In the forward to Michael Horton’s recently published book “Christless Christianity”, William Willimon, Bishop of the United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama writes:

“Here we are in the North American Church – conservative or liberal, evangelical or mainline, Protestant or Catholic, emergent or otherwise – crranking along just fine, thank you. So we’re busy downsizing, becoming culturally relevant, reaching out, drawing in, making disciples, managing the machinery, utilizing biblical principles, celebrating recovery, user-friendly, techno-savvy, finding the purposeful life, practicing peace with justice, utilizing spiritual disciplines, growing in self-esteem, reinventing ourselves as effective ecclesiastical entrepreneurs, and, in general, feeling ever so much better about our achievements.

Notice anything missing in this pretty picture? Jesus Christ!”

“This is a tough book, but well written, fast paced, and wonderfully grounded in classical Reformation Christianity. Our poor old, compromised, accommodating church is here subjected to withering theological critique. Here the roots of our current theological malaise are exposed and we see the wrong turns we took when we began taking ourselves more seriously than God. The boredom and conventionality of the contemporary church are assaulted. Michael Horton diagnosis our trouble in stunning unavoidable candor. Therapeutic, utilitarian deism is named, nailed and defeated with the best weapon God has given us – the gospel of Jesus Christ. Presumptively evangelical Christianity is exposed as the latest recruit to the cause of insipid, culturally compromised liberalism.”

“In the process of reading this Jesus-induced polemic, you will be recalled to the power of the gospel. God forgive us for selling out our great intellectual treasure – the gospel of God with us – for a mess of psychobabble and pragmatic, utilitarian, self-help triviality.”

This is an important book. I’ve been listening to the broadcast series from the White Horse Inn since it began in January of this year. More about the book can be found here, including access to the book’s first chapter.