55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Mature Christology for Postmodern Times, July 16, 2006
This review is from: Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Hardcover)
David Wells, professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, has gifted his readers with sustained theological critique of contemporary culture for over a decade. The previous books in this series, No Place for Truth (1993), God in the Wasteland (1994), and Losing our Virtue (1998), astutely assessed the loss of theological gravity in contemporary culture by investigating its historical, cultural, philosophical, and theological sources. If I could choose one phrase to summarize his critique in these books, it would be this from God in the Wasteland: "God rests inconsequentially on the church." That is, the great and awe-inspiring reality of God's truth, holiness, and power have been eclipsed by the tools and sensibilities of the contemporary world.
Wells' work is exceptional in its interdisciplinary prowess. A trained theologian of Reformed convictions, Wells reaches deep into history, sociology, philosophy, literature, and cognate disciplines to carefully develop his perspectives, which are offered with a serious pastoral concern.
This is essentially a work of Christology, hence the subtitle: "Christ in a postmodern world." But in order to present a biblical view of Christ to the contemporary world, one must know something of the structure of that world (see 1 Chronicles 12:32). So, Wells takes up the daunting task of assessing both postmodernity (a set of emerging social conditions) and postmodernism (a cluster of philosophies). To those who have read fairly deeply on the subject of postmodernism, much of what Wells articulates may not be new. Much of it has been said elsewhere. However, he writes so well and documents his claims so deeply that even those well-read in the area will benefit from his analysis. In many cases, the first books to treat new topics are not typically the best. Wells, who does not publish at a frantic pace (as do many evangelical authors who write on postmodernism), has been cogitating on this material for many years. This adds considerable gravity and sobriety to his words. Moreover, this book builds on the solid foundation of the previous three books in the series (and without very much overlap.)
Wells wonders what the evangelical world has to offer a world traumatized by the barbarism of the September 11, 2001, attacks. He laments in his introduction that the evangelical church lacks "a spiritual gravitas, one which could match the depth of horrendous evil and address issues of such seriousness. Evangelicalism, now much absorbed by the arts and tricks of marketing, is simply not very serious anymore" (4). And serious it should become. Above all Earthy Pow'rs, which derives its title--and the alternative spelling of "powers"--from Martin Luther's famous line in "A Mighty Fortress is our God," is a valiant attempt to inject Christological seriousness back into the evangelical mind and heart. To those not familiar with this hymn, I will cite a few of the verses that Wells himself quotes.
That word above all earthly pow'rs,
No thanks to them abideth.
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Thru him who with us sideth.
These verses underscore the transcendence of God and the necessity of the church to depend on a transcendent God for its faithfulness. This is precisely what Wells believes is becoming lost in evangelicalism today. But the book is no harangue. To make his point, Wells elucidates the defining features of the postmodern world: how it emerged, what it is, and how Christians should respond to it.
Since one must understand the modern in order to understand the post-modern, Wells devotes one rich chapter to this task, "Miracles of Modern Splendor," in which he explains the hubristic development of humanistic optimism and material abundance (and materialism) in the West. The following chapter addresses "Postmodern Rebellion," in which the optimism of the modern period gives way to cultural and intellectual exhaustion, such that many despair of having a unified and meaningful worldview at all. My only concern with this chapter is that Wells argues that natural theology is illegitimate since it "must assume that there is some truth lodged within human experience from which inference can be made which lead into a saving knowledge of God" and thus it "seriously vitiates the necessity for and the role of the biblical gospel" (p. 82). This construal of the project of natural theology follows Barth. But natural theology is better understood as the venture of constructing rational arguments for the existence of God based on nature or conscience. Natural theology appeals to the data of general revelation (which is known to sinners) as a source for building logical arguments (whether ontological, design, moral, or cosmological), the conclusion of which is that the universe does not explain itself, but requires an Author. When successful, the deliverances of natural theology are in no sense salvific, but rather give philosophical support for theism as objectively true. Upon this foundation, apologetics can build the rest of its case for the biblical worldview, including the gospel. (For a treatment of the philosophical revival of natural theology, see James Sennett and Douglas Groothuis, editors, In Defense of Natural Theology [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005]. See also Douglas Groothuis, "Theistic Proofs" in New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics, eds. C. Campbell Jack, Gavin J. McGrath [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 698-703.)
