Got this book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity Today, in the mail Thursday night, and for those following on FB and Twitter you know I was laid up with a foot injury on a beautiful day, so I had some time to read the new insights of James Davison Hunter.
The only downside is the cover, which was plainly designed by some enemy of this book who was intent on it never once selling a copy to a human being. If they had wrapped it in plain brown paper it would have been more interesting.
After that, the book is (as the readers of Hunter should expect by now) brilliant and insightful, and you personally should order a copy in spite of the cover and read it so that you can be challenged in some pretty foundational ways when it comes to the way you approach “politics” and “mission” and “evangelism” and “church”.
I’ll post something more meaty next week when I’ve had time to digest a bit, but this book is a strong tonic.
April 3rd, 2010 | 11:27 am | #1
You sold me. I’ll order my copy today.
April 3rd, 2010 | 3:38 pm | #2
Frank – - I have been reading it too. I look forward to hearing your insights.
April 3rd, 2010 | 6:37 pm | #3
Judging from Charles Taylor’s review, it sounds like this book will hit some nerves here at First Things:
“[T]he major model of Christian political action, visible most obviously but not exclusively in the Christian Right, has been a politics fuelled by resentment and a sense of victimization, actuated by a strong will to power, and a propensity to demonize its opponents. This politics is a capitulation to the worst elements of the contemporary culture it claims to be redeeming. Hunter offers an acute end penetrating analysis of this paradoxical and distressing phenomenon, and carefully charts an alternative….”
April 5th, 2010 | 1:01 am | #4
[...] of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrine of Church Membership and Discipline. Just like the book by James Davison Hunter I recommended on Saturday, I recommend this one full-throatedly — even if this is not a [...]
April 5th, 2010 | 9:00 am | #5
I think this book is definitely going to raise hairs here at First Things.
April 16th, 2010 | 3:10 pm | #6
Have the book, starting to read through it – curious your thoughts / feedback ~
April 16th, 2010 | 4:17 pm | #7
My husband just mentioned this book and said he wants to get it and wrestle over it with our pastor, who we love and who is starting to make us just a little nervous with how often he uses the word “missional.” Apparently Ken Meyers did an interview with James Hunter on the latest edition of Mars Hill Audio Journal…
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