Right up front I want to say that I’ve been looking forward to this book for quite some time. I’ve honestly never read any of the rest of Joshua Harris’ books, but because of a personal experience with the author last summer specifically related to the title of this book, I was anxious to read it.

That being said, I was not disappointed. In Dug Down Deep, Joshua Harris lays out why theology matters. In his own words:

[Theology] matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong.”

When he puts it that way, the book sounds like it’s going to be some scholarly, heady tome whose readership will be restricted only to those with advanced degrees in theology and apologetics. Let me assure you that this is not the case. One of the best things about this book is the conversational, easily accessible tone that Harris takes throughout the book. It reads more like a conversation at the breakfast table over coffee than a classroom lecture about theology. This doesn’t mean that it lacks depth though, far from it. Harris is open and honest about struggles he has had in his own life, about places where he thinks that he has failed as well. It’s like having a Sherpa guide take you through Systematic Theology.

Dug Down Deep drills into several different topics, including the transcendence of God, the Bible, sin, the person of Christ, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and living as the church. While some of those topics might seem out of reach to the lay Christian, they are written in such an engaging way that they become easily understandable. I wish that some of the books I have to read for my seminary classes were this informative and easy to read.

There were a few things that struck me deeply about the book. A couple of quotes in particular really hit me hard. In his chapter about the Holy Spirit, Harris says, “(w)e shouldn’t neglect the person and work of the Holy Spirit just because other people have misrepresented him.” That’s such a powerful thought. Coming from a very conservative Methodist upbringing, then attending an Assemblies of God college, followed by attending mostly Baptist churches, I’ve seen this first hand. On the one extreme, next to nothing is said about the Holy Spirit, treating him like the ugly stepchild of the Trinity. The other end of the spectrum treats the Holy Spirit as the life of the party. I’ve long felt that the best understanding of the Holy Spirit is somewhere in the middle (related thoughts here). I love the passion and the zeal of the charismatic churches, but I also love the ritual and logic of the more formal churches. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Another great thought was in the chapter about making the kingdom of God visible through what we do. He uses the analogy of the church as a gas station. Every week people show up at a convenient time and location to get their fill up, check in, then take off to our own destinations. How many of us are guilty of this, even those of us who serve in ministry roles? We treat church as something to check off our list for the weekend, just like mowing the yard or washing the dog.

Dug Down Deep makes you think throughout the book. Harris deftly handles difficult topics and asks tough questions. This is an excellent book. I’m reading it at a time in my life where I’m in seminary, I’m a volunteer staff member at our church, and I’m working a full time job. Every once in a while a book comes along that seems like it was put into your path by God specifically to encourage you. What Joshua Harris has done with Dug Down Deep feels that way to me.

(This was written back in December 2009 for my friend Amy’s website. However, like the terrible person I sometimes am, I didn’t get it finished in time for her to publish it when the album was released. I could blame it on the hospital stay and the appendectomy, but that’s just an excuse.)

What can be said about a band which has had so many words written about them? With a sound that revolutionized worship in the modern church and a lyrical gift that praised our God and prodded us to go deeper, History Makers is the culmination of 17 years of Delirious?.

Delirious? has released eight studio albums in the United States and History Makers picks out pieces of each one of them, combining the varying sounds of different eras into a perfect capstone on their career. From their introduction with Cutting Edge in 1994 to this year’s release of Kingdom of Comfort, Delirious? has always brought powerful music laced with their own special blend of ear-catching lyrics.

The 31 tracks on the Limited Edition of History Makers leans heavily on their first two releases, the double CD Cutting Edge and King of Fools, using 13 songs from those albums. The remaining 18 tracks blend their lesser heralded recordings (Mezzamorphis, Touch) with their recent successes (The Mission Bell, World Service, Kingdom of Comfort). Included is the mellow song Promise, which was released in the UK on Audio Lessonover but didn’t make the cut when that album became Touch in the US.

If you’re wanting the worship music that brought Delirious? to everyone’s attention, then you’ll enjoy the first CD of the two disc set. This disc includes I Could Sing of Your Love Forever and Shout To The North, two perennial members of the CCLI Top 100, the music most sung in churches. Also on the first disc is the namesake of the collection, History Maker, one of their best live songs and a staple of their concerts. The second disc features songs that gave Delirious? crossover appeal internationally, including Deeper, Inside Outside, and Every Little Thing.

