Lee C. Camp

A clarion call for Christians to seriously reconsider their political ideologies, priorities, and purposes in light of what God has made known in Christ.

The author sets forth a series of propositions; he sets forth each in short form and then elaborates in exposition. He argues that history does have a purpose and a goal that God is working out through Jesus and His people; the faith has been more appropriated in America than it has transformed it, and the faith has been compromised by American civic ideology; he challenges American exceptionalist ideology and demonstrates it is not a "Christian Nation"; Christians have been guilty of fighting one another for the sake of ideologies and America in unhealthy ways; there are forces at work against all that is right, good, and holy; and he wishes to suggest Christianity as a politic and not a religion, and to bear witness to the way God would orient the world in Christ.

This is a compelling work and worthy of consideration. Most people will be challenged and critiqued by the positions included therein; all must expose themselves to the critique of what God has made known in Christ and hopefully will have ears to hear so they might step away from American Christianish civic religion and its effects. The author speaks sharply at times. People should hear.

I found a few ways in which things were framed a bit problematic. In Christ there is a telos and hope of redemption indeed; yet at the same time, as the Preacher made known, there is nothing new under the sun, and in that sense history does remain "one thing after another." It is understandable for the author to show that both liberal and conservative political ideologies in America are underwritten by philosophical liberalism; it would have been nice to see libertarianism set forth in that discussion as well as perhaps the "purest" form of that philosophical posture, and the challenges it engenders. I would have also liked to have seen a prophetic rebuke of the muddled moderate in the spirit of King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail (in many respects, the book would have been stronger had more interaction taken place with the black Christian tradition). James 1:27 speaks of pure and undefiled religion; while I understand wanting people to understand that Christianity is not to be mere religion, a private interpretation that has nothing to do with civic/secular space, attempting to deny that the faith is a thing the brother of the Lord said it is provides a bad look. Likewise about countercultural: the faith has always been and always will be countercultural in many ways, but never for its own end.

There's a lot more that could be said about how things should be, but it all needs to begin with a recognition of the forces that are keeping Christians where they are now. May many read this and consider it well.… (mehr)