POST CHRISTIAN- Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture PB

We live in a post-Christian world. Contemporary thought-claiming to be 'progressive' and 'liberating'-attempts to place human beings in God’s role as creator, lawgiver, and savior. But these post-Christian ways of thinking and living are running into dead ends and fatal contradictions.

This timely book demonstrates how the Christian worldview stands firm in a world dedicated to constructing its own knowledge, morality, and truth. Gene Edward Veith Jr. points out the problems with how today’s culture views humanity, God, and even reality itself. He offers hope-filled, practical ways believers can live out their faith in a secularist society as a way to recover reality, rebuild culture, and revive faith.

As reviewed by Dr. Stephen McQuoid in August 2020- 'This is a genuinely significant book which is currently extremely timely. Veith examines how the West, especially Europe and America, have become post Christian and how this affects perspectives on Reality (part 1) the Body (part 2) Society (part 3) and Religion (part 4).

Using Kantian thinking as a backdrop, Veith examines the history of modernism and postmodernism and demonstrates how these two movements have become constructivist, that is, they have replaced God as creator with human beings who now create their own world. We have built a world with science and technology that now dominates out thinking to such an extent that virtual relationships and the virtual world of our gaming consoles are just as real and important as the actual relationships that we have.

Next this new post Christian attitude affects the way in which we treat our bodies. Sex has been separated from child bearing to become recreational, distinctions between male and female have been blurred and sex has also been removed from relationship so that the ’one flesh’ concept of Genesis has given way to the objectifying of people, the rise of pornography and the isolation of a virtual fantasy life. Each of these areas are unpacked, as are the areas of social engineering, eugenics and gender confusion.

As Veith focuses on society, he spends the majority of his time thinking about the USA, though his insights are fascinating and still relevant to life elsewhere given the dominance of American cultural values. He notes how economies have become dominated by tech companies that produce ‘virtual goods’, that politics has become dominated by ‘identity’ the clash between the oppressed and the oppressor (intersectionality) and education has moved from the teaching of truth to the indoctrination of progressive worldviews. He urges that Christians need to rebuild civilisation, possibly with a combination or strategic withdrawal to develop excellence and purity within the Christian community (citing Rod Dreher – ‘Benedict Option’) or by courageously working within fallen culture as did Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

He finishes off by talking about the secularisation of the Church where, while evangelicals have held their own, Christendom as a whole has lost its way and often been replaced by New Age mysticism or self-help distortions. He calls for a return to Biblical values but interestingly comments that the term post Christian only really applies to the West because everywhere else religious belief is growing. Indeed, using the example of his own Lutheran tradition, is in no longer a northern European denomination and currently Scandinavian Lutheran churches are being revived and even replaced by African led and very evangelical Lutheran churches.

This is a very important book! Both thoughtful and prophetic. Given the confusion the exists in Western culture and the cultural mess that we have got ourselves into, it is timely and a ‘must read’ for leaders and thinking Christians.'

Product details:
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Crossway (January 28, 2020)
ISBN-13: 9781433565786
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches