Books To Read This Summer On The Church And Public Life
(ANALYSIS) According to a recent Pew study, the vast majority of U.S. adults agree that religion’s influence is shrinking, yet they continue to hold a positive view of it.
This disparity highlights the challenge facing the church today: How can people of faith navigate a world that is increasingly losing faith? With the looming election cycle ahead of us and the opportunity for a little summer reading, now is an ideal time to consider a few insightful books on the church’s role in society.
Below are a few books that I have found helpful. I begin with some that help diagnose the problem, then I move on to others that help imagine some pathways forward for people of faith.
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My first recommendation is Ryan Burge’s new book “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going” (be sure to order the Second Edition). Burge is on the forefront of analyzing our cultural transformation, and this book is a sobering read. In 1972, only 5 percent of Americans claimed no religious affiliation, but in 2018 that number reached more than 23 percent. This growing segment of “nones” — or those who claim no religious affiliation — illustrates the rapid decline of interest in Christianity among Americans.
Burge explains how this happened, who the nones are, and what they mean for the future of religion in American. The challenge facing all of us is learning to minister amid communities who were formerly religious.
If you have read Burge’s work, I also recommend Stephen Bullivant’s “Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America” and Jonathan Leeman’s “Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing.”
Widespread de-conversion also entails changes in institutions, including political, economic, educational and ecclesiastical ones. In this brave new world, Christians — as Leeman’s newest book demonstrates — need to carefully consider the nature of authority within these institutions. Human nature naturally rebuffs authority, and the recent barrage of institutional scandals continue to nurse this inclination.
“Bad authority steals and destroys life, while good authority creates life” Leeman writes.
He says good authority, on the other hand, helps “to protect the vulnerable, strengthen communities, and promote human flourishing.” We need virtuous people, especially people of faith, in positions of authority to use their authority for flourishing, not in ways that exploit the vulnerable.
A good supplement to Leeman’s work is this book on vocation: Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Wilson’s book, “Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy.”
Another book is Yuval Levin’s, “A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream.” It is easy to feel disheartened by the current cultural moment, but Levin’s recent book reminds us that there is no time to wallow in self-pity. People of faith need to be actively engaged in building good things.
Levin points out that “we are living in an era marked by a vacuum of allegiance,” and asserts that it is “up to us to launch an age of social replenishment.” This social replenishment means (re)building institutions, making them more trustworthy and healthier.
For those who have read this book, consider Hugh Heclo’s “On Thinking Institutionally” that reinforces many of Levin’s points.
Then there’s David VanDrunen, author of “Politics after Christendom: Political Theology in a Fractured World.” In it, VanDrunen recognizes the volatility of the current political climate and guides readers back to the Scriptures, illustrating how they establish a paradigm for public life.
“Christians do not need a new and special kind of political theology for life after Christendom,” he writes. “Rather, Scripture itself provides a political-theological vision perfectly suited for a post-Christendom world.”
VanDrunen offers a compelling vision of Christian political engagement and underscores and the responsibility of people of faith to serve the public good. Another book that provides a helpful way to think about this topic is “Hopeful Realism: Evangelical Natural Law and Democratic Politics” by Jesse Covington, Bryan T. McGraw and Micah Watson.
Finally, I recommend John Webster’s “Holiness.” In our impulsive age, Christians need to reflect deeply on the concept of holiness. Webster’s short classic on the topic is a good place to start. Webster presents a beautiful vision of the holy life, weaving three inseparable themes.
“The holiness that is proper to the Holy Trinity; the holiness of the Church; and the holiness of the individual Christian,” he writes.
Webster recognizes that holiness is not highly esteemed in a culture often animated by self-fulfillment and self-gratification. But the church must pursue a different path in the public square, the path of holiness that leads to an active life lived in fellowship with God.
For those who have read Webster’s book, another excellent treatment on spiritual formation is John C. Clark and Marcus Peter Johnson’s work, “A Call to Christian Formation: How Theology Makes Sense of Our World.”
These are volatile days and people of faith may find it difficult to navigate a world that is increasingly losing faith. However, these books can help chart a way forward for the church’s public life.
Stephen O. Presley is senior fellow for religion and public life at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy (crcd.net), an initiative of First Liberty Institute and associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Presley is the author of a couple forthcoming books: Cultural Sanctification: engaging the world like the early church (Eerdmans) and Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church (Baker). Follow him on Instagram: @stopresley and X @sopresley.