One more bonus to the Limited Edition is the DVD which features all the videos Delirious? has produced over the years. These videos provide a fun look back at styles over the years. Their first video, Deeper, is obviously shot with little budget as compared to their last for Inside Outside.

If I had to pick things to not like about this collection, it would first be the lack of live music. While the studio recordings of their songs are great, they have an added dimension when performed live. Some of the best versions of songs like Rain Down and Solid Rock are the live ones. It’s a small thing, but something that stood out to me. Also, it would have been nice to have a new song or two thrown in with the collection, just as a nod to the longtime fans.

So, after 17 years of music and ministry, Delirious? is folding up their tent and moving on. For those of us who are fans of their music this is a bittersweet day, as no more Delirious? albums will be made. Unlike many secular bands, Delirious? isn’t stopping because of arguments or conflict, they are passing on to their next stage of life, raising children, and using the platform provided by their success to promote more charitable works.

Martin, Stu, Tim, Jon, Stew, and Paul: thanks for the memories, the music, and most of all, thanks for showing us all that church music doesn’t have to be stodgy and traditional. God bless in all your future endeavors. Oh, and understand we won’t complain if you decide to get back together every once in a while.

Conclusion

How can truth be known absolutely? How can one make the statement “there is no absolute truth” without it being absolutely true? This is the paradox of modern and postmodern thought. Absolute truth is true absolutely, with no exceptions.

Can someone claim to know God and yet adhere to postmodern thought? The subjective truth of postmodernism makes this a difficult claim. If God can change, then what would He change to? He could either change to be better or worse. If God changes to something better, that would imply that he was not the best previously.[1] This goes against what is said in John 3:31 which states, “(t)he one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all.”

Furthermore, if God cannot change for the better, can He change for the worse? For God to be worse than what he is would imply imperfection or the presence of evil in a being who is wholly good. God does not change. Psalm 102:26-27 says, “They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”[2]

This unchanging God strikes at the heart of postmodernist thought. How can truth be subjective and malleable if the author of truth, the one who created truth, is not? The answer is that truth does not change, that God holds the absolute truth.

There exists in the world today a war between cultures. This war is not new as it has been raging since the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden. However, today this war is everywhere, prompting McGough to comment, “(t)o keep up with the ‘culture wars’…one would have to be omniscient, omnipresent, and awake 24 hours a day.”[3] There are so many fronts in this war that one cannot hope to fight on them all.

It is important to take up this battle, but in order to fight it one must first grasp the theology of the Christian faith. Without this knowledge it will be impossible to counter the cultural arguments of those who hold to postmodernism. This doesn’t refer to scholarly knowledge, but to general knowledge. Christians must know why they believe what they believe. I John 3:18-20 says “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”

The second weapon in this fight is knowing what exists in the culture around us. “Those who do not know their opponent’s arguments do not completely understand their own.”[4] This is not to say that Christians should immerse themselves in the world’s culture. Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world. Romans 12:2 speaks, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Third, when talking about “reaching” the lost in this culture, tactics must not take precedence over strategy. The church cannot focus on ways to bring the lost in to the church through worldly means. Christians must engage the worldview of a person with truth, or else the tactics will be seen as empty. Biblical truth contradicts cultural spirituality, “displaces it, refuses to allow its operating assumptions, declares it to bankruptcy.”[5]

Theology is crucial to the Christian walk. The church must not feel that they know something; they must think about it and know it. R.C. Sproul says, “(w)e live in a period that is allergic to rationality . . . (t)here is a difference between thinking and feeling.”[6] This battle is won by God, but the people of the church are the foot soldiers in the war. Christians must engage the culture without becoming enveloped by it. Knowledge of theology and the ability to apply it to the culture around us is a vital tool to reach the lost people of our contemporary society.

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[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1994), 168

[2] Ibid., 163

[3] McGough, A Field Guide to the Culture Wars, xiii

[4] Mitchell Young, Culture Wars (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Greehaven Press, 2008), back cover

[5] John Piper and Justin Taylor, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007), 38

[6] Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, xvi

Current Worldviews

Studying Niebuhr’s types is important because it gives one a basic overview of how Christians react differently to the world around them. However, this only gives one a partial view of applying theology to culture. In addition to understanding how Christians respond one must also understand the issues that culture is facing. How does the culture think and what causes them to think that way?

