Books & Bibles
Entertainment
Fashion & Jewelry
Gifts & Giving
Home Decor & Accents
Kitchen & Gourmet
Beauty & Health
Specialty Stores
|
|
|
|
|
|
To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
| Our Price |
$ 31.02
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Item Number |
885333 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Item Description...
Outline Review
Product Description
The call to make the world a better place is inherent in the Christian belief and practice. But why have efforts to change the world by Christians so often failed or gone tragically awry? And how might Christians in the 21st century live in ways that have integrity with their traditions and are more truly transformative? In To Change the World, James Davison Hunter offers persuasive--and provocative--answers to these questions.
Hunter begins with a penetrating appraisal of the most popular models of world-changing among Christians today, highlighting the ways they are inherently flawed and therefore incapable of generating the change to which they aspire. Because change implies power, all Christians eventually embrace strategies of political engagement. Hunter offers a trenchant critique of the political theologies of the Christian Right and Left and the Neo-Anabaptists, taking on many respected leaders, from Charles W. Colson to Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas. Hunter argues that all too often these political theologies worsen the very problems they are designed to solve. What is really needed is a different paradigm of Christian engagement with the world, one that Hunter calls "faithful presence"--an ideal of Christian practice that is not only individual but institutional; a model that plays out not only in all relationships but in our work and all spheres of social life. He offers real life examples, large and small, of what can be accomplished through the practice of "faithful presence." Such practices will be more fruitful, Hunter argues, more exemplary, and more deeply transfiguring than any more overtly ambitious attempts can ever be.
Written with keen insight, deep faith, and profound historical grasp, To Change the World will forever change the way Christians view and talk about their role in the modern world.
Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with James Davison Hunter
 Q: Why did you write To Change the World? Hunter: I wrote this book because I saw a disjunction between how Christians talk about changing the world, how they try to change the world, and how worlds --that is culture--actually change. These disparities needed to be clarified. Q: How does this build on your previous work?
Hunter: One way it builds on my earlier work is that it provides a bigger picture of the nature of cultural conflict, why Christians seem to be neck deep in it, and why the approaches that they take in cultural conflict are so counterproductive. This is a response to some of the earlier work that I have done on the nature of culture wars and alternatives to them. Q: Who do you hope reads this book? Hunter: The audience I had in mind was the diverse communities that make up American Christians and their institutional leaders--those who think about the world we live in today and how best to engage it. Those who think about these matters will find here a useful guide. Q: What three things do you want readers to take away from reading this book? Hunter: The primary ways of thinking about the world and how it changes in our society are mainly incorrect. There is an answer to the question of how to change the world, but how it actually changes is different from how most people think. Most people believe that politics is a large part of the answer to the problems that we face in the world, and so a second insight would be the limitations of politics. Political strategies are not only counter-productive to the ends that faith communities have in mind, but are antithetical to the ends that they seek to achieve. A third thing that I would like for readers to take away is that there are alternative ways of thinking about the world we live in, and engaging it, that are constructive and draw upon resources within the Christian tradition. In the end, these strategies are not first and foremost about changing the world, but living toward the flourishing of others.
Bible Knowledge Bookstore Book Buyers Tips
At Bible Knowledge Bookstore, we value our clients and if you have any questions on your Christian Books, then contact our support number and we will be more than happy to assist you.
|
Item Specifications...
Pages 368
Dimensions: Length: 9.3" Width: 6.2" Height: 1.4"
Weight: 1.45 lbs.
Binding Hardcover
Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 0199730806
EAN 9780199730803
|
Availability 16 units.
Availability accurate as of Feb 12, 2012 05:27.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Commerce GA.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
|
Product Categories
Similar Products
Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | On point Jun 10, 2010 |
| This is a well written book, that shows what really makes a difference in the world. The kingdom is not a political plank. | | | | Buying the book because of the review... May 7, 2010 |
Hunter was interviewed about this book by Christopher Benson in Christianity Today, May 2010, pp.33-36. The quote that sold me on buying the book was at the end of the interview: "Christians need to abandon talk about 'redeeming the culture', 'advancing the kingdom', and 'changing the world'. Such talk carries too much weight, implying conquest and domination. If there is a possibility for human flourishing in our world, it does not begin when we win the culture wars but when God's word of love becomes flesh in us, reaching every sphere of social life. When faithful presence existed in church history, it manifested itself in the creation of hospitals and the flourishing of art, the best scholarship, the most profound and world-changing kind of service and care - again, not only for the household of faith but for everyone. Faithful presence isn't new; it's just something we need to recover [p.36]."
Hunter hopes that "faithful presence" does not get reduced to simple, individual pietism, "Faithful presence is not the work of the individual alone but also the individual in concert with the community [p.35]."
If the title leads the reader to think that this is another treatise on how evangelicals can conquer the world for Christ, Hunter clarifies, "...the title of my book is ironic, because I'm trying to disabuse people of changing the world. We cannot control history - God alone is its author. We're accountable for our actions as individual believers and as a body of believers.... The point is NOT to change the world but to serve faithfully in our relationships, tasks, and spheres of social influence [p.35]."
I am particularly looking forward to the second essay in which Hunter, according to CT reviewer Benson, lumps James Dobson, Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas (!!!) together as "'functional Nietzsheans' insofar as their resentment fuels a will to power, which perpetuates rather than heals 'the dark nihilisms of the modern age'[p.33]."
