In his next chapter, Hunter sketches his theology of “faithful presence.” He begins by making a strong connection between presence and place. “Rather, in every instance, God’s word was enacted and enacted in a particular place and time in history. In all, presence and place mattered decisively. Nowhere is this more evident than in the …
The Levee Gonna Break
Whenever there is a craze about something or other, it is not long before that craze is referenced in the public life of a society. If it is a big deal, then at some point it will blow up on television, news sites, or youtube, and then late night comedians start talking about it, and …
Crossing That Temptation Bridge When We Get to It
In his next chapter, James Davison Hunter sets the stage for his alternative approach to our cultural engagement in the late modern world, which may be described as faithful presence within. “Over against the ‘Defensive Against,’ ‘Relevance To’ and ‘Purity From’ paradigms, I would offer an alternative: ‘Faithful Presence Within'” (p. 237). He has a …
Deep Within the Recesses of His Own Head
According to the secular catechism we all learned somewhere, violence is primitive, barbaric, superstitious, and intertwined with that other great throwback, religion. And Christians (who profess not to accept that catechism in its entirety) are nonetheless affected by it, and are dutifully apologetic for the Crusades. Evangelical Christians, who do not want to ditch the …
Standing There In My Smarty Pants
Many questions were generated when I wrote that Christians were in the process of going liberal if they gallop after every trend that was likely to show up over at Stuff White People Like.Or try Unhappy Hipsters. So allow me to address some of those questions now. This whole point seems to me to be …
Why Wear the Uniform of Liberals if You Aren’t Marching With Them?
As I have noted before, a worldview consists of far more than the thoughts that you think. A worldview consists of more than just one man’s opinions, dogmatically held. In short, a worldview is not an individual event but rather a social reality. And that social reality consists of four basic components, two of which …
Throwing Their Virgins Into the Volcano of the State
As all the different forms of Christian engagement with the world have gathered on our front lawn, we see the conservatives on the right side, the progressives on the left side, and the anabaptists off in the bushes. In this next chapter, Hunter helpfully discusses the respective forms of engagement advocated by each. As Hunter …
Avoid that Bummer
Many of our prophetic voice brethren are willing, like Jonah, to speak truth to power. They, also like Jonah, would be entirely flummoxed if power listens to them. Jonah’s reluctance to preach to Nineveh was not driven by cowardice, or anything like that. He hated Nineveh, a godless power, an oppressor of Jonah’s people, and …
No Peace Treaties with Amalekites
The notion of Christendom is not just a personal pipe dream. It is not a collection of “wouldn’t it be nice” surmises. A Reformed understanding of the gospel, of worship, of education, of politics, and so on, is incoherent apart from a commitment to Christendom. Christendom is an essential part of a Reformed theology in …
The Black Swan of Revival
Hunter’s next chapter, “The Challenge of Faithfulness,” was quite good, and was a helpful way to see the ways in which modernity is falling apart. (Modernity falling apart is called postmodernity.) The place where I would take issue with Hunter is over how permanent this pluralistic and confused situation is. The house of cards has …