There are a variety of worldviews that are present in this today’s society, but for the sake of focus and brevity, only two will be discussed. The most recent two large schools of thought have been modernism and postmodernism. Some argue that modernism has passed, supplanted by postmodernism. This view is even supported by the name “postmodernism” which literally means “after modernism.”

Modernism

First, what is modernism? Modernism rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking, along with the belief in a Creator. It saw society accelerating towards desctruction and meaninglessness, undermining much of the certainty in society.[1] This movement began the process of moving religion from part of everyday life to something more private, more out of public discussion.

The rejection of the supernatural caused people to look for scientific and rationalistic explanations for everything, though it held to the idea that one can know truth and that universal and absolute truth still existed.[2] However, the path for finding these truths moved from theology to the scientific method. Modernism gave rise to several different worldviews, including Darwinism, Marxism, fascism, socialism, communism, and theological liberalism.

Near the end of the 20^th century, modernism was on its way out, giving way to postmodernism. Most of the worldviews proposed by modernism had been found wanting and were discredited.[3]

Modernist Theology

Modernism affected theology as well. Some theologians who subscribed to modernistic theory began to view doctrine as secondary to culture. They sought to synthesize culture and doctrine together, believing that “doctrine was inherently divisive and a fragmented church would become irrelevant in the modern age.”[4] This gave way to a Christian pragmatism, allowing the results to justify whatever needed to be done. While the aim of the modernist theologians was to bring the church up to date with the culture, the movement opened the door to moral relativism and theological liberalism.

The modernist theology emphasized brotherhood and experience to the detriment of doctrinal differences, believing that doctrine should be “fluid and adaptable.” They wanted unity among the denominations and didn’t feel that theology was something worth fighting over. Many people during that time, including church leaders, ignored any kind of warnings about this kind of activity since it came from inside the church.[5]

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is defined as “any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism.”[6] Some view it as a replacement to modernism, while others state that it is an extension of modernism. Postmodernism differentiates itself from modernism by rejecting the idea that absolute truth exists or can be discovered. It represents a move from the rationality and scientific method of modernism to more irrational thinking and skepticism.

To the postmodernist, objectivity is an illusion, and anyone who speaks with conviction about a particular belief is considered arrogant and naïve. Postmodernism holds that everyone is entitled to their own truth.[7] Naturally, this goes against the theology of the Bible in which truth is absolute. Christ said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV).

The Postmodern Church

In the church, postmodern thought has given birth to the Emergent church movement. One issue that some take with this movement is the abandonment of certainty, that doubt and skepticism are lauded as humility. John MacArthur writes, “The Emerging postmodernists have blurred the line between certainty and omniscience. They seem to presume that if we cannot know everything perfectly, we really cannot know anything with any degree of certainty.”[8]

MacArthur further points out that by undermining the certainty of truth, the postmodern church introduces doubt and qualms about every teaching of scripture. Any plainly stated convictions are taken as arrogance.[9]

Theology provides the surest way for Christians to contend with the culture. Any outside influence that seeps into Christian theology weakens the purity of the faith.[10]

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[1] eNotes.com, “Modernism: Introduction”; available from http://www.enotes.com/modernism/introduction; Internet; accessed 9 October 2009

[2] John MacArthur, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), 9

[3] Ibid., 10

[4] John MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1993), xv

[5] Ibid.

[6] Random House, Inc., “Postmodernism”, available from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/postmodernism; Internet; accessed 9 October 2009

[7] MacArthur, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, 11

[8] Ibid., 22

[9] Ibid., 155

[10] R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 199), 156

Niebuhr’s Five Viewpoints

Niebuhr discusses at length in Christ and Culture how Christians have and do interact with the culture they live in. These five viewpoints are summarized below:

Christ against culture

This viewpoint holds that Christ is the sole authority and that the Christian owes no loyalty to culture.[1] This has the effect of segregating the believer from culture, and making their Christian walk almost monastic. The Christian should hold no political office, not serve in any military capacity, shun philosophy and the arts, essentially remove themselves from any kind of public life. Niebuhr stated that “(t)he movement of withdrawal and renunciation is a necessary element in every Christian life, even though it be followed by an equally necessary movement of responsible engagement in cultural tasks.”[2]

Theologically, he points out that those with this view can often be accused of legalism and of neglecting grace in the Christian life. This can lead to the creation of rules which will overstep the saving grace of Christ.

