What Are Christians For?: Life Together at the End of the World
by Jake Meador
My husband and I bought this impulsively when we came across it at one of our favorite local bookstores. He was intrigued by the title and back cover; I was intrigued by the photo and bio of the author. He doesn't look like a man from Nebraska.
Meador explores how Christians in America have shaped and been shaped by the political landscape of our country. He suggests our faith has been watered down and compromised and asks, What would it mean to live by the Gospel when we vote and craft laws in modern America?
Wealth, comfort, and prejudice have too often conditioned and modified the calling of the Christian religion in America. (p. 12)
He says:
It's the way our vision of the Christian life has too often been implicitly conditioned and defined to leave the characteristic idols of the Western world untouched, unscathed, and unchallenged. (p. 13)
The author is speaking from a Protestant viewpoint. In the Introduction, he points to a priest he knew who lived the kind of radical and whole Christianity for which Meador is advocating. But I think the Catholic faith in America has mostly followed the same path, that of convincing ourselves we don't need to feed all the poor, or feed them the same way we'd eat, or give them the same health care we have, or build housing for them too close to our houses.
I'm not entirely sure I agree with all the historical roots Meador proposes for our current political and social climate, but I appreciate being challenged to question our complacency.
In critiquing industrialism our goal should not be to reach back to some pre-industrial era but rather to do what all Christians must do: to assess the health of our society and its history according to Christian ideas of morality and justice. (p. 53)
We should look at our economy and political landscape with a more critical eye. It's not that advances in technology or medicine are inherently bad, but they are also not inherently good.
A Christian approach to technology, in contrast, allows us to treat each technological development individually, asking each time why the tool is needed, what values it will impart to its users, and how it will shape the imagination of society more generally. (p. 60)
The fifth chapter, "The Unmaking of the Real: Wonder Among the Institutions," spoke on issues that probably most impact our life. He talks specifically about education here, even referencing Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy (in the same paragraph that also mentions John Senior). He contrasts their ideas about wonder, life, and atmosphere, with that of most American schools.
From an early age we learn to interpret the world with the aid of institutions, and we learn that life is chiefly a matter of consumption rather than making. (p. 85)
Modern education (and technology) separates us from the world rather than immersing us in it.
After laying out how we got where we are and how Christians in today's world are (inadequately) responding to our culture, Meador gives recommendations on how we can better live our vocations as Christians right here and now. Taken together, these recommendations promise to be difficult and to make us uncomfortable (in multiple senses).
This book is one of the most convicting books I have read. Highly recommended if you want to be challenged to truly live as Christ is calling in the modern world.
I received nothing in exchange for this post. We purchased the book at a local bookstore at full price. Links to Bookshop and Amazon are affiliate links.
