Customer Reviews

Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World

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How should the church relate to society? Two models seem to predominate. One is accommodation. Some churches seem either to completely withdraw from society or be so accommodated to culture that they have little influence. The other model is full scale transformation of society according to some perceived biblical imperative ... taking expression in everything from the Religious Right to Christian Progressivism to liberation theology.

Stackhouse offers us a brilliantly articulated alternative he calls Christian Realism although it is nuanced some from what has passed as Christian Realism in the past. Stackhouse walks us through the story of God's mission in the world, identifying four commandments. Two are creation mandates. There is the cultural mandate to make the best world we can ("make the best of it") and the mandate of the great commandments to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. There are also the redemption mandates. We are given a "New Commandment" to love one another as Christ has loved as ... thus giving witness to the world of God's love and vision of Kingdom community ... and the Great Commission to seek out others and bring them into community. The overarching principle is the pursuit of the greatest shalom possible in the world (in all the richness the term "shalom" conveys.)

But here lies the problem. We can never fully achieve shalom this side of the consummation of the Kingdom of God. Sin is with us until then. Furthermore, due to our sin and finite existence, there is considerable doubt that we ... individually or corporately ... can fully grasp what pursing shalom truly entails in our context. Ambiguity and paradox are ever present companions. It creates a powerful tension. Unfortunately, we all too often try to escape the tension through accommodation or through idealistic transformational crusades. (Some offer Anabaptism as an alternative but that tradition also fails ... as Stackhouse shows ... to successfully address the paradox. There is recurring respectful dialog with Yoder in the book.) So how to respond?

Stackhouse begins the book looking back. The first half of the book revisits H. Richard Neibuhr's "Christ and Culture" and then explores the Christian Realism of C. S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Unfortunately, many are ready to tune him out here ... especially emerging church folks ... , believing that John Howard Yoder has thoroughly discredited Niebuhr. Stackhouse is not calling for a revival of Niebuhr's work but also takes issue with how Yoder has critique of Niebuhr. Furthermore, Stackhouse notes that all these Christian Realists were seriously lacking in a Trinitarian perspective, the work of the Spirit, and the role of worshiping communities in transforming the world. The first half of the book is more about identifying themes from the past to inform us in our exploration of the issues.

The second half of the book is where Stackhouse articulates his view of Christian Realism and it is largely disconnected from the first half in any direct sense. The two halves could be read as separate books but together they give a completeness that is needed. I've already mentioned the four commandments. Stackhouse also draws on the idea of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience working together... through the guidance of the Spirit ... to lead us as we pursue shalom. I particularly like how he roots his ethics in the narrative of Scripture and God's mission in the world.

This is an exceptional book! It is easily one of the most important books I've read on Christian mission and ethics. It articulates many conclusions I've come to on my own, clarifies so many other issues that I've struggled with, and presents it all in a cogent engaging style. I can't recommend the book highly enough.

This is a great read for anyone who is interested in the question of what it means to think and act Christianly in the cultural context in which they find themselves. There are at least three important benefits to be derived from reading this book: 1) You will learn a good deal about three flat-out interesting Christians--Reinhold Niebuhr, C.S. Lewis, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer--and how they understood and practiced following Christ in their very different contexts; 2) You will get a compelling portrayal of the scope and contours of the Biblical story and how human culture contributes to and detracts from God's intentions for is world; and 3) You will receive an extremely cogent and compelling articulation of Christian discipleship that combines an appreciation of the complexity of the historical and cultural contexts in which Christians are located with the conviction that the way of Jesus really does represent the most God-honouring way to be a human being in any and all cultures.

Well worth the read!

<full disclosure - I'm the author's brother> This is an important book and many so-called Christians would be well-served in not only reading it but studying it in depth. It is critical for those who think Christianity is black-and-white or those who don't have a clue about what Christianity is about. Uncomfortable? Yes. Relevant and timely? Yup. If you want "easy," pick a human-created religion (oops, have I exposed myself?)...reality is very, very troubling...

This is a book about how Christianity ought to relate to culture. Stackhouse does a good job of outlining and describing Richard Niebuhr's typology of various paradigms of relating to culture which I found fascinating. To state is quickly, there is the type of Christ against culture (think of Nazism or abortion), Christ of culture (think of "Christian America," or previously, Christian Romans of the 4th and 5th centuries), Christ above culture (think of Thomas Aquinas both affirming that Christ is both in a separate from culture), Christ transforming culture (Moral Majority, Prohibition, etc.), and lastly Christ in paradox with culture which is the view Stackhouse defends and also the view that is the most complex. I definitely see the merits of Stackhouse's position even if I am somewhat inclined towards the 'Christ above culture' option.

In the next section, Stackhouse describes three influential Christian men, C.S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. For me, this was the most interesting part of the book as I did not know too much about the later two figures. Bonhoeffer especially struck a cord with me in that he had a fierce spirit but recognized the intellectual difficulties with relating Christianity to culture that the other two didn't address as well.

Part 3 was all Stackhouse and this part got tiresome to read after a while. I generally liked the author's thinking and agreed with him over and against his opponents but I generally found his conclusions to be uninspiring. Just on the mechanics of the reading, I think the author repeated himself far too much and provided obvious, and unnecessary qualifications to his statements. For example, the word "shalom" is used so many times and always in italics to let you know the author is saying something special, that I grew increasingly annoyed. Yes, Christians are suppose to pursue the peace of God, goodness and all that but saying it over and over again gets grating. He also spent a lot of time qualifying his remarks which had the effect of making his statements more reasonable, which is a good thing, but also ensuring that he isn't really saying all that much. Nothing was bold, nothing surprised. It was all just very reasonable. Vanilla-like. This criticism sounds harsh, I know, so I'll speak next about what I did enjoy about this book.

I did like the author's nuanced approach to Scripture. He had a refreshingly non-dogmatic view about taking the NT in its context with the knowledge that we live in a different context with all the consequent ambiguities. Thus, while it might sound like the author's reasonableness is a liability when it comes to inspiring a person, it is an asset when it comes to intellectually defending to oneself Christianity's general rationality. For this I thank Stackhouse.

Overall, this book was mixed. It definitely wasn't bad but wasn't great either. It has strong and weak points.