Arguments for the objective existence of God are, in fact, extremely salutary for those immersed in the subjectivities and irrationalities of postmodern spirituality, which Wells covers in the chapter "Migrations, the Banquet of Religions and Pastiche Spirituality." This is a deft analysis of postmodern spirituality, which is pluralistic, subjective, pragmatic, and untethered to any eternal verities. Diverse spiritualities are greeted as preferences or options available to spiritual consumers, not as incompatible truth claims that contend for the total allegiance of their followers. In the postmodern world, Christianity itself is readily forced on to this Procrustean bed.
To avoid this mutilation of the gospel, Wells spends the next three chapters--"Christ in a Spiritual World," "Christ in a Meaningless World," and "Christ in a Decentered World"--bringing the biblical Jesus to bear on postmodern realities. In so doing, Wells adroitly integrates social analysis, biblical studies, and theological resources. A short review cannot adequately summarize Wells' Christological competence on these matters, but suffice to say that Wells demonstrates the pertinence of Christ to the lineaments of postmodern life with cogency and gravity. He repeatedly makes clear that the church's encounter with postmodernism must be rooted in objective truth, a truth that is rooted in the Triune God himself and thus stands over against us as creatures. Wells' critique also expands a key insight from Anders Nygren's work, Agape and Eros (1953). Nygren argued that Christianity is centered on God's revelation of love (agape) to humanity in Jesus Christ, a revelation without which human beings are helpless. On the other hand, "eros" spirituality works from the bottom up: humans find the divine essence within themselves and so within their grasp. There is no need for a transcendent disclosure for human liberation; what is needed is found within the immanent, within the self itself. Postmodern spirituality, Wells argues, is eros spirituality, in Nygren's sense. It views human nature itself as a mediator of the sacred, as unfallen and basically good, and without need of an ultimate Authority beyond itself. (Although Wells does not cite it, Leigh Eric Schmidt's recent work, Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality [HarperSanFrancisco, 2005] exposits and defends this eros spirituality.) But the gospel, as Wells notes, shatters this pride and proclaims that only as "God reaches down" through Jesus Christ is spiritual restoration possible (see John 1:1-3, 14; Philippians 2:5-11; 2 Corinthian 8:9).
The final chapter, "Megachurches, Paradigm Shifts, and The New Spirituality" might seem like old hat to some, since so many have weighed in on this topic; but given the rich social and theological analysis that precedes it, what Wells has to say is hardly redundant, although it is sure to be controversial. Wells claims that the megachurch and seeker-sensitive approaches to ministry uncritically appropriate the tools of postmodernity--principally marketing to consumer preferences--to the degree that theology becomes largely irrelevant. He observes that liberal and nonChristian religious assemblies have used megachurch growth models to increase their membership considerably, thus indicating that in all these instances people are most likely being drawn more by methodology than by theology. Wells identifies the roots of this methodology in the "homogeneous unit principle" of missiologist Donald McGavran, who claimed that evangelism is most successful when people are not forced to cross any racial or economic barriers in order to come to Christ. The megachurch methodology has extended this principle to apply to generational and educational barriers as well. Thus, these churches target specific groups and tailor their services to fit specific preferences. The underlying assumption is that "the chief barrier to conversion is sociological and not theological" (p. 289). By catering to certain preferences, and avoiding dislikes, people will naturally come to Christ.
One problem with this perspective, Wells objects, is that it is Pelagian; it assumes that people are not embarrassed by their own sin and scandalized by the Cross of Christ. Rather, non-Christians avoid the gospel because churches fail to fit their cultural...
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Modern Take of Christ and Culture, January 5, 2006
This review is from: Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Hardcover)
Wells certainly does a mounumental job here of taking on Christ in our Postmodern World. For to do so, one must take on what is postmodernism and what are it's various outcroppings in the culture and church.
What started out as a very exciting work for this reviewer through the four chapters of eight, slowed down significantly after diagnosing the cultural scene. Here Wells is at his best as he brings together many concepts and "-isms" coordianting them under the main heading of "spiritual vs. religion." These terms definitions have changed from what I have been thinking they were, and he presents convincing evidence here. This for many will be the most useful portion of the book for many readers.
When he shifts in chapter five to Christ in the meaninglessness and the church's aberrations of it, it seemed to drag signficantly for me. Maybe it was that this was simply a rehash of what I already knew and was aware of or possibly his extended engagement with open theism, etc. which caused the losing of "one star", but this certainly was letdown of expectations.
He did redeem himself slightly in closing admonition about authenticity of church and marketing of seeker services.
