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It’s probably safe to say that pride is something all Christians have to deal with in some fashion or another. C. J.’ Mahaney’s book Humility: True Greatness is a wonderful resource to help us in the battle with pride. Published in 2005 by Multnomah Books, C. J. is one of the few people I would consider qualified to write on this subject. He is without a doubt a humble man, a very godly man. After serving for 27 years as pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland, C. J. relinquished that position to lead Sovereign Grace Ministries, whose mission is to establish and support local churches.
The book is not very long – about 170 pages. But it’s brevity does not indicate its depth. C. J. is a gifted writer. This book is on a challenging topic, but it’s not a challenging read. As a wonderful expositor, C. J. charts a biblical path that shows the perils of our pride and the promise of humility. After beginning with a proper definition of humility, C. J. attempts to give a Godly perspective of pride and shows the seriousness of it. He points out the universality of this sin – we all have to face it. Second, he then turns to the teachings and example of Christ, the embodiment of humility. Christ demonstrates true greatness for us, true humility. Of course, Christ’s death on the cross was not merely an example. His death actually covers our pride and makes humility possible for us.
In the third part of the book, C. J. offers some practical ways in which we can pursue humility. For him, it’s a daily battle. As such, he offers advice on how to begin and end each day. He continues with a number of practical ways in which we might pursue humility. For example, in Chapter 7, he explains the importance of studying the attributes of God, the doctrines of grace, and the doctrine of sin. And, what is probably my favorite suggestion, he recommends regularly playing golf. I can personally attest to the humbling (and humiliating) affects of this game.
No book can help us more in this regard than the Bible. But God has given to his church gifted writers and preachers to help us along the way. And so, I highly recommend this book. It’s not a difficult read, but it’s a serious read, a much needed one by all. As you read it, you are sure to get some great encouragement in the journey toward humility.
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After the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410 A.D., a tidal wave of shock and confusion rolled through the (officially) Christian, Roman Empire. Unable to explain the unthinkable turn of events, many Romans were swept into the undercurrent of prevailing opinion that Rome’s Christianization was ultimately to blame: Rome’s fall was retributive punishment enacted by her pantheon of gods to punish her people for their apostasy. Engulfed in this high tide of prevailing opinion, Augustine wielded a pen mightier than any sword to write his City of God Against the Pagans. In this infamous treatise, Augustine offers a defense of the superiority of Christianity over paganism and develops a comprehensive model for the appropriate interaction between the Christian City of God and the pagan City of Man; or, if you will, Christ and culture.
Ever since then, Christians have recommenced with Augustine’s undertaking for their own contemporary context. A notable example with whom most of us would be familiar is the late, great Francis Schaeffer. Although D. A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited (2008) and David Wells, The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and the Emergents in the Postmodern World (2008) are innovative thinkers in their own right, their books stand as a variation on the same theme of the appropriate interaction between Christ and culture. Or, to (creatively) borrow Francis Schaeffer’s own question, they seek an answer to the question: How now shall we evangelical Protestants live?
As his title indicates, Carson himself piggybacks on the highly influential work of 20th century American, liberal theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr. In Niebuhr’s most prominent book, Christ and Culture (1951), he develops a five-fold typology to describe the five ways that Christians throughout the ages have conceived of the appropriate interaction between Christ and culture. They are: (1) Christ against culture, (2) Christ of Culture, (3) Christ above Culture, (4) Christ and Culture in paradox, and (5) Christ transforming Culture.
For over fifty years now, Niebuhr’s typology has reigned supreme. Many Christians of diverse theological convictions and traditions have tended to describe either themselves, or their theological opponents, according to Niebuhr’s categories.
Carson, a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, begins by outlining Niebuhr’s argument in Christ and Culture (Ch. 1). Carson then offers a critique of Niebuhr’s typology in terms of a robust biblical theology, the overarching story of biblical creation and redemption that ought to shape the way that we Christians think about everything (Ch. 2). He then defines important terms (like ‘culture,’ ‘church,’ and ‘postmodern’), thus laying the foundation for his own proposal (Ch. 3). Next, Carson describes the merits and shortcomings of several of the prevailing cultural forces of our time in terms of biblical theology: secularism, democracy, freedom, power (Ch. 4), and the separation between Church and state (Ch. 5). Finally, Carson offers his own proposal for how Christ and culture can interact appropriately (Ch. 6).
Perhaps Carson’s book is too technical at points for some lay readers to fully grasp the contours of his argument. Nevertheless, his overall proposal is clear enough. Carson concludes that Niebuhr’s typology is ultimately reductionistic, and thus, largely unhelpful for describing the proper relationship between Christ and culture. Although Carson praises Niebuhr for his attempt to develop his types (mostly) from biblical examples, Carson rightly demonstrates that Niebuhr’s use of Scripture is inappropriate. Niebuhr, like most other liberal theologians, believes that the individual biblical books contain competing theological emphases. Consequently, Niebuhr develops competing types of the appropriate interaction between Christ and culture from different biblical books. Carson, however, rightly believes that the bible tells one overarching theological story. Therefore, he understands that we must conceive of the proper interaction between Christ and Culture in terms of the redemptive-historical sweep of the whole biblical story.
