Book Review - Christ Among the Dragons

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The evangelical world is sailing in new cultural waters. While it can be argued that the fundamentalist movement never got on the boat, evangelicalism at large has been “engaging culture” for years. They have been accustomed to dealing with culture on equal footing—accustomed to hearing and being heard, respecting and being respected. But the waters are troubled. Once unified by common causes (abortion, family values), supported by a political party (the Republicans) and following vocal leaders (Dobson, Fallwell, etc.), they now find themselves fragmented by disagreements, abandoned by the GOP and virtually leaderless. Concurrently, society’s reaction to expressions of the Christian faith has moved from bemused tolerance toward snarling animosity.

Attempting to explain the current situation and provide a roadmap through the current cultural morass to his fellow evangelicals is James Emery White with this book Christ Among the Dragons (IVP, 174 pages plus notes). White is the founder and pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC and professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Some might ask, “Professor of Culture? Why would we want to learn anything about that?” And other aspects of the book—like the dedication at the end to Billy Graham—might cause some fundamentalists to reject the book out of hand.

But that would be unfortunate.

There is much we can learn from White’s insights. His motif is the medieval mapmakers’ practice of writing “Here be dragons” upon reaching the end of the known world. His thesis is that the Church is navigating previously uncharted waters. How are believers to confront the cultural dragons of our time?

White begins his book with a discussion of society’s abandonment of the concept of truth. His conclusion will (or should) ring true with every fundamentalist:

But what do we mean by truth? If we, as Christians, cannot determine the answer to this question, all is lost, for the heart of our faith is the proclamation of the One who is not simply the way or the life, but the truth. Yet this is precisely what increasingly plagues us: what is truth? Are we subtly succumbing to “truthiness” and thus actively reexamining what we mean by truth as never before? (p. 29)

Of course, many read that paragraph and exclaim, “That’s what we’ve been saying for the last few decades. White is just late to the party!” Granted. Yet it is heartening to see the rock-solid ground on which the book begins. He goes on to defend the validity of revealed truth, and then, in the following chapter, defends the necessity of an orthodoxy which acts as a “shibboleth,” excluding those who do not hold it from the ranks of those called “Christians.”

The chapter on the transformation of culture is an interesting read (what you would expect from a professor of culture). He divides the reaction of the Church to the surrounding society into five categories: retreat, revive, recapture, reflect, renewal—providing balanced pros and cons for each one. Of interest to fundamentalists is his description of our movement as one that involves “pulling back from culture and creating a subculture of our own that acts like a protective bubble against the corrosive influence of the world around us” (p. 67). I think most of us would agree with that assessment. The point of divergence is whether or not we think it is a good thing.

This is followed by a chapter on proselytizing (which includes a fascinating account from the life of Penn Jillette—the foul-mouthed half of the famous magician duo Penn and Teller). I think most will find little to disagree with here, and perhaps much that will be to our benefit.

But where White really steps on our collective Fundy foot (and I mean really!) is in his chapter entitled “The Mark of a Christian.” In case there is any doubt as to where he is going with this, the chapter is subtitled “Bitter Blogs and Civility.”

Early in the chapter is a quote from a Christian leader who offered this as a suggestion for how one should pray for Billy Graham:

Dear Lord, bless the man who leads Christian people into disobeying the word of God, who prepares the way for Antichrist by building the apostate church and turning his so-called converts over to infidels and unbelieving preachers. Bless the man who flatters the Pope and defers to the purple and scarlet-clothed Antichrist who heads the church that the word of God describes as the old whore of Babylon. (p. 104)

White goes on to say “I am sure Bob Jones Sr. was a good and godly man in many ways. Just not in this way.” Ouch.

In another place he recounts the tale of a seminary president who sat in on a particularly vitriolic staff meeting. When he asked about the angry tone, he was assured that this was the way things were done. His response, “Well, it sure sounded like sin to me!” should strike conviction into the hearts of many fundamentalists who are active on the internet—including yours truly.

In case you hadn’t guessed, Christ Among the Dragons resonated with me. That is not to say, however, that there weren’t parts that made me scratch my head and say “huh?” For example, in the aforementioned chapter on proselytizing, White cites a story told by Martin Niemoller, a German Lutheran who had opportunity to speak with Hitler. Niemoller, in a recurring dream, imagines the scene as Hitler appears before Christ on judgment day:

Jesus got off his throne, put his arm around Hitler and asked, “Adolf! Why did you do the ugly, evil things you did?” Hitler, with his head bent low, simply answered, “Because nobody ever told me how much you loved me.” (p. 96)

Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the way that meeting went down. Yet despite this and a couple other “head-scratching” moments, I have to say that I found the book challenging, convicting, and consistent in most respects with my understanding of Scripture. I would encourage my fellow fundamentalists to take advantage of White’s insights. We will be the better for it.