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Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World

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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 sensibilities. Wells writes, "Seeker methodology rests upon the Pelagian view that human beings are not inherently sinful, despite creedal affirmations to the contrary, that in their disposition to God and his Word, postmoderns are neutral, that they can be seduced into making the purchase of faith even as they can into making any other kind of purchase" (299). The answer to this theological defection, Wells avers, is a return to revealed truth: "What distinguishes the Church from this [consumer satisfaction] industry is truth. It is truth about God and about ourselves that displaces the consumer from his or her current perch of sovereignty in the Church and places God in the place where he should be" (303).

One is tempted to quote further from this wise theologian and social critic; in fact, I underlined more of this book than any in recent memory. But instead of drawing out this review any further, I instead heartily recommend that the reader purchase and carefully consider the insights of Above All Earthly Pow'rs--and continue to sing the hymn from which the title is taken.

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.

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.

Other reviewers have indicated how important & difficult this book is to read. It is dense and requires sustained thought. But the insights in this book are absolutely essential to understanding how dramatically, comprehensively and severly Evangelical Christianity has been compromised or is being compromised in the post-modern cultural context.

I will focus on what I consider to be the hinge-point of the book (pg. 123). Wells states... "..the current evangelical disposition to shuck off its cognitive structures and minimize the practical place of revealed truth in the life of the Church means that it has brought itself to the edge of a precipice. It is a precipice precisely because as evangelical faith has chosen to minimize itself in these way ....it is losing what makes it distinctive from all of the other postmodern spiritualities."

There you have the complexity of thought, density of writing and insights which characterize the entire work. You also have the major premise. The post-modern world is a reversion to pagan spiritualities at the same time it is distancing itself from religion (you have to think about that). These spiritualities manifest themselves in an accumulating, individual, syncretic attitude toward life that is distant from any external authority. The Evangelical Church, in seeking to engage this culture, is too often joining it in a fundamental manner and by doing so, is in almost certain danger of losing the actual gospel that Jesus was so adamant to proclaim (the precipice).

This book needs to be widely read and digested by Christians throughout the world. It is only by recognizing the threat that it can be resisted and yet, all too often, Evangelical zeal has blindly charged on, perhaps, already, into the chasm. Give yourself time to read it and work on following the thought. It is worth the effort. In fact, it is perhaps absolutely necessary that it be done.

Thank God David Wells is minding the store. I love what he has done with Above All Earthly Powers. He has marshalled his impressive intellecutal gifts in order to present a defense of orthodox christian faith. I really enjoy the way he builds his arguments with finely crafted sentences, careful research, and relevant qoutes. Reading Wells makes me feel more cultured, like I am in a Tuxedo taking in some Bach or Chopin. This work is a tonic for what ails evangelicals, the tendency to believe anything that seems pithy and relevant. The scope of thought ranges from the history of philosophy to "Boomer" spirituality, from Piligrims Progress to consumer christianity. I really like the Russian Fashion Show at a detention center where every outfit is the same, "a babushka on the head" and a " baggy prison-gray smock, cut just above the knees to accentuate her flabby inner thighs." It shows how we gag on choice in the West, but in other parts of the world, choice is much more simple. The American church is saturated with materialism and consumption is eating the heart out of the gospel. You really must read this book, it can be a challenge in certain sections, but the rewards of perservance are great.

David Wells is to the late 20th Century and the early 21st Century what Francis Schaeffer was to the second half of the 20th Century. Both men were astute students of history and culture and both men were brilliant biblical thinkers. Like Schaeffer, Wells provacatively integrates sociology, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, history, and theology, always with theology as the controlling grid.

That said, "Above All Earthly Powers" is not an "easy" read. It's not the type of book that one picks up and thumbs through while multi-tasking. Nor is it a book to read all in one sitting. Because Wells integrates so many important topics and themes and weaves them together, readers need to dedicate the time to wade through the deep meaning.

As the subtitle suggets, Wells focuses on Christ in our postmodern world. To do so, he provides a splendid chapter on modernity. This is important since some critics of post-modernity are criticized because they appear to be lovers of modernity. Instead, Wells shows how the hubris of modernity naturally led to the arrogance and pride of post-modernity.