Christ of culture

The second viewpoint Niebuhr explores is that of the Christ of culture, the view that while one considers one’s self a Christian, they still hold great allegiances to culture. These people “interpret culture through Christ” but “understand Christ through culture.”[3] Niebuhr compares those who hold this viewpoint to the early Gnostics, people who are trying to synthesize Christ with contemporary reason, philosophy, and science.

Like the Christ against culture believers, the Christ of culture adherents have issues associated with grace and sin, though typically on the other end of the spectrum. These believers think reason “the highest road to the knowledge of God and salvation.”[4]

Christ above culture

If the previous two viewpoints represent opposite ends of the spectrum, Christ above culture falls directly in the middle. This type represents the large center of Christianity. Rather than focusing on the struggle between Christ and culture, adherents appear to be more concerned with the relationship between God and man.[5] Thus, not much attention is paid to the issue of Christ versus culture. This does not mean that believers with this viewpoint do not hold to the authority of Christ, but simply that they don’t believe that Christ and the world can be opposed to each other. This is the synthetic view, which holds that one can live in both the Christian culture and the worldly culture at the same time. This person’s knowledge of the meaning of Christ differentiates him from the Christ of culture type, but his appreciation of culture separates him from the Christ above culture viewpoint.

The first issue with this type of belief is that this is a type of spiritual pragmatism where the ends justify the means. By synthesizing the two previous viewpoints, Christ above culture becomes a melting pot of everything. It inherits the problems with grace and sin, but includes a new problem of the institutionalization of the church, making something Christ freely did for all humanity more like a human achievement.[6] Niebuhr adds that throughout history, an adherent to this belief “tends to devote himself to the restoration or conservation of a culture and thus becomes a cultural Christian.”[7]

Christ and culture in paradox

To the believers in the paradox between Christ and culture, one cannot compare God and man, much less Christ and culture. While previous viewpoints hold human achievement in some regard, those who believe in the paradox “see that all their works and their work are not only pitifully inadequate, measure by that standard of goodness, but sordid and depraved.”[8] Thus nothing could redeem the culture except Christ, but Christ is not in the culture. The paradoxical believers typically consist of those who are worldly-minded but wish to acknowledge Christ slightly, or those who are radically pious and feel they owe some allegiance to culture.[9]

Christ transforming culture

The final viewpoint that Niebuhr expounds on is that of Christ transforming culture. These adherents have a decidedly more positive view of culture and tend to live more in the theological “now”, believing in what Christ can do to the culture. They have “a view of history that holds that to God all things are possible in a history that is fundamentally not a course of merely human events but always a dramatic interaction between God and men.”[10]

Why Christ and Culture?

The main point that Niebuhr makes is that Christians are constantly interfacing with the culture. Whether intentionally rejecting the culture and embracing faith, or embracing the culture and casually acknowledging faith, Christians are constantly in the trenches in the war with culture. Since this is the case, knowledge of theology is crucial. One must be able to apply theology to their culture, regardless of their particular viewpoint.

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[1] Ibid., 45

[2] Ibid., 68

[3] Ibid., 83

[4] Ibid., 110

[5] Ibid., 117

[6] Ibid., 147

[7] Ibid., 146

[8] Ibid., 152

[9] Ibid., 184

[10] Ibid., 194

History

The history of the modern Christian church begins with the story of Christ and the various accounts of work done by the apostles and other early teachers and missionaries. However, that history as recorded in the Bible ends in the first or second century after Christ’s ascension. As the church spread in the early world it encountered “three centuries of intermittent persecution, martyrdom, and extraordinary courage.”[1]

This early Christian culture had only the theology of the Old Testament to live by at the time. The fact that Jesus fulfilled the law and became the Messiah prophesied about in the Scriptures had not yet been set to written word. Paul’s writings became the basis of much of modern Christian theology. He was the first to declare for a universal and unified church that accepted non-Jews and practiced a universal doctrine.[2]

Early Christians had a broad affect on their culture. Nero blamed them for the burning of Rome.[3] Pliny discovered that the execution of Christians was having little effect on the growing sect, still considered by many to be a cult.[4] Christian martyrs were influenced by their Hellenistic counterparts in their willingness to die for a principle.[5]

