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Loading... Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision (edition 1999)by David F. Wells (Author)
Work InformationLosing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision by David F. Wells
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From the award-winning author of No Place for Truth and God in the Wasteland comes a new blockbuster critique of American culture and the church. Focusing this time on the fractured moral vision of society at large and its reflection in today's evangelical church, David Wells brings his bold cultural analysis into the realms of ethics and anthropology.Wells first discusses how the particular spirituality of today's evangelical church is causing it to lose its moral bearings. He also explores the wider dynamic at work in contemporary society between license and law, the chief casualty of which is the moral life. Next he exposes the secular notion of salvation as heralded by our most trusted gurus -- advertisers and psychotherapists. He also considers the contemporary view of the self, showing how the concepts of guilt and sin have been replaced with empty psychological shame. Finally, Wells examines the contradiction between the way we view ourselves in the midst of our own culture and the biblical view of persons as created beings. Based on this discussion, Wells lays out an apologetic that is peculiarly fitted to engagement with t No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)262Religions Christian church and church work Church Polity; EcclesiologyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Classical spirituality, which Wells' defines by its doctrinal basis, its devotional habits, its moral character, and its responsibilities in Church and Society" [33] is the backdrop against which the a-theological spirituality of postmodernism is viewed. Wells demonstrates that talk about virtues has given way to clarification of values, that emphasis on character has shifted to a focus on personality, that theology has been displaced by psychology, and that feelings of guilt, which are God-centered in their moral orientation, have degenerated into the emotions of man-centered shame.
Wells gets at his diagnosis of the moral state of the Church and culture in several ways. In chapter one, "A Tale of Two Spiritualities," Wells contrasts the hymnody of the historic Church with the contemporary praise and worship songs of today. The results of his research are somewhat alarming, whatever one's taste in music happens to be. Another chapter, "The Playground of Desire," draws more from a study of sociology, zooming especially on what Wells calls "the competition between law and freedom," the relevance of which to the political realm he unfolds with penetrating insight. In yet another place, Wells examines the ideology of Robert Schuller, Senior Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral. Schuller's view of sin "is really nothing more than poor self-image, and salvation is its reversal," says Wells [200]. But, "where sin has lost its moral weight, the Cross will lose its centrality, Christ will lose his uniqueness, and his Father will no longer be the God of the Bible" [200].
One of Wells most astute observations is that "much of the Church today, especially that part of it which is evangelical, is in captivity to [the] idolatry of the self. This is a form of corruption far more profound than the lists of infractions that typically pop into our minds when we hear the word sin. We are trying to hold at bay the gnats of small sins while swallowing the camel of self" [203-204]. As can be seen, Wells operates with a sharp surgical scalpel. But let no one think that he is a knife-happy physician, for he not only diagnoses the disease and cuts away the cancer, he also prescribes the medicine that will heal the Church. That cure is nothing less than a recovery of the Gospel, with its high view of God's transcendent holiness.
This is a must read for Christians who are serious about engaging the culture on a philosophical or theological level. And those who are not interested in such an engagement may need this book most of all. ( )