Two of Carson’s points are most instructive for us. First, we must clearly understand what we mean by ‘church.’ Do we mean Christians in general? Or, do we mean the ‘church as church,’ that is, the body of Christ as congregations, denominations, etc.? As Carson points out, individual Christians (who are part of church bodies) have different cultural responsibilities than their churches. Carson explores the consequences of this distinction most perceptively in his chapter on church and state.
Second, Carson argues that Scripture as a whole narrates at least four, complementary ways in which the church appropriately interacts with culture. Carson’s chief examples containing more than one of Niebuhr’s types are Romans 13, and especially Mark 12: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Carson shows that the different circumstances in which Christians and churches find themselves require different sorts of interaction with culture. For example, when the law requires that we sin in order to comply, we must be against culture. But, when the law requires that we pay our taxes, we must recognize that since Christ is over the authorities of our culture, we pay our taxes for the sake of Christian obedience to Christ.
The most helpful parts about Carson’s book for we 21st century American Christians are chapters two, four, and five. As a native French Canadian and long-time resident American, Carson offers a compelling paradigm for how we conceive of our American culture. Thus, he lays the groundwork for our own evaluation of the spheres in which we Americans must be against, above, in paradox with, and transforming our culture, both as individuals and as the church as church. If you are up to some difficult, technical, and yet fruitful reading, this is a book for you.
Wells, a professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon Conwell theological Seminary, is perhaps a more proficient Christ and culture analyst than Carson. Wells’ volume, however, is more accessible to most lay Christians. This is because Wells has a different aim and audience in mind for his book. As the fifth in a series of books, The Courage to Be Protestant challenges contemporary evangelicals “to live by the truths of historic Protestantism,” which “takes courage in today’s context.” Although Wells does not frame his thesis as such, his volume is a plea for evangelicals to jettison the ‘Christ of culture’ model for interaction—the only one Carson rejects as completely unbiblical— that is seeping into our churches. In other words, whether or not we realize it, Wells thinks that evangelicals have largely opted for the ‘Christ of culture’ model for interaction.
As the title suggests, Wells believes there are three generally distinct factions within contemporary evangelicalism: Truth-lovers (historically confessional Protestants), Marketers (the mega-church movement), and Emergents (those who reject both). In his book, Wells narrates a story of the ‘Classical’ evangelical movement, which reached its high point in the hey-day of Carl Henry, Billy Graham, John Stott, J.I. Packer, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. “This coalition was built around two core theological beliefs: the full authority of inspired Scripture and necessity and centrality of Christ’s penal substitution” (5). In Wells view, the weaknesses of Classical evangelicalism were (1) this doctrinal minimalism, which opened the doors to today’s widespread reprehension for doctrine and (2) a decline in the centrality of ecclesiastical life as the norm for evangelical Christians.
As Wells narrates the story, the Marketers were the first to break from Classical evangelicalism by conceiving of ‘church’ in terms of cultural entrapments rather than biblical teaching. They did this in order to reach out to a large constituency of the population averse to all things ecclesiastical. In the process, they realized that most people are also averse to things doctrinal, and thus, the Marketers capitalized on the doctrinal minimalism of Classical evangelicalism by watering down doctrine. In the process, they have created ‘churches’ that look less and less like historically Protestant institutions, and more and more like—to use one of Wells’ favorite analogies—country clubs.
As Wells notes, many of today’s Emergents emerge from mega-churches. Like the Marketers, Emergents are even more averse to all things ecclesiastical and doctrinal because they believe these institutions inhibit their experience of authentic community. They broke from the mega church because they think that megalopolis congregations tend to exacerbate the isolation of individuals from one another. For Wells their ‘emergence’ is really nothing less than a rejection of even the two core theological beliefs of Classical evangelicalism in favor of classical liberalism repackaged.
The remainder of Wells’ book provides evidence for these indictments via discussions of contemporary ‘evangelical’ formulations of truth (Ch. 3), God (Ch. 4), Self (Ch. 5), Christ (Ch. 6), and Church (Ch. 7). These chapters provide illustration after illustration that—to rephrase Paul—not all evangelicals are evangelical Christians. Wells, in his pithy, engaging, and humorous style of writing, attempts to defend his indictments over and over again, while preaching the gospel afresh to his intended, evangelical audience. It is a call for reform, as he says, from sola cultura to solus Christus.
The strength of Wells’ evaluation is its prophetic poignancy. Even though most of us at Southwoods Baptist would pride ourselves as ‘Classical evangelicals,’ these pages are replete with black lights that reveal the ugly, hidden stains of our own capitulation to the Sirens of culture, and retreat from the canons of historical Protestantism. In other words, if we have the ears to hear, Wells’ evaluation can encourage us where we are doing well and gently rebuke us where we have fallen by the wayside. In the end, Wells argues, the church can positively influence culture, but only if it remains faithful to its biblical calling as the church.
Wells’ own proposal for reform—for fulfilling our calling as the Church—is not entirely creative, and that is the point. Evangelical churches, he argues, must reaffirm the historically Protestant tenants of the sufficiency of God’s Word for the establishment of right doctrine, biblical preaching, correct administration of the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and the practice of healthy church discipline. We must reaffirm that God is sovereign, we are captive to sin, and therefore, it is God who grows his Church—not ‘innovative’ evangelicals capitulating to culture. If you enjoy a rare read full of wit and wisdom, which will stick your nose back into the biblical text, this is your book.
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