During the late second century, a crisis occurred in the Roman Empire which seemed to bring Christianity into acceptance by the Roman citizens. The empire was under constant attack from invaders and common Roman beliefs were being questioned. The Christian tenets of loving and helping your neighbor brought many to think that the feud between Rome and Christianity was insignificant compared to the battle between the empire and invaders. Rather than being viewed as internal enemies, Christians helped to preserve the empire.[6]

During the same period, the theology of Christianity was beginning to integrate with mainstream Roman life. Theologians of the time put forward the idea that Christ’s role “was not to overthrow the empire but to be a teacher and healer” and to bring all previous philosophies and religions under one umbrella, resolving all their differences.[7]

Through the fall of the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, and into the Renaissance and the modern era, Christianity became a way of life, a civilization unto its own. The established church structures became the early civil structures in England and other European countries. The history of Christianity shows ebbs and flows of influence, but what was once considered a small Hebrew cult grew exponentially throughout the world.

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[1] Roger Osborne, Civilization (New York City: Pegasus Books, 2006), 113

[2] Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 117

[3] Ibid., 116

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., 122

[7] Ibid.

Thesis Statement

The clash between Christianity and culture has existed ever since the beginning of the church. Sometimes Christians have had great influence on the culture, other times culture has greatly influenced Christianity. This constant tug-of-war between faith and “the world” defines the struggle many people of faith face every day. A more thorough knowledge of theology as it pertains to these different areas of life can help everyone make headway against the contemporary culture that Christians face.

Introduction

It should be noted from the outset that this paper borrows its title from a chapter in Dr. H. Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture. In his most famous work, Niebuhr outlines five different viewpoints of how Christians have interacted with the culture around them.[1] Each of the viewpoints given has strengths and weaknesses, but the book itself is a treatise on how Christians can apply theology to the culture every day. Niebuhr’s dedication to pursuing the connection between theology and contemporary culture is summed up in a quote from his obituary in 1962: “Let them orbit. Let them take their sins and their wars to other planets. We will have to ask the same theological questions no matter where we are in the universe.”[2]

How does theology wind its way into contemporary culture? Is theology something that should be left to the academics, authors, and pastors, or is it something that the lay person and even the unconverted can use in everyday life? Furthermore, can theology be used to combat the common views of the world, views that seem to line up with Christian faith, but may run contrary to it under the surface?

In contemporary culture, faith and religion have been pushed back from the public arena. In the last 50 years, what was once a public faith has now become a private matter. Contrary to that, Michael McGough states that “(m)ost battles in the culture wars are joined in the public square.” He adds that both sides of the battle attribute their views to belief in a higher power, making this a theological discussion.[3]

Culture and theology will always contrast each other, but the challenge to the Christ-believer is how to apply theology to contemporary worldviews. Throughout history that challenge has existed, sometimes under threat of violence. It has always been and will continue to be difficult to synthesize culture and theology. This paper will first explore historical viewpoints of theology and culture in order to give some background to the discussion. The remaining sections will discuss various aspects of modern theology and culture, attempting to show that theology can be impressed upon culture in a way that glorifies Christ.

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[1] H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1951), these viewpoints will be discussed further in a later portion of this paper.

[2] “Rev. H. Richard Niebuhr Dead: Authority on Theological Ethics”, New York Times, 6 July 1962, sec. A, p. 25

[3] Michael McGough, A Field Guide to the Culture Wars: The Battle Over Values From the Campaign Trail to the Classroom (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2009), 4

Over the next few days, I will be posting sections from my research paper for my Systematic Theology class at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. I’m pretty proud of this one. It is one of the few papers that I had done well before the due date, and because of this, I was able to let others read it before I submitted it. I owe each of them a debt of gratitude. You all helped me make this paper what it is, and I hope that you might be willing to do the same thing in the future. After all, I still have 87 more hours to go before I’m done.

The general idea of this paper was to show how theology is important to a contemporary worldview. I chose to center a great deal of the paper on H. Richard Niebuhr’s popular book Christ and Culture. This book is over 50 years old but still has some valuable insights into how Christians approach this issue. I read it last year and greatly enjoyed it. I recommend it to everyone, but it’s not an easy read.

I hope you enjoy the paper. I received an A on it and I do feel it’s one of the best things I’ve put to a computer screen. As always, your comments would be greatly appreciated.

(This was a book critique I wrote for my Systematic Theology class at LBTS. Got a 98 on it. Needless to say, I’m happy about it.)

