Losing Our Virtue
From Neoredemptive
| Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision | |
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David F. Wells
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| Book Review Policy |
Synopsis
A treatise on the collapse of Evangelicalism's moral gravitas. Wells contends that the Evangelical world has become increasingly comfortable with the language of therapy, psychology, and self-actualization while becoming simultaneously uncomfortable with the language of holiness, sin, and grace. He argues compellingly that this shift goes deeper than a mere marketing ploy or simply attaching new language to orthodox truths, reflecting instead a compromise with the values of this present age (dominated as it is by modernism and secularism), producing a profound hollowing out of the substance and center of the gospel--God's holiness, our sin, and Christ's atoning work on the cross.
Doc's Take
Wells' writing reminds me of the apostle Paul, who asked, "foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" He has clearly devoted himself to placing the substance of the Biblical Gospel at the center of his thinking, and the result is an often penetrating and sometimes searing critique of the sheer theological flabbiness of the Church (No Place for Truth), its concept of God (God in the Wasteland), and its moral legitimacy (this work).
My one concern with this book is that it may lead some to throw out too much of a baby with the bath water. There is a very real difference between cultural engagement and selling out, between experimenting with methods and being co-opted by worldly values. The issue is not whether to engage with popular culture; the issue is getting our priorities in the right order, which means all of our outreach and tinkering and experimentation must begin with a very clear and unwavering commitment to Christ, Scripture, the message of the Gospel, and the wretched, Godless state of all things which have not yet been passed through the fires of redemption.
"Foolish post-moderns, who has bewitched you?"