But Wells' most important contribution in "Above All Earthly Powers" is not his sociology, but his ecclesiology: his theology of church life. Since Christ is above all powers, since humanity is fallen, how Christian engage those who are not Christians must flow from these fundamental truths. As Wells sees it, the "seeker" model and the "emergent" model both have fatal Pelagian flaws. They both adhere to too optimistic a view of the nature of human nature apart from the power and grace of Christ.

What Wells suggests then, is a model for ministry and outreach based upon the simple but profound Gospel truth that we can do nothing apart from God and His grace. That's the "Readers' Digest" version. Pick up a copy for yourself and read the rest of the story.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care And Spiritual Direction, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, "Biblical Psychology," and "Martin Luther's Pastoral Counseling."

This is not an easy text to read, particularly to those who do not have a pre-requisite in sociology like me, a freshman when it comes to the study of culture, but an excellent one, and therefore, highly recommended for both Christians and non-Christians. Keep in mind this review I wrote does not come from an expert in Dave Well's area of expertise, but from a layman Christian exposed for the first time to this topic of influence and interaction of Christianity and culture.

Prof. Wells begins by outlining the characteristics of modernity and post-modernity, which I find very useful, and can immediately affirm his observations from what I see and encounter, particularly from a personal experience of life and work in Silicon Valley.

It is interesting that post-modernity, while maintaining some of the characteristics of its modern 'parent'; mainly the omnicompetence of the human being which manifests itself in the autonomous self (p.32), is at large, as he points out, a rebellion against its modern parent. The rejection is mainly against the insistence of rationality (p.61) of modern minds that exclude everything supernatural, which is good and bad for christianity. It is good because it gives the gospel a better chance to penetrate cultures, but it is bad because its prevailing principles of relativism, emphasis on experience, new privatized, experimental spirituality, superficiality and conformity, as well as the autonomous self have infected the church. What particularly strikes me real hard is Well's observation in agreement with that of Harold Bloom's who claims that this new 'wave' of post-modern spirituality which seems to have been

adopted by some evangelical denominations is at the bottom 'gnosticism' which he then expounds on greater details what it is in the past, what it is now today and how it is manifested (ch.4).

"This 'religion', Harold Bloom argues, resolves itself into a spiritual quest in which the self is both subject and object of the search. His argument is that this quest underlies much overt religion which on the surface expresses itself doctrinally and in very different ways - Roman Catholic, Mormon, Seventh-Day Adventist, and Southern Baptist. As a part of his argument he claims that America is gnostics without knowing it." (p.134)

Wells then continues on elaborating the effects of relativism, or lack of absolute standard of right and wrong, namely, self-centeredness, meaninglessness and emptiness (ch.4-5), and countered it with the gospel. His is an exquisite, elaborate, elegant, sophisticated and somewhat academic way of presenting the gospel beginning from the Fall (p.164-168), and God's wrath against humanity in their rebelliousness, and his grace in Christ (p.199-232.

The topic of autonomous self including opentheism (a doctrine which I believe comes out naturally out of the doctrine of autonomous self) in ch.6 is covered (p.233-250) and refuted (p.262) skillfully with great emphasis on the sovereignty of God in Christ.

The last two chapters 7 and 8 deal with the fact many churches seem to be burdened more to be successful than faithful with the natural consequences of compromising or even abandoning doctrinal truth in the name of relevance and contexts, to accomodate more church-goers by fitting to their needs and taste. Experience, self-help and self improvement programs and fun are now the main 'menu' at church. It seems, therefore, the church, established by Christ to influence cultures, has now been influenced by cultures. The last chapter is a sober, yet encouraging call to the church to stand firm in the faith, or to return to the faith "that was once for all entrusted to the saints" since as Wells said in the keynote address during the 2006 Desiring God National Conference, whose topic was taken from this book, "The Supremacy of Christ in a Post-Modern World", that despite the difficulty that the church faces in these post-modern days, the victory is locked up, or to quote him on the last page,

"Indeed, it is entirely unnecessary to even think about overcoming the post-modern world because it has already been overcome in its sin. It is only ours to see the victory of Christ on the Cross being realized afresh in the actual circumstances of our time. That will happen when the Church humbles itself afresh, seeks the power and cleansing of God, and asks to have its vision renewed of the victory of Christ and to see, once again, his greatness. So may it be!" to which I say "Amen!"

