No Place for Truth: Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?

In a separate lecture elsewhere, Wells reported to his wife that when this book is published, he will receive a lot of criticism from the EVANGELICAL flank of the church. As some of the reviews below have shown, he was excatcly right. Wells's thesis can be summarized thus: "Since the church has adopted all the vestiges of modernity, it has become irrelevant to God, and as such can no longer deliver the demands of God to a dying people. This is so because the church views reality in light of a modernistic (and postmodernistic, although that thought is not developed thoroughly) framework. It cannot make itself better because any attempt at SELF-reform will only re-inforce modernity's grip on the church. The Church's only hope is for "prophets" to call the church back to its focal point: the Holiness of God, without which life is meaningless."However, the book is not perfect for several reasons. 1)At times it was too technical; had it become more personal for pastors and theologians it would have fared better. 2)It did not deal adequately enough with postmodernism, although with all fairness to Wells, pomo did not have the cultural influence in the early 90's as it does now. Its strengths, however, really show themselves in the last few chapters. In fact, pages 298-301 are worth the price of the book. Here are a few excerpts: "Christian faith is only Christian to the extent that it has been constituted by the Word of God, the Word that God has made powerful and effective in the reconstituting of sinful life" (298). And: "The habits of the modern world, now so ubiquitous in the evangelical world, need to be put to death, not given new life" (301).Finally to one reviewer who gave it 1 star and accused it of being puritanical dribble, Mr Rivers. I gather the impression that he did not read past the first chapter. Wells uses one puritan village as a microcosm (and an accurate one) of theology in practice before Modernity. Furthermore, Wells did not come up with this idea; he documents Cambridge historian Paul Johnson's book, OUR TIME. It appears Mr Rivers not only read past the first chapter, he did not even read the footnotes in the chapter. Even assuming that he read the book, he is still not interactin with Wells's arguments. He is merely restating them and then saying he does not like them. While he said this shut the door for more research, I personally cannot wait to read Wells's other books in this genre.

The people of God need to stop and to consider the path that they have been walking in the world. To become a relevant people, without losing a deep fidelity to the Scriptures, it has been the big challenge of those that profess to believe in Jesus Christ. In this book you will be invited to reflect on which type of Christianity you profess. About which kind of God you say: I believe in him. You will be invited to escape of the religions teachings and to immerse in the Bible, looking for the God who Lord Jesus preached and who He obeyed until his death on the cross. If you are feeling that nobody around you knows what is right or what is wrong, this book is for you. Fantastic book is this! Don't lose it!

Wells's assessment of the modern evangelical church is a real eye-opener. Unfortunately, I think he is on target in many respects. This book begins by describing the history of the Christian Church over the last several hundred years. Wells then delineates what he thinks has happened in a slow spiral decline of the church that has lead to some of the more pervasive problems that are occurring today. For example, Wells describes the collapse of theological issues that have slowly crept into the fabric of the Church and he discusses how these trends may be changed. He touches on the movements in culture that have affected the theology of the church (i.e. modernity to postmodernity trends, romanticism, enlightenment, deconstructionism etc.). He also describes the political atmosphere of the U.S. in the last 200 years and explains those changing trends that have had an impact upon Christianity in America. Wells ends the work with a plea to return to traditional roots. Not that he is resistant to any change at all, but that he believes (and I agree) that we should be more discerning as Christian and not be so quickly moved by every whim of teaching or idea. Christians need to become more serious about the issues of truth and theology and how these things affect not only our worship but our Churches. Unfortunately, these (truth and theology) are the two things that are the first to go in the Church's "gung-ho" attitude to embrace anything that will work (pragmatism). This book will challenge you to think about issues which perhaps would not otherwise be considered.

In this brutally frank critique of modern evangelicalism, Wells demonstrates how the quest for "cultural relevance" in the evangelical church has in fact led to the church being co-opted by the some of the worst aspects of modern secular culture. Wells pulls no punches here. For instance, he characterizes the current vogue of "servant leadership" as simply being a crutch for pastors with no vision or ideas of their own, who must depend upon their congregations (or "audience") for direction. Although Wells seems a bit pessimistic in his overall view of modern society and culture, he is on target as far as the effects that modern culture has had on the evangelical church. Wells does an excellent job of describing the problem and tracing its origins, but he offers only some very general solutions - apparently he offers more in the way of answers in the companion volume to this book, God in the Wasteland. Proponents of the current models of "church growth" will probably find much to disagree with in this book; however, for those evangelicals who find themselves trying to make sense out of the changes that have swept the church in the past decade, this book is an excellent place to start.