文章基本信息

标题：Above all Earthly Pow'rs
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作者：J. Aaron Simmons
期刊名称：Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory
电子版ISSN：1530-5228
出版年度：2006
卷号：8
期号：1
出版社：The Whitestone Foundation
摘要：The best of theology is clearly seen when we recognize that Wells writes this book with a pastor's heart. His primary concern is the state of the contemporary evangelical church, which he fears has lost its direction, its mission, and its soul. In order to address this situation, Wells uses this book to sketch a picture of the way in which contemporary evangelicalism has tried to be accommodating to the postmodern culture in which it finds itself. His conclusion is that the church has replaced theology with therapy, Christology with consumerism, and the absolute Truth of the gospel message with the nihilistic tendencies of a market-driven economy. This transformation, he suggests, has effectively deprived Christianity of the ability to claim a unique truth and doctrinal distinctiveness. In an age of ethnic and religious pluralism, Christianity has become just one more option among many and, as such, indistinguishable in substance from alternative spiritualities. Rather than affirming the status of Christ as "Above all Earthly Pow'rs," the contemporary church has bought into the Foucaultian notion that truth is nothing but power-play. What gives a truth claim its force, on this model, is not the extent to which it is an accurate representation of what is the case, but instead simply the political power that it represents and the social power that it can muster