I've read over 15,000 pages of biblical material in the last 2 years for my graduate degree. This book was the most helpful, truthful and articulate. This Christmas, I'm telling all my friends that if they will read this book, I'm buying. If you care about the purposes and glory of God and desire to see the affluent American church "get it" this is the book for you.

'It seems rather clear then, that our contemporary spirituality is in continuity with some of the different aspects of what has preceded it. We will explore three such parallels:

- first, that both gnosticism and the new spirituality have arisen in contexts which were experienced as inhospitable

- second, that the two share a comparable understanding of the self

- third, that the gnostics anticipated today's postmodern expressive individualism.' p 145

The contemporary church in the Western world is undergoing systemic change (from the inside) and experiencing systematic challenges (from the outside) - known as culture wars, leading to what Wells inevitably coins 'the future becomes the constant preoccupation'. p 27

The loss of religious influence in the courts, education, cultural entities and even para-church organizations, has sought to deprive Christians from defending their specific worldview. This attack on our faith is the latest attempt at closing the evangelical 'lion's mouth'. In the state-sanctioned securing and enforcing of human rights, there has been a concurrent rejection of biblical truth. The emphasis has fallen on equality to mean tolerance, which means that all have an equal claim to truth. That means this dominant worldview seeks direct and confrontational engagement with the exclusivity of Christ and His truth-claims, through a hostile society, which will not be subjected to any form of authority or truth-speech - from a confessing church.

Wells enters the scene with clear intent. He engages back. Wells' argument for the objective existence of God is priceless and provides valuable gumption to a confessing church to stand firm against the plural waves of cultural and sociological change distinct to our times.

'This (Enlightenment) understanding was not so much a worldview as an ideology. Ideologies, we might say, are worldviews with an attitude. The intent of every ideology is to control. Because they leave only one way out, they become coercive. At the same time, ideologies create a sense of inevitability...they produce passivity in people because what is inevitable cannot be resisted.' p 25

'Its unintended consequence is 'the exclusion of God, grace, and morality from contemporary public life'...it excludes, among other things, a place for wisdom in life, that way of knowing which takes its bearings on the character and revelation of God, brings that understanding to life in all of its dignity and wretchedness, and issues in principled, good judgments.' p 37

'...the absence of serious engagement with the truth of God and the God of that truth...is fearful idolatry and the immediate judgment visited upon us is that our culture has become shallow, cheap and vulgar. And far from challenging this emptiness and futility, evangelical churches have too often been its exemplars, pitching their 'product' to 'consumers' and emptying themselves of every vestige of spiritual gravitas.' p 47

'The consequence is that we have come to believe that the 'self' retains its access to the sacred, an access not ruptured by sin.' p 165

In chapter 4, Wells immerses us in the history of gnosticism. Re-acquainting us with the plot, Wells strikes a familiar chord between our current multi-cultural milieu and the Roman Empire which spawned a Hellenistic hybrid of faiths. 'And the besetting temptation which the church would encounter, sometimes in fierce ways and at other times in more subtle ways, was to wonder if it could lessen the fierceness of the competition by incorporating in itself elements of this pagan way of looking at the spiritual life. The word 'gnostic' encapsulated the understanding of the mystical insights into the nature of things which the various thinkers and movements offered. It may well be, then, that when Rome finally fell it was less because it was conquered from without than because it had died of its own hand.' pp. 136-137 Wells is superb when connecting the moral downfall of the Roman Empire and the current moral decline of particularly America, to the individual emphasis in the search for spirituality, 'but often pursuing this in opposition to what is religious'. p 125 The origin of this search for consciousness Wells locates when heightened desires for self-awareness, self-esteem and self-actualization lead people to seek authentic faith in how 'it lives out its life within the confines of private experience.' p 131 Autonomous Americans, cries Wells, are 'turning east'.