Introduction

In God In The Wasteland, David F. Wells argues that we have transitioned “from a world in which God and his truth were accorded a central and often public place to one in which they have neither.”[1] He puts forth the idea that as society has progressed from a community-oriented, close knit culture to a more separated, technological culture that we have lost our grasp on truth. While the church has tried to change to be less offensive and more relevant to the culture, we have lost our way, wandering the wasteland searching for meaning and truth.

Wells has done a great deal of work in the area of Christ and culture, having published several books with similar themes. He is a Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Summary

Wells begins his book with an analysis of the “world” and how modernity has changed the way that faith is viewed. He makes the point that worldliness is not simply a matter of breaking rules established by the church, but an actual religious matter. The love of the world offers an alternative to the love of God, a different allegiance than what we are called to as Christians.

He follows this discussion with a look at the application of various world-oriented ideas and strategies that have been used in the church that appear to be successful on the surface, but have undermined the spiritual core of the church. Wells touches on the idea that we can market the church, the products, and the services offered by the church, but we cannot market Christ.

He devotes a chapter to a concept he calls the weightlessness of God, which means that the things of God are taken too lightly, to make them almost unimportant. This concept applies not only to the world in general, but also to the church in particular.

Wells covers a brief theology of God, pointing to the importance that we don’t lose the central tenets of the doctrine of God to the ideas that dominate modernity. He mentions that “despite all of the abundance into which evangelicalism has dipped, and despite a proliferation of ministries to suit every need…there is a hollowness within it all, an emptiness.”[2] The focus is the shifted to the doctrines of providence and the cross, to see if these doctrines have been lost in today’s evangelical culture.

The book moves to a brief look at the next generation of leaders in evangelicalism and how those leaders believe. He ends this section with three positive findings about the future leaders. First, that they take Scripture seriously; second, that they affirm theology should be central to the life of the church; and thirdly, they are dissatisfied with the state of the church, wanting more than what they are currently receiving.[3]

Wells ends the book with a chapter that lays out his solutions for the issues discussed throughout the book. He believes that two major projects need to be accomplished in the church. We must first learn to “detect worldliness and make a clear decision to be weaned from it.”[4] This is followed by the need for the church to become more serious about itself, expressing a countercultural spirituality.[5]

Critical Interaction

David Wells describes this book as the second half of a picture started in another of his books, No Place for Truth; or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?[6] Wells has done a great deal of research and has written several publications centered on this topic.[7] It is obviously an area where he holds great interest and concern over. Because of Wells’ book No Place for Truth, a movement was started which declared that various things were wrong with the modern church and that only be returning God to the center of the church life would these things be repaired. [8]

The writer’s goal in this work is to return Evangelicalism to its historical context, to remove some of the changes brought about by the modern and post-modern movements. Wells does make a very convincing argument for this. When Christ is removed as the central figure in Christianity, what is left but a movement of people trying to do good things? When the theology and doctrine that has been established through the years is thrown aside in favor of more pragmatic methodologies, the church has ceased to share the Gospel and is merely serving the felt needs of a population.

Possibly one of the most damning points that Wells makes in this book is that churches have succumbed to modern and post-modern thought, but don’t even know it. Many Christians, including Christian leaders, are so entrenched in the culture that they are not aware of the effects that it might be having on them and their view of God. Wells states that there are two traits most evident to baby boomers, but this could apply to anyone born after that period as well. He says, “First, there is a hunger for religious experience…but a disenchantment with dogma or doctrine. Their characteristic abandonment of boundaries…typically results in a smorgasbord of spirituality for which the only accepted criterion of truth is the pragmatic one of what seems to work personally.”[9] The second trait is that these people are “inveterate shoppers…who have learned the needed skills of commerce – principal among which is an ability to identify the products that will satisfy their inner needs.”[10] With the current generation of Christian leaders raised in this same culture, is it any wonder that problems have arisen.

When searching for other reviews of this book, I found that the vast majority of them were positive. In fact, searching several different sites yielded almost no negative reviews. However, the positive reviews did state that some material covered in this volume was also covered in other books written by Wells, which made it a bit redundant for those who have read more than one of his books.

This book is easier to read than some other books pertaining to Christ and culture. For instance, the seminal book by H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, is a very difficult read because of the scholarly language used. Lay leaders, amateur theologians, and even some pastors would have a difficult time working through Niebuhr’s book. However, God in the Wasteland is not written that way. While some scholarly language is used, overall it is a very easily understandable book.

