- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Westminster/John Knox Press,U.S. (20 May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0664227694
- ISBN-13: 978-0664227692
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 1.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,486,509 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Gospel according to America
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Using icons from music, literature, film, and politics, David Dark hopes to provide fodder for lively conversation about what it means to be Christian and American in this day and age. The end result of this conversation, Dark hopes, will be a better understanding that "there is a reality more important, more lasting, and more infinite than the cultures to which we belong," the reality of the kingdom of God.
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I wouldn't presume to speak definitively on behalf of a dream, a spirit, a principality, or a poltergeist. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I wouldn't presume to speak definitively on behalf of a dream, a spirit, a principality, or a poltergeist. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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4 reviews
36 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Much needed
25 Mar 2005
Format:Paperback
The level of debate about faith, politics and cultural life in the United States (and beyond) is woefully lacking. Too often, being a person of faith means either hiding in a ghetto, or compartmentalising critical engagement and faithful living. David Dark, who laid out his credentials in Everyday Apocalypse, offers this tour de force looking at the intersection of faithful life and rich cultural engagement.
Living faithfully means engaging with all that is around us, lifting up that which is worthwhile and working to transform that which is dehumanising. Dark looks for that which is distinctive about the american experience and casts a critical yet loving look at that broad cross-section. Scattered with analogy, reflection and a deep appreciation of music, film and literature, this is the sort of engagement that should be making headlines and has the power to change lives.
Living faithfully means engaging with all that is around us, lifting up that which is worthwhile and working to transform that which is dehumanising. Dark looks for that which is distinctive about the american experience and casts a critical yet loving look at that broad cross-section. Scattered with analogy, reflection and a deep appreciation of music, film and literature, this is the sort of engagement that should be making headlines and has the power to change lives.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
You will underline the whole book
25 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
I have found this book an excellent read. Dark begins a conversation about conversation. In a day when we pay others to think for us Dark asks the questions we ought to ask every day of all the varying authorities that shape the cultural, social and political landscape of our county. I've given this book to numerous people in lots of settings and told them its a must read.
As a pastor in a church that recognizes our struggle to understand the need for corporate confession on a nation-state and church institutional level I have been using this as a Sunday school curriculum that proved very fruitful and sparked an engaging and faithful conversation.
While the vast scope of Dark's material from Moby Dick and the Scarlet Letter to Radiohead, folk music and Bob Dylan will at times seem overwhelming - there is always a good bit of wisdom and more questions offered for stimulating a healthy communal awareness.
As a pastor in a church that recognizes our struggle to understand the need for corporate confession on a nation-state and church institutional level I have been using this as a Sunday school curriculum that proved very fruitful and sparked an engaging and faithful conversation.
While the vast scope of Dark's material from Moby Dick and the Scarlet Letter to Radiohead, folk music and Bob Dylan will at times seem overwhelming - there is always a good bit of wisdom and more questions offered for stimulating a healthy communal awareness.
14 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Just another opion from the Waffle House
27 Oct 2005
Format:Paperback
David Dark is a teacher at Christ Presbyterian Academy and author of "The Gospel According to America"--a critique of Christian-American culture and vision of how this subculture should positively influence both Christianity and the United States.
The best aspect of this book is Dark's social critique. He correctly shows the reader that he is unknowingly caught in a vitriolic American subculture: people are increasingly gathering into likeminded groups and develop an "Us versus Them" mentality. Whether the "Thems" are people of different political bents, races, denominations, or what-have-you, we are guilty of erecting and maintaining barriers in both nation and chruch.
To counter this trend, Dark recalls us to our Biblical mandate to tear down barriers, live our Christian calling (one of love and understanding) in all areas--don't compartmentalize the faith. Through this, we gain a fuller understanding of the truth (nobody has a corner on it(ix, 60).
While Dark's social critique is accurate and while we "end up at the same place" in the end, I find that Dark and I actually have very little in common as far as foundational theology goes. Dark suggests that the truth (sometimes called the Gospel by Dark) is subjective and that everybody has some of it; I believe the truth is objective and revealed to us through Scripture. Dark treats Jesus as the ultimate role-model for radical barrier breaking and understanding; I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away our sins, He is the objective Truth (as well as the Way and the Life).
Furthermore, Dark appears to believe that righteousness before God is so connected to righteousness in the world, that they cannot be seperated. I believe that because of my righteousness before God through faith in Christ, I cannot help but joyously go into the world, seek to understand others, break down barriers, and give as many people the objective truth of Christ as I can (as opposed to gleaning truth from them).
A final note in this long review: Dark's writing style is a unique one. He supports his arguments almost exclusively with anecdotal evidence ("authorial authority") from pop culture--movies, novels, song lyrics, artists, etc. While it does make the book unique, it doesn't seem to me to be the best way to present a "radical new vision for the church." His prose is similarly filled with Biblical and pop culture allusions, purposefully vague phrases and stinging statements. It took this reader quite a while to "get a rhythm going."
In sum Dark is refreshingly accurate when he examines modern American culture, but his theology is far too off-base to be helpful to this reader. Recommended for those who are too entrenched in their "Us versus Them" position, but not recommended for many other Waffle House folks.
The best aspect of this book is Dark's social critique. He correctly shows the reader that he is unknowingly caught in a vitriolic American subculture: people are increasingly gathering into likeminded groups and develop an "Us versus Them" mentality. Whether the "Thems" are people of different political bents, races, denominations, or what-have-you, we are guilty of erecting and maintaining barriers in both nation and chruch.
To counter this trend, Dark recalls us to our Biblical mandate to tear down barriers, live our Christian calling (one of love and understanding) in all areas--don't compartmentalize the faith. Through this, we gain a fuller understanding of the truth (nobody has a corner on it(ix, 60).
While Dark's social critique is accurate and while we "end up at the same place" in the end, I find that Dark and I actually have very little in common as far as foundational theology goes. Dark suggests that the truth (sometimes called the Gospel by Dark) is subjective and that everybody has some of it; I believe the truth is objective and revealed to us through Scripture. Dark treats Jesus as the ultimate role-model for radical barrier breaking and understanding; I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away our sins, He is the objective Truth (as well as the Way and the Life).
Furthermore, Dark appears to believe that righteousness before God is so connected to righteousness in the world, that they cannot be seperated. I believe that because of my righteousness before God through faith in Christ, I cannot help but joyously go into the world, seek to understand others, break down barriers, and give as many people the objective truth of Christ as I can (as opposed to gleaning truth from them).
A final note in this long review: Dark's writing style is a unique one. He supports his arguments almost exclusively with anecdotal evidence ("authorial authority") from pop culture--movies, novels, song lyrics, artists, etc. While it does make the book unique, it doesn't seem to me to be the best way to present a "radical new vision for the church." His prose is similarly filled with Biblical and pop culture allusions, purposefully vague phrases and stinging statements. It took this reader quite a while to "get a rhythm going."
In sum Dark is refreshingly accurate when he examines modern American culture, but his theology is far too off-base to be helpful to this reader. Recommended for those who are too entrenched in their "Us versus Them" position, but not recommended for many other Waffle House folks.
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