'The theories of gnosticism were defeated and soon forgotten. However, the spirituality which they were seeking to explain is the point of connection with the past. It is this spirituality which is rooted in the self, which assumes the liberty either to oppose or appropriate external religious forms but is resolute in its opposition to having to submit to external religious authority.' p 135

'And in this contemporary spiritual quest, as was the case in gnosticism, it is often assumed that some people are naturally spiritual whereas others are not. Some have an inborn knack for seeing what others cannot see. It is not easily found and so experimentation becomes the means of its discovery. Experimentation invariably leads to an eclectic outcome as assorted beliefs and practices are cobbled together pragmatically into what become private spiritualities.' p 148

'One of the chief contentions of the gnostics in their polemic against the church was that 'knowledge', in their understanding of it, is superior to faith. They might as well have said that they were pursuing spirituality, rather than religion, for that is what they meant.' p 144

Review: David F. Wells: Above all Earthly Powers.

Eerdmans 2005.

Wells is a philosopher so this is reasonably heavy reading, but well worth the effort.

Wells analyses Postmodernism to show some of its salient features notably:

1. A disdain for absolute truth.

2. The centering of truth in the individual

3. The consumer society.

He then makes an interesting parallel between the Liberal mainline churches of the 1930s and the "Seeker sensitive" church movement of today. He argues that in both the same fundamental heresy is being preformed but in a different way. The Heresy is Pelagianism; a denial of (absolute) Biblical truth for the sake of accommodating the gospel to the present culture. The Liberals did this on an intellectual and more fundamental level to accommodate The Enlightenment challenge; the Seeker sensitive churches, on the other hand, remain confessionally orthodox but simply don't talk about doctrine. Instead, they align the gospel to seeker preferences and psychological needs with a high degree of marketing theory thrown in.

Wells argues that the result will eventually be the same: by removing the church from Biblical truth (by this he means propositional, moral and doctrinal truth), we actually remove the distinctives between the church and the culture so that the church so fundamentally absorbs the surrounding culture and so no longer has a voice to critique culture and call it to repentance. In fact some Seeker sensitive churches go as far as to argue that absolutist doctrine is unpopular and a hindrance to growth so deliberately avoid it.

The result for the Liberal churches of the 1930s and later was a loss of "appeal". Wells argues that if we are not distinct from our culture then there is ultimately no point in church so why not drop out? He predicts that the present "Seeker sensitive" church culture will eventually go the same way and empty warehouses that used to be churches will result.

His argument, as far as it goes, is compelling and probably has a good deal of truth in it. Unfortunately it is overstated in two ways:

1. As far as the "Seeker sensitive churches go his analysis of them is a little unfair. He mentions Willow Creek - but only a part of their programme. "Seeker sensitive" churches such as Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Community Church (Who are the main international promoters of this style of church) really only push the "Seeker sensitive" approach when it comes to their outreach service. Alongside of this service they run a raft of other programmes aimed at personal holiness, discipleship and Bible knowledge as well as committed small group relationship based activities. It may be that some "Seeker sensitive" churches do not have similar programmes, but these two churches only see the "Seeker sensitive" service as part of a well rounded and full blooded approach to Christianity.

2. The second failure in Wells analysis is in his approach to the doctrine of mission, both in theory and practice. The failure of western missionaries for hundreds of years in trying to "Europeanise" their converts led to poor response to the Gospel. Other cultures felt one had to leave their own culture and become "like the white man" to be a Christian. The whole principle of "Incarnational Evangelism" is now well established - both from Scripture and in practice. Wells seems to be arguing for an approach similar to the Orthodox church, wherein everything (theoretically) remains the same for thousands of years. Of course even there it doesn't as the Orthodox church was at the forefront of Bible translation and incarnational evangelism before the Western church. Wells seems to be arguing that we should keep our church services traditional or we will somehow lose the essence of Christianity. He never actually says this - but that is the feeling that is left. He seems to forge that those church forms are themselves rooted in a cultural background that has now largely passed away. So from a mission point of view, both theologically and practically, he misses the mark.

The great value of this book is the analysis of the danger that "Seeker sensitive" churches can easily fall into, and the church in the West as a whole. It is not just "Seeker sensitive" churches that eschew doctrinal preaching. It is a problem throughout Christendom.