Reading during the Holidays: A Few Suggestions for this Cultural Moment
DAVID S. DOCKERY
I pray that the forthcoming holiday period will provide moments for rest and renewal from what has been an exhausting year in 2020.
Perhaps these days will even provide an opportunity for some of us to catch up some of the important publications that have been released since last year’s holiday period, which now seems like a rather long time ago. While the list of quality books published in recent months is long, here are a few suggestions that seem worth noting for this cultural moment in which we find ourselves.
The Rise and Fall of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Wheaton: Crossway, 2020), by Carl R. Trueman, is certainly one of the most important Christian books published in the past year, if not the past decade. Written in an accessible style, Trueman, an exemplary intellectual historian, offers incisive analysis of the developments in Western culture over the past two hundred years that have brought us to our current cultural moment. Directed by Trueman’s brilliant interpretation as well as his critique of influential and shaping philosophers, poets, scientists, psychologists, and ethicists, readers are able to see the connections that have led to the dominance of the therapeutic, the triumph of the sexual revolution, and the championing of expressive individualism. Providing faithful guidance to help reimagine how to direct our steps in days to come, this book is essential reading for Christian leaders.
Addressing similar issues from a legal perspective, O. Carter Snead, Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, has brilliantly described how American culture and law have wrongly enshrined individual autonomy as the highest moral good. Snead contends that this faulty understanding of anthropology has led to faulty law, especially in the areas of bioethics. Like Trueman’s volume, What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics (Harvard University Press, 2020) should be a high priority on one’s reading list.
In The Gathering Storm (Nashville: Nelson, 2020), Albert Mohler addresses the primary worldview, cultural, and moral challenges of our day, showing us why these issues are so critical for us to comprehend. Recognizing that all too often Christians have struggled to grasp the far-reaching implications of these matters, this timely and theologically informed volume enables us to see with greater clarity the advances of secularization in all spheres of life. Moreover, Mohler, one of the twenty-first century’s most incisive Christian thinkers, offers wise counsel and cultural commentary connected with an urgent warning about what is really at stake for individuals, families, churches, institutions, and culture at-large.
Cultural Intelligence: Living for God in a Diverse, Pluralistic World (Nashville: B&H, 2020), by Darrell Bock, presents us with a timely perspective on the numerous challenges of our day. Bock, who is widely regarded as one of the finest evangelical biblical scholars of our generation, offers keen insights into the meaning of the relevant biblical texts, allowing us the opportunity to hear his heart as he provides important application to guide believers toward faithful discipleship in this fallen world in which we live. After providing helpful framing of our current context and culture, Bock calls for individual Christians, churches, and the Christian community at-large to engage and renew the culture in a grace-filled manner. Believing that cultural intelligence can only be developed with biblical conviction and Spirit-enabled kindness, Bock encourages believers to prioritize God’s reconciling work in the world through Jesus Christ, along with the themes of hope, love, and the transformational power of the gospel. I pray that believers will reflect the fruit of the Spirit called for in Bock’s fine work as we all seek to put into practice the author’s wise counsel.
Wherever one finds oneself in the debate related to Christians and social justice, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Trust: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask about Social Justice (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), by Thaddeus Williams, will offer wise guidance to these exceedingly challenging issues. Framed by a series of thoughtful questions, this important work seeks to address the pressing social issues of our day with the assistance of a dozen conversation partners. The helpful addendums at the conclusion of the book provide additional insight and clarity. This certainly could not have been an easy book to compile, but Williams, a seasoned faculty member at Biola University, is to be commended for his courage in offering this roadmap for his readers. Anyone who wishes to engage in the debate regarding social justice in the days ahead will find Confronting Injustice without Compromising Trust to be an essential prerequisite for that conversation.
The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2020), by Jason Thacker, who serves with the ERLC, is a superb book written to provide guidance for Christians as we develop, utilize, and interact with artificial intelligence in our families, work, and society. Thacker contends that we do not have the luxury of waiting to see how this technology will affect us. He calls for us to engage these technologies instead of waiting to see how they will impact our communities.
Abraham Kuyper was truly one of the most influential thinkers in the history of the church in the areas of worldview, education, and culture. Lexham Press is in the process of providing a splendid service to the Christian community by bringing together some of the most important works from the former prime minister of The Netherlands with the Collected Works in Public Theology series. One of my favorite volumes in the series to this point is On Education (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2019), edited by Jordan Bailor and Melvin Flikkema. This book offers readers an open door into Kuyper’s brilliant work on the philosophy and theology of Christian education. Applause and congratulations are in order for the fine work of the editorial and translation teams for their efforts to make this superb volume available to a new generation of educators and Christian leaders. On Education will serve as a magnificent resource for anyone interested in the work of Christian education.
Common Grace: God’s Gift for a Fallen World (Lexham, 2020) is another fine contribution to this important series. Related themes are found in the excellent work on The Doctrine of Creation: A Constructive Kuyperian Approach (Downers Grove: IVP, 2020), by Bruce Riley Ashford and Craig G. Bartholomew.
Two works that look at the rise of the “nones,” exploring the implications for this growing sector of the religiously unaffiliated for the western world, are Back-Pocket God: Religion and Spirituality in the Lives of Emerging Adults (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), by Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory, and Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World (New York: Public Affairs, 2020), by Tara Isabella Burton.
Baylor University professor Alan Jacobs has given us a brilliant and reflective work, which calls for us to look to the past to find guidance for today, as well as for the future, in his new book, Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind (New York: Penquin, 2020).
Lexham Press continues their project to draw from the best of Christianity Today through the years in order to provide beneficial resources for a new generation. The most recent addition to this project is a fine collection of articles, edited by Timothy D. Padgett with the title Dual Citizens: Politics and American Evangelicalism (Bellingham, WA: Lexham, 2020). This timely volume includes about 90 editorials and brief articles by key evangelical thinkers and leaders, which have appeared in the pages of CT over the past six decades. Addressing virtually every political question (whether dealing with domestic or international issues) that has captured public attention, this book, will be a blessing to many.
How then should we respond to this cultural moment? Helping us think through at least one avenue for responding to this challenging cultural moment, Yuval Levin has written A Time to Build: From Family to Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream (New York: Basic, 2020).
A few other significant books worth adding to your 2021 reading list include: Trevin Wax, Rethink Yourself: The Power of Looking Up before Looking In, by Trevin Wax (B&H, 2020); Companions in Suffering: Comfort for Times of Loss and Loneliness, by Wendy Alsup (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2020); Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus, by J. T. English (Nashville: B&H, 2020); Another Gospel: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, by Alisa Childers (Wheaton: Tyndale, 2020); and The Courage to Stand: Facing Your Fear without Losing Your Soul, by Russell Moore (Nashville: B&H, 2020).
The 2020 year in so many ways has been characterized by disappointment, challenge, sickness, and sadness. But the number of helpful, serious, engaging, and quality publications for followers of Jesus Christ is certainly a source of joy and hope.
David S. Dockery serves as president of the International Alliance for Christian Education and as Theologian-in-Residence at Southwestern Seminary