Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity [Paperback]

S. Michael Craven (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2009

In today's culture of modernism, Christianity is an afterthought. Explore how the majesty and radical reality of God’s amazing grace has been rendered impotent in America. Then begin to tear down the cultural barriers to both the acceptance of the gospel and the mission of the church in America.

A study guide, available at NavPress.com, will help you dig deeper into this important message.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

President of the Center for Christ and Culture in Dallas, Craven, a business executive turned minister, is long on passion but late to the discussion on postmodernism, which he sees as a socially corrosive philosophy nonetheless declining in influence. He notes, however, that the philosophy accepts that we cannot know all things and thus allows us to rediscover humility. He examines issues shaping culture today and argues that Christianity has become irrelevant in shaping society. He then seeks to promote Christian influence by engaging culture with what the Bible says about consumerism, marriage, homosexuality, spirituality, feminism. He concedes, for example, that some Christians have suppressed human rights in the name of religion, but the Christian God is actually the foremost advocate of equality between the sexes. Conservative readers will find a champion for not only resisting cultural shifts but actually reshaping culture with a Christian worldview, but other readers may question such sweeping assertions as prior to the sixties, America's moral consensus was largely derived from distinctly Christian principles and values—in essence a Christian worldview. (Jan. 30)
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From the Back Cover

Our Western culture has systematically reduced Christianity to little more than religious ritual and personal piety.

Is this really the best that God has in mind for his kingdom?

Join S. Michael Craven in exploring how the majesty and radical reality of God’s amazing grace have been culturalized and rendered impotent in America. Then begin to tear down the cultural barriers to both the acceptance of the gospel and the mission of the church in America.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: NavPress (January 30, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600063624
• ISBN-13: 978-1600063626
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

S. Michael Craven is the president of the Center for Christ & Culture located in Dallas, Texas. Michael is a respected Christian cultural apologist, author, columnist, and speaker who works to challenge the spiritual apathy and cultural indifference of the Church in our generation through serious research, writing, speaking, and teaching.

Michael's weekly commentaries are syndicated on Crosswalk.com, Christianity.com, and The Christian Post reaching more than four and half million readers each week. Michael has been a featured speaker on university campuses including the University of California - Berkeley, national conferences and seminaries, appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and many other national television and radio programs.

Michael is an occasional guest host of the nationally-syndicated radio program, Point of View and serves as an adjunct professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Michael also serves as a Senior Fellow of Cultural and Family Issues at the Center for Cultural Leadership in Santa Cruz, California and was recently served as the 2007-08 Moderator of the Fellowship of Mere Christianity.

Michael lives in the Dallas area where he resides with his family.

To learn more visit: www.BattleForTruth.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Must Read This Book!!!, February 8, 2009

By 

Tim M. Owens - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Paperback)

Michael Craven's Uncompromised Faith is an absolute must-read for all who desire to biblically and thoughtfully engage today's culture. Craven is a powerful communicator; his meticulous research and respectful tone throughout give his voice the right to be heard, regardless of one's perspective. Craven contends that the biblical worldview is not only still extremely relevant, but is actually ignored at one's own deep peril. He wades into some of today's most heavily debated issues--the effects of modernism and postmodernism on the church and culture, the ongoing heritage of the sexual revolution of the `60s, the nature of marriage, and more. Craven's work is profound in that it shares the legacy of another clear voice that in a previous time dared to face the deafening din of the cheering masses and calmly utter the words, "The emperor has no clothes!"

Craven's work is unique in its content, but also in its tone. Sadly, too many books have been written on these topics which ultimately fail to contribute anything of value to anyone. These books tend to fall to either of these two extremes: complete capitulation to cultural values or angry denouncements of any and all opposing points of view. Craven intentionally avoids the insipid stupidity of bumper sticker slogans or the thoughtless wrath of vitriolic placards. Uncompromised Faith refuses to compromise on biblical truth, the merit of research, the importance of love, or the need for compassion. Its overall message is a simple one: the gospel compels Christians to engage the culture for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I am one of the leaders of ministry that is designed to disciple emerging Christian leaders. As a result, I am constantly engaged in conversations with young, eager brothers and sisters who are desperate to understand not only how to act and live, but also how to think, dialogue, and engage as a CHRISTIAN. Uncompromised Faith is absolutely one of the top five books I recommend.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How-We-Got-Into-This-Mess 101, February 18, 2009

By 

Dan Panetti "Worldview Director" (Plano, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Paperback)

The emphasis of Craven's book is the "culturalized Christianity" and he provides great insight into how our country and Christianity in the West have slid down a slippery slope into the abyss of irrelevance. Craven addresses the effects of modernity as well as postmodernism, and also touches on cultural factors such as consumerism and then nails home the impact that our sex-saturated culture has had on the church and our communities. The book ends with a brief "What are we to do?" chapter, but the meat of the book lies in the clarion call to Christians that there is, indeed, a problem at hand...the book is a wake-up call, an alarm, a cup of scalding hot coffee spilled into the lap of an unassuming Christian who thinks that singing camp-fire songs with his youth group is going to prepare him for the onslaught that he'll face on a college campus and beyond!

If you read the book and are still at a loss for what you can and should do to combat this "culturalized Christianity," go back to the quote that Craven cites at the end of his chapter on Consumerism - he writes that G.K. Chesterton once observed, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been difficult and left untried." Craven joins the chorus of those pastor warriors (Chesterton, Schaeffer, Bonhoeffer and Henry) as well as some contemporary writers (namely Piper, Guinness, Colson, White and Mohler) who believe that a Christian's responsibility is to engage the culture for Christ; not to avoid the fray, but to enter into the marketplace of ideas armed with truth and the gospel of Christ.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Faith for the Christian today, April 28, 2009

By 

Sarah J. Bailey (Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (Paperback)

S. Michael Craven has written a gem of a book that should be read by all who profess to be Christians. He realizes that all Christians today are being bombarded on all sides from those who seek to tear down Christianity and those who believe in the One True God.

In Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming our Culturalized Christianity the reader embarks on a journey as to why Christians are selling out and no longer living their faith. The fact of materialism, consumerism and modernism makes it harder and harder to live like Jesus. We want what we want and we want it now - who cares who gets hurt. This in turn creates more problems that we as a society have to deal with.

It is painful to see the Christ's church touting so much of the world's beliefs and living them. Divorce is rampant even among Christians, homosexuality is accepted and becoming the norm, abortion is legalized, other religions are slowly infiltrating into our churches and of course, there is no gender differences, co-habitation and premarital sex are okay. This is what the world wants everyone to believe. The church is buying into it because we don't know how to stand up against it or how to refute it. Of course there is also the risk of persecution, of which our Brothers and Sisters in other cultures and times have suffered because of their uncompromised faith in Christ.

Mr. Craven gets to the heart of the matter by discussing with well documented research, quotes from both the Christian side and the opposing side, he makes it understood why Christians need to stand up and say no more compromising! The plague of worldliness and new age philosophies are tearing Christ's churches down and are misleading those inside them. The end of the book gives ideas on what we do to help with fixing these problems both within the churches and also in our daily lives. It isn't just about saying we're Christian, it's about letting others see Jesus in us through our lives, our speech, our interactions - it's about doing!

This was a heavy read, which isn't a bad thing, it took time to mull over what S. Michael Craven was writing about in Uncompromised Faith. That is what is needed though, not some mealy mouth anecdote but meaty resources that will revive our churches and will have God present in them and in our lives!