BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS Page 2
If you can read only one book on critical race theory—if you will read only one book on critical race theory—this is the one. Ed Uszynski approaches CRT from a conservative and evangelical perspective. He holds to the infallibility of Scripture and calls for being discipled by the Bible, not sociology or politics. He doesn’t mince words, and he doesn’t take sides … politically. He says if you don’t have time or aren’t going to read about CRT, then, please, read your Bible.
CRT is a lightning rod. That’s why we need to understand it, Uszynski contends. And our understanding needs to go deeper than caricatures.
He sees a more important reason to understand CRT, though. One of conservative evangelicalism’s foundational authorities, Carl F.H. Henry, believed the conservative Christian emphasis on spirit over body left evangelicals without adequate language to address things the Bible talks about, allowing secular systems such as Marxism and Critical Theory—ancestors of CRT—to fill the linguistic vacuum.
Uszynski is not ignorant of Marxism’s, Critical Theory’s and many critical race theorists’ atheism. Nor does he commend their proposed solutions to the problems each diagnose, but he does advocate listening.
Marxism and Critical Theory ask incisive questions that reveal inroads and effects of sin in a way Christians steeped in capitalism and conservatism may miss. These questions are worth a thoroughly biblical response. Christians, then, ought to lead with Scripture and theology, not with politics, in responding to Marxism, Critical Theory and CRT. Uszynski believes their critiques are the reaction of people in pain. Instead of listening for the pain and bringing the gospel to it, however, he sees conservative Christians leaning into politicization, changing Christianity from a religion that cares into a religion that strikes back.
- Eric Black: Baptist Standard: Review: Untangling Critical Race Theory 6/5/24
CRT is a lightning rod. That’s why we need to understand it, Uszynski contends. And our understanding needs to go deeper than caricatures.
He sees a more important reason to understand CRT, though. One of conservative evangelicalism’s foundational authorities, Carl F.H. Henry, believed the conservative Christian emphasis on spirit over body left evangelicals without adequate language to address things the Bible talks about, allowing secular systems such as Marxism and Critical Theory—ancestors of CRT—to fill the linguistic vacuum.
Uszynski is not ignorant of Marxism’s, Critical Theory’s and many critical race theorists’ atheism. Nor does he commend their proposed solutions to the problems each diagnose, but he does advocate listening.
Marxism and Critical Theory ask incisive questions that reveal inroads and effects of sin in a way Christians steeped in capitalism and conservatism may miss. These questions are worth a thoroughly biblical response. Christians, then, ought to lead with Scripture and theology, not with politics, in responding to Marxism, Critical Theory and CRT. Uszynski believes their critiques are the reaction of people in pain. Instead of listening for the pain and bringing the gospel to it, however, he sees conservative Christians leaning into politicization, changing Christianity from a religion that cares into a religion that strikes back.
- Eric Black: Baptist Standard: Review: Untangling Critical Race Theory 6/5/24
In 2005, renowned biblical scholar N. T. Wright’s book, Simply Christian, offered readers an introduction to the Christian faith in which Wright examined four themes—justice, spirituality, relationships, and beauty. He described them as “‘echoes of a voice’: when we ponder them, it’s as though we are hearing someone calling from just around the corner, out of sight.” Since then, Wright says, his thinking has developed and he has added three more areas that people also experience as “echoes of this voice—freedom, truth, and power.”
Wright once considered these seven areas as universal themes, but he has come to see them as signposts: “Signposts name a reality and point us in a direction. Likewise, these seven signposts name realities that all human cultures value as well as pointing beyond themselves to the meaning of life, to the meaning of the world. They indicate, in fact, how we ought to ‘make sense’ of the world—how we ought to understand the way the world is and the challenge of being human within it.” However, Wright points out, because of the fallenness of humanity, these signposts always fail to deliver on what they promise. So, he says, they should be more accurately named broken signposts.
Wright frames up his exploration of the broken signposts through the lens of the Gospel of John. Clearly and simply written—this isn’t an academic tome; it’s accessible to lay people--Broken Signposts does more than help readers make sense of the world. It also explores ways in which they can “contribute fresh ‘sense’” through how they live their lives and interact with others in their communities. Recommended as an excellent resource for anyone desiring to more fully understand the Christian faith and longing to live more faithfully into the biblical promise of a new creation, initiated through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (HarperOne)
Wright once considered these seven areas as universal themes, but he has come to see them as signposts: “Signposts name a reality and point us in a direction. Likewise, these seven signposts name realities that all human cultures value as well as pointing beyond themselves to the meaning of life, to the meaning of the world. They indicate, in fact, how we ought to ‘make sense’ of the world—how we ought to understand the way the world is and the challenge of being human within it.” However, Wright points out, because of the fallenness of humanity, these signposts always fail to deliver on what they promise. So, he says, they should be more accurately named broken signposts.
Wright frames up his exploration of the broken signposts through the lens of the Gospel of John. Clearly and simply written—this isn’t an academic tome; it’s accessible to lay people--Broken Signposts does more than help readers make sense of the world. It also explores ways in which they can “contribute fresh ‘sense’” through how they live their lives and interact with others in their communities. Recommended as an excellent resource for anyone desiring to more fully understand the Christian faith and longing to live more faithfully into the biblical promise of a new creation, initiated through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (HarperOne)
Dec 7, 2021:
The Shack by William Young People loved The Shack because it replaced the God of the Bible (which deep down they possibly didn’t feel comfortable with, because His ways are beyond our understanding and bad things happen, and it upsets our sunshine version of Christianity) and gave them a God who made them feel good, who took the God of the Bible and said, “That’s not really God, this is what God is like…” and gave them a diluted, false version of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and a dose of Sophia, Greek goddess of wisdom. I was sure that anyone with even a modicum of discernment would throw the book in the trash. I had underestimated how wide the door of deception had opened. I lost friends who were pastors who were furious at me for questioning the book. One pastor railed at me, “I haven’t had a relationship with God for years, but now I have my ‘Papa’ back! You can’t take that from me!” Nothing jarred me more than seeing grown men of God just abandoning clear truth because something tugged their heart, justifying the scriptural butchering by saying, “It’s just fiction, it’s not the Bible!” I confronted someone on this the other night. “What about the satanic Necronomicon. Can I read it? It’s just fiction. Can I read pornography? It’s just fiction.” They thought that a bit extreme. Of course it was. - Gregory Reid |
While we are on the subject of theology, it is note worthy that the God portrayed in Young’s novel “does not need to punish people for sin” (120). Thus the traditional view of the Deity as Judge is dispensed with because “sin is its own punishment.” It appears that history’s wisest man, Solomon, must have been in error then, when he recorded in Ecclesiastes that he had seen “righteous men perishing in their righteousness and wicked men living long in their wickedness” (Ecclesiastes 7:15). He had also observed “righteous men getting what the wicked deserve, and wicked men getting what the righteous deserve” (Ecclesiastes 8:14). Most would agree, I think, that Solomon’s observations are far more in keeping with how the world actually works than Young’s attempts to “airbrush” the concepts of sin and evil. -William P Young; Christian Scholars Revue
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