The CT review was great. I am betting that the book is better. | | |  | We Change the World by Discipling Nations Apr 28, 2010 |
Hunter's theme of the "theology of faithful presence" begins well as it repeats the same call for a holistic worldview that Francis Schaeffer and Rushdoony wrote about earlier. Hunter says we need to be consistent in living out our faith within the culture, especially with those we encounter in our various social circles.
I especially appreciated his evaluation of those evangelicals and fundamentalists that have adopted a dualistic split in the way they live out their faith (p. 248). They believe their lives within the world (the culture) are secular and that the Bible does not apply to that part of their lives. In their view, the Bible is solely relegated to their religious life within the church culture. This is what I refer to as the half-way Gospel. It teaches an unbiblical Platonic dualism that makes Jesus the lord of only half of our lives - the spiritual part.
The Bible teaches Jesus is lord of everything, which includes the world and its cultures. This false theology has produced Christians that are biblically divorced from their surrounding culture (neighbors). They fail to act as a salty biblical influence to both the people they encounter and the cultures in which they reside. I wish Hunter would have further evaluated this dualism, which largely stems from Dispensational theology and its Platonic, dualistic worldview. It displaced the earlier Covenant theology of the Reformation which had a holistic worldview that transformed Europe and laid the spiritual foundation for our nation. (See "Who Are We?" by Samuel Huntington)
The influence of Platonic dualism needed to be addressed better but I believe it has also affected Hunter's thinking. He does not appear to be convinced that we are called to change the world. Yet, Jesus specifically said we are to accomplish this by discipling the nations according to "all" that He has taught us in the Old and New Testaments. To disciple the nations implies that we are to change the world's cultures. We do this not because some "supposed great scholar" determined that we should or shouldn't, but because Jesus commanded us to do so. (See "Christianity Unshackled" by Eberle).
I have to add that I was troubled by Hunter's charge that Christians put too much of an emphasis on politics. On the contrary, its because Christians are ethically inconsistent in the political arena that we now have a Marxist president who is trying to impose his socialist government agenda in place of our republic. Many evangelicals voted for this guy! The damage that can be done by those in government leadership is tremendous, as God clearly demonstrated in the Old Testament.
What we need now is Christian leaders with the spine of our nation's early founders. It was actually the Presbyterian pastors (the Black-robed Regiment) that led the revolt against the tyrant King George. The revolt was based on Calvinistic biblical principles of the Reformation (which taught the total lordship of Christ in all of life - including the rule of kings). See "The Genevan Reformation and the American Founding" by David Hall.
These church leaders in that era are quite a contrast to the church business men and CEOs we have behind the pulpit today. It also explains why we are losing our nation. We have no prophetic voice coming from the pulpit that addresses the evil elements within both our government and culture. Rather than warning the nation about the impending judgment that is coming because we are killing our babies through abortion, our current church leaders (especially those on television ) spend their pulpit time telling us how we can get rich off of Jesus. The only catch is you have to give to "their ministry" in order for the law of prosperity to work. Their time of judgment will come.
In the mean time, our nation is heading for economic calamity. The lack of church leadership and the impact of a Gnostic dualism on Christian thinking are issues Hunter needed to address more directly in his book. I worry that his views will be used to reinforce a "privatized Christian faith" that has already rendered Christians useless as the salt within our culture. For this reason I do not recommend this book since it repeats the same error of "false piety" that Francis Schaeffer addressed in his writings.
In the conclusion Hunter turns his work into a pietistic treatise. That may not have been his intention but that is what his "faithful presence" will be interpreted as by many of his readers. And we surely do not need a "privatized Christianity" at a time when militant Muslims, militant homosexuals and militant atheists are aggressively working to take total control of our culture, our children and our government. | | | | Ideas Proposed to Change our World Apr 7, 2010 |
Christians are duty-bound to work to make the world better through faithfulness, love, and truth. However in "To Change the World," James Davison Hunter believes and laments that Christians have largely been unsuccessful in transforming the world and then delivers practical means for believers to help improve many aspects of the world we live in. His solutions are insightful as they are provocative (I would more forcefully emphasize dealing with man's sinful nature).
Hunter assesses the work and strategies of:
- The Christian Right
- The Left
- Chuck Colson
- Christian moderate Jim Wallis
- Stanley Hauerwas and many others.
The author notes that various political theories and their application have hurt the cause of world transformation and he asserts that one needs to embrace, live out, and nurture "faithful presence." The notion that the Christian should aim to be more fruitful as one follows Christ and applies His principles so that our world would develop into a more peaceful and productive. I would accentuate applying biblical ethics in government as the most essential strategy: self-government, family government, church government, civil state government, and federal government. Nevertheless this volume is well-written as it proposes many perceptive ideas for modifying our world.
There Are Moral Absolutes: How to Be Absolutely Sure That Christianity Alone Supplies | | | | A Book That Changes the Conversation Mar 19, 2010 |
| There are some books by academics that are merely informative. This book will change the entire conversation. Whether one agrees with Hunter's thesis or not, it is a significant marker in the sand and will have to be taken seriously by all. It is highly recommended. | | | Write your own review about To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
|
|
