What’s It There For?

Jason’s next chapter is “The Bragging Calvinist,” and the basic principles he lays down are very good. He sticks close to the text of Scripture, and shows how bragging in your own autonomous glory apart from the Lord is excluded, and how the new covenant opens up new freedoms in which we may voluntarily submit …

The Sanctified Profane

Jason’s next chapter, on worldliness, was a collection of very fine furniture, wonderfully arranged in the wrong room. The chapter was an enjoyable read, and Jason says many important things that many evangelical Christians need to learn and heed. God made stuff, and He wants us to enjoy it. We need to learn how to …

On Not Getting Stuck in the Present

Jason’s next chapter, on “The Destiny of the Species” was really quite good. This was the chapter in which he showed how eschatology drives everything else, which it really does. He, echoing Chesterton and Kreeft, shows how it is the future that defines us and gives us our identity. And the chapter was written with …

Affected By the Time Stamp

My response to Jason’s next chapter will be a little bit different. In this chapter, he presents the “big picture,” which in his understanding is set forth in the book of Revelation 12. “My thesis for this chapter, therefore, is that in Revelation 12:1-6 the church is given a glimpse of Christ’s victory in His …

Our Culture Warrior Hinder Parts

Chapter 7 of Jason’s book is really quite good. His topic is “Reformed Piety,” and he does a good job in distinguishing the corporate nature of Reformed piety from the radical individualism of much of contemporary evangelicalism. He appeals, quite properly, to the contrast set by John Williamson Nevin and Charles Finney, a contrast that …

Putting the Trash Out

My response to chapter 6 won’t be that long because I agreed with a great deal of it. Jason does a good job nailing those who have jumbled up their Christian faith with their heartland, red state patriotism. When that particular jumble gets knocked, we should just let matters unfold. The United States does not …

Driving the Cultural Car

Chapter 5 is called “Subversive Sabbatarianism,” and addresses the countercultural nature of sabbath observance. It provides a great test case for Jason’s thesis because it is a command that has to do with living, breathing bodies, as well as with competing claims on those bodies. Unfortunately, I don’t think Jason sees this. First, the agreement. …

A Pretty Complete Cultural Transformation

Chapter 4 of Jason’s book is “The Power of Weakness.” In it, he points out, accurately enough, that Americans like underdogs just so long as they don’t have to be one. He also comments on a certain kind of evangelical body-builder posing down in the public square as evidence that we are more interested in …