One of the weaknesses of the book is probably the timing of when it was written and released. Though 1994 doesn’t seem that long ago, the resultant 15 years have seen a dramatic shift in the culture through the common use of computers and of the booming growth of the Internet. The last two or three years have seen the rise of social media, further changing the landscape of how people can be reached. This book would be well served to be updated with material that more directly reflects the changes that have happened since the original release. It is possible that this material is covered in other books written by Wells though.

While reading this, I sometimes felt that the author was falling into “good old days syndrome”, where just because things had changed, they were bad, and that it was better in previous times. However, after reading the rest of the book I feel that his perspective is classical, but measured. He has solid, Biblical reasons for the points that he makes.

Conclusion

David Wells has written a well-crafted book that takes on many of the practices of the modern church and inspires one to really understand why they do what they do. As a worship leader, it has given me the desire to research and discover more about what true worship is and how to bring that to a congregation. If something is being done wrong, God is not glorified. This book really challenges those who read it to examine themselves and their practices and see if it lines up with the Bible.

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[1] David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994), 14

[2] Ibid. 152-153

[3] Ibid. 212-213

[4] Ibid. 215

[5] Ibid. 215

[6] Ibid. ix

[7] Wikipedia, David F. Wells, 7 August 2009, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Wells; Internet, accessed 3 October 2009

[8] Wikipedia, The Cambridge Declaration, 24 July 2009, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cambridge_Declaration; Internet, accessed 3 October 2009

[9] Wells, 99-100

[10] Ibid. 100

Going undercover at the nation’s largest Evangelical Christian university is no small accomplishment. For a person who was born and raised a liberal, sometime Quaker, it must be nearly impossible. Kevin Roose managed it, spending a semester as an undergraduate student at Liberty University. He just happened to be writing a book about his experiences, and The Unlikely Disciple is the result.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I had my hesitations going in, as many liberal interpretations of conservative, fundamentalist Christianity are heavy-handed and disdainful. Roose manages to be neither, making this book a rather interesting read. The best thing about The Unlikely Disciple is that Roose maintains his objectivity throughout the book. While he maintains that he doesn’t understand everything about what goes on spiritually inside the school he appears to make a determined effort to find out . While at Liberty, Roose becomes part of the Thomas Road Baptist Church choir, attends prayer groups, and even goes on an evangelistic Spring Break trip with students from the school.

Another thing that I thought came out of this book was the author’s realization that conservative evangelicals aren’t really all that different than their liberal counterparts. Not everyone lives at the extremes of belief. His submersion in the culture seemed to have an impact on him.

On the other side, this is something that also bothers me about the book. While I understand that many of the people portrayed in the book are late teens/early 20s, I often find it a little disheartening that they seem to take lightly the very thing that likely drew them to Liberty to begin with. The “rebels” on the author’s dormitory hall spend time sifting through Facebook pictures staring at the girls, commenting on various parts of their anatomy. Many of them brag about bending or breaking the rules on campus.

Maybe my experience was different, but when I attended an ultra-conservative Bible college, these weren’t things that students did out in the open with other students. I may have been even more insulated from the outside world than others though.

Another habit that Roose exposes to the outside world through this book is the tendency of young evangelicals to use homosexual references as insults to their peers. I remember that those slurs were common place when I was in high school, but I don’t remember them being used all that much at my various colleges. That it happens on a Christian college campus is unfortunate and downright disappointing. We should be different than those who don’t have Christ, different in the respect and love that we show to others, regardless of their belief or orientation.

I first read a review of this book a couple weeks ago at my friend Amy’s website, Backseat Writer. Her review piqued my interest, in no small way because I’m going to be a Liberty student in a few weeks. Granted, my Liberty experience will be much different than Kevin Roose’s, mostly because I’m going to be an online seminary student. However, I was an undergraduate student at Southwestern Assemblies of God University several years ago. I understand from first hand experience that the rules can sometimes be bothersome. My response to that is tough. People who attend Christian colleges that have these rules in place can either live with it, or move on. You choose to attend, you choose to follow the rules. Don’t get upset when you get caught breaking those rules intentionally, and don’t get angry that you get punished for it.

Overall, I thought that book was excellent. Kevin Roose aced a difficult assignment, and in doing so, exposed some of the soft underbelly of Christianity.