Gagging of God, The [Hardcover]

D. A. Carson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1996

Author D.A. Carson examines the tides of pluralism washing over virtually every aspect of American culture. Carson asserts the uniqueness of Jesus in a world of competing pluralistic claims, and despite the attempt to "gag God", He is still there and He is not silent.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

D.A. Carson is professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Douglas J. Moo is associate professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical School. Leon Morris, retired, was principal of Ridley College, Melbourne, and served as visiting professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical School

From the Back Cover

In The Gagging of God, Professor D. A. Carson helps evangelicals respond with a clear, scholarly voice to the question, "Is Jesus the only way to God?" This book affirms the deep need for the Gospel's exclusive message in today's increasingly pluralistic global community. Most of the recent writings on religious pluralism have focused on specific aspects of the subject: shifts in Western thought and interpretation, the growing cultural and racial diversity of Western nations, the fraying of evangelical thought and life, and related topics. In contrast, The Gagging of God offers an in-depth look at the big picture. It shows how the many ramifications of pluralism are all parts of a whole, then offers a systemic Christian experience.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031047910X
• ISBN-13: 978-0310479109
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #929,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

D. A. Carson (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author or coauthor of over 45 books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winning book The Gagging of God and An Introduction to the New Testament, and is general editor of Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns and Worship by the Book. He has served as a pastor and is an active guest lecturer in church and academic settings around the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good discussion of how Christianity can address pluralism, August 31, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Gagging of God, The (Hardcover)

How can biblical Christianity speak about the reality, person, nature and will of God to a pluralistic society? Does Christianity have any hope of authoritatively addressing a society in which postmodern thought has cast doubt not only on the truth of the claims of Christianity, but also on the possibility of the existence of such a thing as objective, knowable truth? This is the challenge taken up by D.A. Carson in The Gagging of God; Christianity Confronts Pluralism.

Our world and more immediately the United States, contains a vast diversity of races, values, heritages, languages, cultures, and religions. D.A. Carson has observed not only this fact in The Gagging of God, but also that the people of the United States are viewing this diversity with increasing favorability. Carson, as an evangelical Christian, has no quarrel with either of these phenomenon, which he terms "empirical pluralism" - the fact that there is considerable diversity within our culture, and "cherished pluralism" - the growing belief among Americans that this diversity is good and positive. His quarrel is with what he terms philosophical or hemeneutical pluralism: "...the notion that a particular ideological or religious claim is intrinsically superior to another is necessarily wrong" (19). This is the stripe of pluralism that gags God, because it robs him of the ability to make truth claims about himself or anything else. Likewise, it robs Christians of the ability to make similar truth claims, regardless of their basis, because to do so would be to elevate their beliefs to a "true" status, superior to the claims of others, thereby violating philosophical pluralism.

The popularity of philosophical pluralism cannot be denied as sixty-four percent of recently surveyed Americans believe that "there is no such thing as absolute truth" (23). Philosophical pluralism in our society has naturally given rise to religious pluralism wherein it is believed that all religions are really saying the same thing. The contemporary, bible believing church has no choice but to confront philosophical pluralism.

The Gagging of God has something for everyone approaching the challenge of pluralism. For the philosopher there is a treasure trove of philosophical discussion. For the Bible student there is keen insight into the plot line of God's revelation and its relationship to contemporary pluralism. For the student of modern culture there is clear discussion and description of our pluralistic society. For the Christian missionary, foreign or domestic, there is good practical help with the challenge of contextualization. For the contemporary Christian there are good answers to the questions and challenges of pluralism we continually face. The drawback in this volume may be found in Carson's handling of other literature. While Carson addresses our contemporary culture well and provides material that equips Christians for confronting pluralism, much good insight is somewhat camouflaged in a forest of scholarly argument. Carson obviously has a strong interest in engaging the published ideas of others, but he does this to distraction. Carson's bibliography contains over 1,000 works he either quotes or refers to in this volume. While he may be complimented on his thoroughness, his citation-and-response approach to other scholars is overdone and detracts from the readability of the book. A more concise, less argumentative approach would have been more effective in accomplishing his goals.

Carson states that he was drawn to the subject of pluralism as a Christian teacher of hermeneutics and a Christian preacher. The "ever present need to understand one's own culture" (9) is key to both of these vocations and, in fact, any service to the contemporary church. Thus, this volume immediately appeals to anyone who can see that to effectively communicate with and minister to our culture, we must understand our culture. The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism makes a tremendous contribution toward that end and is highly recommended to anyone who genuinely believes that the gospel holds the solution to the dilemma of contemporary culture and genuine desires to intelligibly communicate that gospel to this generation.

32 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Book with Pluralism, December 29, 2000

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gagging of God, The (Hardcover)

This book is a must read for the serious student of the Bible, whatever one's theological bent is. Carson as a conservative exegete wraps all of his understanding up in heremeneutics, which is a great place for any of us to begin. Of course, most lay Christians will not understand where this is coming from, but I don't think this is the audience Carson has in mind.

Most productive from my reading were the number of instances where Carson actually engaged in dialogue with people who believed there are many paths to God outside of Christ.

Good command of many topics, including history, philosophy, etc. I find this volume useful in also returning to it as reference when dealing with pluralism in the modern church.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Title misunderstood, November 15, 2002

By 

Parableman (Syracuse, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gagging of God, The (Paperback)

An earlier reviewer claims that Carson should change the so-called offensive title of this book. It is intended to offend, but the reviewer who said this doesn't seem to have bothered to read the preface to know what the title really is getting at.

The title has a two-fold meaning. On one level, it is talking about how contemporary pluralistic thinking gags God. If truth is impossible to communicate, how can God speak? I'm not sure this should be offensive to a postmodernist. Their whole goal is to deconstruct religious thinking so God can't be said to speak to us anymore.

However, the truly offensive aspect of the title is the more profound meaning. Much of what Carson does in this book is to show how Christians have been gagging God by reacting to pluralism in wholly inappropriate and unbiblical ways. Someone who has digested his analysis in a self-evaluating way cannot miss that. The title is supposed to be offensive to Christians because Christians are the people who should know better. Because of that, the title is not quite a very clever pun but something in that area.