also troubling. It also seems that we need to find a way for gun enthusiasts and those concerned about the incredible proliferation of guns to come together to address gun violence without abridging the Second Amendment. The civil liberties we enjoy in the Bill of Rights are a rare and wonderful thing. Trading these away for safety in the end make us less safe from tyranny, the exercise of naked power.

Building walls and closing doors to immigrants may not actually make us safer unless we also close our borders to the flow of ideas. “Self-radicalization” shows us the folly of thinking that if we just keep certain people out, we can be safe. A vigilant compassion is much harder to achieve, yet it seems that on balance we are enriched by welcoming those seeking a better life in this country, as they create rather than take jobs, and contribute everything from beautiful music to technological and medical breakthroughs that save and enhance lives.

The truth is, life has never been safe in a fallen world. Our lives are set about with a host of dangers from childhood to our last breath. Any responsible person certainly does what they can to mitigate those dangers, and this ought to move us not only to self-protection but concern for the most vulnerable. But a life lived in constant fear, a life that chooses only the “safe” is not much of a life. Almost always, our heroes are those who have risked safety in some form, not recklessly, but with thought and courage for greater ends.

Ultimately, I think what Jesus said makes a lot of sense: “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33 NIV). Only when we have something for which we can lose our lives are we “safe.” Any other form of “safety” is illusory or temporary at best.