D. A. Carson

Carson is a bit of a brain, and I tend to be skeptical of culture war-type talking points, even if they're points I agree with.

But Carson peels back the curtain and gets to something important. I admit wondering at the end whether I just read something that was supposed to encourage me in my walk and work in the Lord or something that was supposed to make me more disappointed in the state of my society. But even if his goal was more the latter, it made my heart yearn more for this world, and the people swept along by it's zeitgeist.
Anyway,
The Introduction and chapter 1 do an excellent job setting the tone and starting point. If the Old and New Tolerances are new concepts to you (and not another parlance for concepts you've already deeply considered), then read this book. It's good.… (más)

From Goodreads:

I found Carson’s book to be an incredibly helpful rejoinder to Niebuhr’s classic “Christ and Culture.” Carson writes as a conservative evangelical critical of Niebuhr’s typology, arguing that Niebuhr’s mistake was to present his options as possible alternatives than emphases. Carson defends his thesis mostly in terms of biblical theology, advocating for an integrated reading of the major “turning points” of the biblical narrative. When we do that, we see that matters of Christian engagement with Scripture is highly dependent on various factors including historical, political, and social contexts. This is, in fact, a point Niebuhr is willing to concede in his final chapter of “Christ and Culture” but one he seems unwilling to really wrestle with since he is too personally committed to his Christ transforming culture paradigm.

Readers may grow frustrated with Carson after the second chapter since the rest of the book feels more disconnected from what preceded it as well as Niebuhr’s book. But there are still some interesting ideas in these sections, particularly Carson’s analysis of the four major forces exerting pressure on Christians today in modern democratic nations: secularism, democracy, freedom, and power.

The weakest chapter might be Carson’s summary of Christian relations to the state, all of which basically assume democracy as the most acceptable option even if he is unwilling to say it is the Christian ideal. This is more assumed than proven. And while he is willing to cede some differences in the American and French revolutions, I’m not sure I know why Carson thinks that other than an assumed cultural Christianity rooted in a particular reading of the First Amendment. This, of course, revolves around ideas of establishmentarianism, which as a Baptist, Carson must inevitably reject. I would have benefited from seeing a little more of his work in this area.… (más)