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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Wake Up Call: Articulating the cultural paradigm shifts behind why people reject Christianity, 9 Sep 2009
This book is a wake-up call - and brilliantly helps to articulate the profound shifts that have occurred in western society in how it perceives religion in general, but also Christianity in particular.
I met Wade Bradshaw a couple of times, almost 20 years ago when he was a member of staff at English L'Abri, but he is now a pastor back in his native US. In this book, he has summarised the differences between how people used to reject the Christian gospel and now, by what he calls `The Old Story' and `The New Story'. While obviously not an exact parallel, seismic changes in perception led to many in the Roman Empire converting from the Olympian pantheon to the Christian Trinity. As he says:
If I am right, Zeus `died' not because a scientific expedition to the top of Mount Olympus found it deserted but because people saw that he was morally inferior to them and unworthy of their devotion. The God of the Christians, on the other hand, seemed noble and properly austere. This God didn't date anyone at all. (p23)
Something similar has happened in our generation, but unfortunately, it has gone the other way. `The New Story' maintains that far from the Christian God being morally good and pure, he is oppressive at worst, morally flawed at best.
"In Devil's Advocate, it dawns on the audience only slowly that the unnerving character portrayed by Al Pacino, the head of a multinational law firm, is Satan himself. He oozes a constant sexual hunger, but it is not until the end of the film, when everyone's identity is known, that he finally drops his usual aplomb and rants at the human he is trying to seduce with his power. It's a fine piece of acting that leaves one admiring (and a bit worried for) Pacino:
Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it: he gives man instincts - he gives you this extraordinary gift - and then what does he do? I swear for his own amusement, his own private gag reel, he sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look - but don't touch. Touch - but don't taste. Taste - but don't swallow. And while you're jumping from one foot to the next he's laughing. He's a sadist, an absentee landlord! Worship that? Never!
This is an example of what I call the New Story. This is not the scientific skepticism that doubts God's existence or His role as Creator. Nor is it the pride of Milton's 17th century Satan, for whom it was better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. The great suspicion here is that God exists but is not worthy of our affection or devotion. He cannot be a source of hope, not because He isn't real, but because He would not be god to know and to live with forever." (p17)
This New Story works itself out in a whole host of ways in what Bradshaw terms `common-sense theology'. These are the axioms that our tolerant western culture adopts unthinkingly, and which render a defence of orthodox Christianity complex and even fraught. The flash points for `common-sense theology' are obvious once they're pointed out:
- issues of gender
- issues sexuality
- divine judgment
- universalism/uniqueness of Christ.
In each of these areas (and of course, many others), people reject the gospel, not because they can't believe in God (the old, atheist & Enlightenment, story) but because, quite frankly, they don't think this god is worthy of they belief. They are therefore 'searching for a better God'. Better than the Christian God... Now, it is interesting that the New Atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens and co have jumped on this New Story bandwagon - the former's God Delusion is an action-packed rant about the immorality of what is (to be fair) a distortion of the OT God. But most people won't go the whole Dawkins hog and reject theism altogether - which is why they are often as critical of Dawkins as they are of the gospel.
"A film like Fight Club confuses and terrifies us when the character Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) expresses contempt for both redemption and damnation. And the Church must revise its thinking to comprehend something like the novel Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, where the serial killer Hannibal Lector
... had not been bothered by any considerations of deity, other than to recognize how his own modest predations paled beside those of God, who is in irony matchless, and in wanton malice beyond measure.
Unspeakable statements are becoming everyday, throwaway observations, and the Church is shocked, slapped in the face, punched in the head, and reeling." (p36)
Quite how we respond, Bradshaw goes onto explain. He is determined not to retreat into a safer apologetic (that might have been useful a generation ago), nor will he compromise or change the message to fit with the culture. Forging a new path to engage with the new story is bound to be risky - but it is VITAL. He gives some very helpful pointers in how to go about that. But at this stage, I simply want to whet appetites and strongly encourage people to read this book. What I found so helpful was that it articulates what I'd vaguely been aware of, but never quite been able to put my finger on. In London, observing that we live in a culture that prizes tolerance above all other virtues is a common place - but this book helped me to grasp how profoundly this means people reject traditional orthodoxy. And once you get it, it's everywhere.
We have a lot of work to do. Society's anti-Christian (and indeed anti-religion) narrative has undergone a paradigm shift. I'm just not sure that (for the most part) the Church's apologetic has yet caught up at all. This book is definitely a step in the right direction and will be a huge help to many...
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by Timothy Keller
by Sally Lloyd-Jones
by Miroslav Volf
