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Above all earthly pow'rs

Christ in a postmodern world

Light on the postmodern path

ABOVE ALL EARTHLY POW’RS
Christ in a Postmodern World
By David F. Wells
IVP. 340 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-106-0

I had this book on my shelf unread for two years. EN did send it out to a reviewer when it was first published, but nothing ever came back. So, I thought I had better review my own copy.

This is the last of David Wells’s four-volume examination of the spirit of our age, which began with No Place for Truth and continued with God in the Wasteland and Losing our Virtue. In defence of the reviewer who never delivered, I have to say that the fourth book is quite a hefty read, with some chapters 40 or 50 pages long. You can, therefore, lose the wood for the trees a bit. But having said that, the content well repays the required effort.

How we got here

Subtitled ‘Christ in a Postmodern World’, the author begins by explaining the developments which have led Western thought out of its enchantment with Enlightenment rationalism (modern) into the relativistic, half-irrational mindset of postmodernism. He sees this not just as a philosophical development (Nietzsche had said it all anyway) but, interestingly, grounds it in such down to earth matters as consumer culture and the great migration of the world’s people into the West during the 20th century. The practical desire to live together in peace necessitated an outlook which sits loosely with truth.

Major chapters

The three major chapters which form the heart of the book are titled ‘Christ in a Spiritual World’, ‘Christ in a Meaningless World’ and ‘Christ in a Decentred World’. Here, first Wells describes the spirituality of the postmodern person. It is consumerist and the opposite of Christian spirituality. It is about listening to the voice within and enhancing the self. It is not about acknowledging sin and surrendering self to God the Lord. He secondly examines the meaninglessness (good old Schaeffer word) endemic in postmodernism. Here he explains that the angst-filled nihilism of the old-fashioned gloomy European existentialists like Sartre has given way to the semi-flippant nihilism of American culture. ‘Life is meaningless, yes. But that’s no reason why we can’t have fun.’ He finally looks at the loss of coherence which postmodernism brings and then goes on tellingly to link it to the theology of Open Theism. (Here he begins to unfold how it is that much of current evangelical thought is simply buying into postmodernism.) In each of these chapters he goes on to give a positive exposition of biblical answers to these aspects of the postmodern outlook.

Selling the gospel

This leads us to the penultimate chapter, and, one has to say, a quite devastating polemic entitled ‘Megachurches, Paradigm Shifts and the New Spiritual Quest’. Particularly in the author’s sights here is the ‘seeker-sensitive’ approach to evangelism. This movement of churches believes that they are showing the way concerning how to reach a new generation, but actually, according to Wells, they are treating the gospel of God as if it were a marketable commodity for consumers and, in so doing, are actually destroying the gospel. He believes that such churches, despite their initial numerical success, are on the same road to that taken by theological liberalism, though for different reasons.

This is the deal

Here is a summary quote. ‘If they cannot clarify for themselves who is sovereign — God or the religious consumer? — what is authoritative in practice — Scripture or culture? — and what is important — faithfulness or success? — they will find themselves walking the same road and facing the same fate as the churches that failed before, because whatever seriousness now remains will dissolve into triviality. Indeed, there are already signs that this is happening. In reviewing the research that has been done on church life between 1996 and 2002, Barna stumbled upon a most disconcerting fact. Why is it, he wondered, that Boomers were so initially opposed to institutional religion, but now make up fully half of the born-again movement? The answer, he concluded, is that they are practised consumers who were offered a deal they simply could not turn down. For a “one-time admission of imperfection and weakness” they received in return “permanent peace with God”. The result was that “millions of Boomers who said the prayer, asked for forgiveness and went on with their lives, with virtually nothing changed”. And Barna adds that they “saw it as a deal in which they could exploit God and get what they wanted without giving up anything of consequence”.’

Here lies the false premise on which marketing the church is based. It is treating sinners as customers and tailoring the message to suit them. But in the Bible these ‘consumers’ are not left to define their own needs because as sinners they always misunderstand themselves.

This book is a powerful corrective to much which is leading evangelicalism astray. If, like me, you have known that this is a book you ought to read but it has been sitting on your ‘to do’ list, it is time to pick it up, take a deep breath, and plunge in.

John Benton