One can be rewarded by this read, least of which is Wells' perceptive insights into vast literature on these subjects and footnotes and bibliography for followup.
The church certainly is being lied to when it is exhorted to change or die, be it from the Spong's of this world or the Rick Warren/Bill Hybels. As this fascinating read suggests: they are kissing cousins.
What is left out is any examination of the seductive tendencies to falsely separate doctrine from practice, or substance from style. See Klem Preus' great book on this, so inaptly titled: Fire and Staff.
Highly recommended.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A much-needed analysis, March 31, 2006
This review is from: Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Hardcover)
David wells is both a capable theologian and a very astute analyst of contemporary culture. His previous volumes have combined sociological, philosophical and theological assessments of the Western world and the contemporary church. His 1993 volume, No Place for Truth, along with his 1994 and 1998 works, God in the Wasteland and Losing Our Virtue all made valuable contributions to the Christian assessment of church and culture.
How church and culture rub off on each other is an important topic which all believers should have some understanding of. Unfortunately, as Wells shows, in the interchange, it is often the surrounding secular culture that has the most impact on the church, instead of the other way around. This new volume continues this theme that has been covered in the previous three.
Wells argues that the church today cannot properly understand itself and its mission unless it understands just how much both modernism, and its illegitimate son, postmodernism have effected it. And this is especially so in the area of truth.
Modernism of course truncated truth, declaring that what is true is only that which can be measured empirically. Anything that cannot be verified by the scientific method is relegated to the realm of feeling, myth or opinion.
Unfortunately much of the Western church would succumb to the siren call of philosophical naturalism, renouncing its supernatural trajectory in the name of relevance and acceptability. But it is exactly those churches that have embraced the modernist worldview which are now in deep decline.
Wells shows how the attempt to accommodate to the best of the world's wisdom led to an anemic and lifeless church. So what about the onslaught of postmodernism? Wells rightly recognizes the several strengths of it: its rejection of ungrounded optimism, the belief in science as saviour, and the unwarranted belief in progress, all the hallmarks of modernism.
But postmodernism, for all of its rightful critiques of modernism, is also a poisoned chalice. It even further decimates truth, but declaring that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Not only is there no such thing as truth, but there are no moral absolutes as well. Thus the postmodern world has lost its ability to speak of evil, let alone recognize it. Yet events like September 11 remind us that something is amiss, even though we have lost the vocabulary and worldview to discuss it.
This book then is about how the twin worldviews of modernism and postmodernism have wreaked havoc not only on the Western world but on the Western church. These two worldviews have severely crippled the church, and as a result, our impact has been greatly lessened.
Religion has been replaced by spirituality; doctrine by feelings; the transcendent by the immanent; the Other by Self. Much of Christianity today has been to reduced to the triumph of the therapeutic, as one commentator noted. Personal satisfaction, self-esteem and individual fulfillment have become for many believers the end of their faith.
Wells is perhaps most forceful in his critique of much of evangelicalism, especially in the areas of church growth and the megachurch movement. One of the main bitter fruits of the church's surrender to both modernism and postmodernism is the way in which God has been banished from the public square. Modern secular societies are quite happy to allow Christianity, as long as it remains a privatized and solely personal affair. It will not allow the faith to speak out on the issues of the day, or to make an impact in the social/political arenas.
Part of the churches' response to this has been the church growth movement and the marketing of the church. In order to regain a place in the public arena, the church has resorted to emulating the world in terms of marketing, advertising and selling its own goods. Thus the gospel has been carefully packaged and marketed to compete with the rest of Western consumerist culture.
The result has not been good, argues Wells. Our seeker-sensitive services are catering to those who wish to have religion-lite: nothing too demanding or self-denying. Indeed, it is a self-affirming spirituality that often makes one feel comfortable with oneself.
Indeed, says Wells, the language of sin, judgment, and self-denial are largely absent from these seeker-sensitive churches. Instead, there are promises of finding peace, fulfillment and happiness, something the gospel says come as a by-product, but are not to be sought for as an end in themselves.
Thus the modern church has focused on marketing, entertainment and therapy, while abandoning theology, creed and the hard sayings of Jesus. Christianity therefore just becomes another offering in the religious smorgasbord we find today.
It is the recovery of truth that is the need of the hour, says Wells. Not gimmicks, techniques, methodology and emulating the world's salesmen. It is reaffirming the historic truths of the faith in an age that has long ago stopped thinking about truth. The message, not just its marketing, is the real need for today's church. Hopefully this book will help us get back on to that much-needed path.
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