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I’ve been looking forward to hearing Andy Crouch’s thoughts on James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World. So I was delighted to read his review in the latest Books & Culture.

Let’s start with Crouch’s conclusion:

It is groundbreaking, it is comprehensive, and it is visionary. Above all, it is wise, both sociologically and theologically. No Christian entrusted with institutional leadership or cultural power should miss the chance to read it. It will be provoking better Christian conversations about culture for years to come, and may well help our secular neighbors understand what Christians really are, or should be, aiming for—even when we use slogans like “to change the world.” Bravo.

And the opening of the review, which focuses on the end of the book:

Near the end of his masterful book To Change the World, we discover that James Davison Hunter does not believe we should (or can) change the world. Nor should we be ” ‘redeeming the culture,’ ‘advancing the kingdom,’ ‘building the kingdom,’ ‘transforming the world,’ ‘reclaiming the culture,’ [or] ‘reforming the culture.'” It’s a surprising turn, given that a casual reader might naturally think, for the first hundred pages, that To Change the World is about how to change the world. And therein, as they used to say, lies a tale worth telling.

In the middle, Crouch touches on a troubling part of Hunter’s M.O.:

This leads to the one feature of this book that is troubling, and genuinely perplexing. . . .  What you are unlikely to ascertain from the text or the notes . . . is the existence of any Christian scholar or public actor who has pursued the course Hunter recommends other than Hunter himself, along with a few of his students and associates. . . .  It would take nothing away from Hunter’s brilliant synthesis to acknowledge that others are doing similarly important and influential work. . . . When it comes to Christians attempting to do some good in the wider world, Hunter finds very few he can put in a good light.

This line in particular struck a chord:

One can only hope that whatever cultural power Hunter gains from this book will lead to the kind of intentional and sacrificial friendship that he so eloquently commends as elements of faithful presence.

It’s worth reading the whole thing.

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