Chameleon Christianity: Moving Beyond Safety and Conformity [Paperback]

Dick Keyes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2003

We are living in a time of crisis of moral authority, with culture wars raging all around. Although the Christian churchs message speaks to the deepest issues in contention, it often seems ill-equipped to act fruitfully in our society. Instead it can easily become part of the problem, not its solution - especially if we give in to the polar tendencies to turn into either chameleons or a tribe.

When Christians accommodate and compromise before the pressures of being a dissonant minority, we become chameleons. And when we turn inward as a Christian ghetto, using self-protecting measures out of fear, we become a tribe.

But as Dick Keyes explains, we can avoid the perils of polarization through biblical ways forward. One is apologetics - reaching outside of the enclave or sharpening ones argument for truth. Another is overcoming individualism to reclaim a real Christian community. However, no recommendation will be successful without true dependence on God and a return to foundations.

Chameleon Christianity calls Christians to righteously engage the surrounding culture. It provides tools for expressing the gospel and offers a fresh look at Christian community that crosses barriers of age, race, and gender.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A rapid look at the title might give the impression of one more attack on evangelicalism. Dick Keyes provides plenty of diagnosis, but the essence is positive and centered on remedy. With brilliant simplicity he repudiates our lazy tribalism to lead us to the exhilarating adventure of gospel hope. -- William Edgar

Dick Keyes has given us a clear, condensed picture drawing together ideas which permeate todays films and discussions assuming that everyone agrees. A reading of this book is important as a help in keeping a balance. -- Edith Schaeffer

Dick Keyes has given us a sure-footed and judicious analysis of why we must be in our postmodern world but not of it. -- David Wells

Dick Keyes' vision is of clear-headed, uncompromised churches challenging Western post-Christianity rather than retreating from it or caving in to it. This small book merits careful reading and deep pondering. -- J. I. Packer

Provid[es] a better way to engage and transform society. Chameleon Christianity's likely audience will include those personally interested in making a difference in their sphere of influence, especially professionals, academics and others seeking to cross cultural chasms. -- Christian Retailing, March 4, 1999 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Dick Keyes, graduate of Harvard and Westminster Seminary, worked at LAbri Fellowship in Switzerland and England and now directs the L'Abri residential study center in Massachusetts. He is author of Beyond Identity and True Heroism. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers (February 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592441513
• ISBN-13: 978-1592441518
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,394,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Christians Take Heed!, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chameleon Christianity: Moving Beyond Safety and Conformity (Paperback)

Dick Keyes draws on his extensive experience in community to formulate a telling synopsis of the Church's reactions to the culture around it. This book is a fantastic review of church behaviour and guide for getting it right in the future. I found this book ethusing because it speaks right into the problems, whose effects I had felt in my own christian experience. I recommend it for any christian, any church leader or christian group leader who truely wants to be relevant without being indetectable through over accomodation of the current culture.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Salt and light or chameleons and musk oxen?, January 27, 2007

By 

H. Laack - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chameleon Christianity: Moving Beyond Safety and Conformity (Paperback)

Only 112 pages long, this book is a deep yet very readable treatment of sometimes uncomfortable topics. The title comes from one of two errors Keyes sees the modern evangelical/conservative church making, the temptation to adapt so much to the culture around it as to lose its own distinctive identity, failing to truly salt the earth as Christ commands. The book also deals with an opposite tendency to be avoided, that of being "musk oxen" tribalists who so shelter themselves from "the world" that they never reach out with the light of Christ.

This is an excellent read for all evangelical, conservative Christians and would be a good resource for anyone preparing a sermon or study series on Matthew 5:13-16. It would also make a good primary small group text for those interested in considering their own congregation's response to the immediate community and to the culture at large.

5.0 out of 5 stars Something Better, July 16, 2011

By 

Philip Thompson "Phil" (South Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chameleon Christianity: Moving Beyond Safety and Conformity (Paperback)

This powerful little book brings concrete answers to the question: how can a Christian be salt and light in the world? Keyes has multiple answers to this question. He begins his work by arguing that a Christian cannot be salt and light in the world simply as a chameleon, which just blends in with what is around it. This sort of Christian is near to the world, but has lost its radical edge to confront the world and to bring Gospel-change; however, Keyes identifies for the reader a second sort of Christian who fails to be salt and light. This Christian is the "musk ox" which circles around its own, warding off the outsiders. While the chameleon is so much like the culture that he loses his salt-like edge, the musk ox is so separate from and antagonistic to culture that he loses his necessary relevance.

Keyes suggests four methods of recovering the proper relation of the Christian to the culture. First, every believer must come to a deeper understanding of apologetics. The writer explains that there are many roadblocks for the lost to understand and accept Christianity and that these roadblocks must be carefully navigated if the believer wants to fulfill the expectation of being the salt and light which the Savior has called them to be. Second, the reader is called to logically reject relativism. Relativism is the moral code of modern society, but this moral code is flawed. Only in Christ does one find the solution to the problem of relativism. Third, the writer calls for an embrace of the church as a community. In the face of an individualistic society, Christianity offers true community. This reality confronts and challenges the lost because they have nothing to compare with it, because it appeals to something transcendent - something different and better. Keyes offers a number of challenges to churches and explains what a salt and light community in today's culture really looks like. Finally, Christians are called to recover their foundations. In this last chapter, believers are called to look back to their hope in the Gospel and the final apologetic of love, and to live in those. In these four ways, modern believers can move away from polarized extremes and towards a true outreach to the community outside the faith.