It is well established that knowledge without application is fruitless. Additionally, it is well understood that one can know of a subject, but not really know it. In the twenty-first century, it is critical that Christians learn not only about culture, but also how to interact with culture. The title currently under review attempts to set forth ideas of how Christians are to relate with contemporary culture. Foundational to any attempt to interact with culture is the hermeneutical understanding of texts and trends within that culture.

Usually, students, theologians, and pastors are well-trained in the task of biblical exegesis, but when it comes to understanding culture, there is often a great disconnect. In the second title under review, Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Research Professor of Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Charles A. Anderson, and Michael J. Sleasman, edit essays that seek to explore the area of cultural exegesis – that is, reading and interpreting the texts and trends produced by culture. This title, Everyday Theology, is the first volume in a new Cultural Exegesis series. Each volume is intended to work within a specific cultural discipline, illustrating and embodying the theory behind cultural engagement. By providing the appropriate tools and methodology, this series seeks to equip the reader to engage and interpret the surrounding culture responsibly.

This book is intended to be used by Christians; it is the result of four years of coursework by the students of Vanhoozer, meaning that each chapter (following the excellent introduction by Vanhoozer) is a revised version of term papers submitted to Vanhoozer in his “Cultural Hermeneutics” class at TEDS. It is comprised of four parts: 1) an introduction that sets out the methodology to be employed, 2) essays that employ the methodology to interpret specific cultural texts, 3) essays that attempt to make sense of more complex trends and movements, and 4) a postscript that essentially summarizes the preceding chapters and leads the reader step-by-step through the interpretation process. The purpose of the book is to teach Christians to get the theological lay of the cultural land.

More specifically, in the introduction Vanhoozer proposes that we understand the world in, behind, and in front of a cultural text (drawing from Adler). Thereafter, one will find a series of essays that engage cultural texts and trends, from the gospel according to Safeway, the music of Eminem, the historical context in which the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights took shape, an exploration of Church architecture, the phenomenon of Internet blogs, to the transhumanist movement. As this selective list indicates, the essays herein are diverse and appealing.

Vanhoozer’s essay alone is worth the price of the entire text. Moreover, I appreciate the sidebars throughout the texts that contain editorial comments that unite the individual essays to the overall content of the title. Although most of this text is usable for every-day life, there is a significant reservation of my own, however. I am a theologian who uses the theological jargon, but most readers, presumably, of Everyday Theology will be just that – everyday people. As such, some of the terminology used by Vanhoozer will be cumbersome (e.g., he employs the terms locutionary, perlocutionary, and illocutionary to communicate his framework in the introduction). I find that this perceived flaw is limited to Vanhoozer’s essay, however. In sum, one will not go wrong in reading this title, as it highlights a burgeoning area of theological inquiry: cultural exegesis and hermeneutics. With it, may we go forth, crossing borders and doing everyday theology.

Reviewed by Bradford McCall

Editor’s note: Bradford McCall’s review of Everyday Theology was originally published on September 14, 2010 on the In Depth Resources page of the Pneuma Foundation website and later added to the Winter 2022 issue. Michael Muoki Wambua’s review of Everyday Theology was published in the Fall 2010 issue of Pneuma Review.

Images: left: Ayn Rand’s influential Atlas Shrugged; center: conservative writer William F. Buckley, Jr. and President Ronald Reagan at President Reagan’s 1986 birthday party; right: The Blue Book from the John Birch Society.

It has been the most difficult (and personally sad) blog posting I have ever written, as I have been a devoted Republican most of my adult life. I make the point that the present Republican Party has been poisoned by an excess of Libertarian philosophy, especially of the Ayn Rand variety, and it no longer has a spiritual advantage for the Christian voter in comparison to the equally (but differently) flawed Democratic Party.  Many of you will disagree with parts or all of it. I am anxious to see your comments.

http://www.pentecostaltheology.com/decline-and-fall-of-the-republican-party/

[Editor’s note: William De Arteaga’s article was originally published in 2016, republished in 2019 at PentecostalTheology.com.]

A timely encouragement from R. T. Kendall to invest time in reading the Word of God.

This is the most important Blog I have written in many years. I pray with all my heart that this will be read and spread to ordinary Christians all over the world. I cannot come close in emphasizing how important this particular Blog is.

I am aiming this Blog at ordinary Christians. My followers are not clergymen or church leaders but laymen – ordinary Christians.

Mrs. Martyn Lloyd-Jones made a gripping observation about C. S. Lewis’ book Screwtape Letters, a brilliant satire that includes among other things how the devil tempts new Christians. She lamented that one huge thing Lewis left out – that should have been put in – was how the devil wants to keep people from reading their Bibles. I do agree; it would have been so helpful had Lewis put that in.

I am convinced that the devil will do anything to keep people from reading their Bibles.

Has the devil succeeded with you? How much do you read your Bible?

This Blog was inspired by a recent trauma I had in Bimini, Bahamas. Perhaps trauma is too strong a word. But what happened was this. I took a brief vacation to do some bonefishing – my only vacation for 2015. When I turned to read my Bible, lo and behold, I had not packed my Bible or diary (which includes my prayer list)! I was sobered. I never leave home without my Bible, but somehow I let that happen. The thought of not getting to read my Bible for three or four days was almost horrifying. I thought: what do people do who don’t have their Bibles?

Do listen to me dear reader. Once we give up the conviction that the Bible is the only infallible Word of God, we open ourselves to a strange world out there that may include the Holy Spirit but also if not equally the realm of the demonic. Do not be surprised: Satan “masquerades” as an angel of light (2 Cor.11:14). The devil will work overtime to keeping Christians from reading the Bible. He would love you to close it and just wait on God.

Whereas the Bible was not given to replace the miraculous or even revelation, as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say, but “to correct abuses”, too many people don’t know their Bibles well enough to know what the Word of God says. And what the abuses might be. The Bible is the Final and Ultimate Revelation of Truth; no vision, word of knowledge or insight will ever – ever – contradict what the Bible has said. The first test of any vision or prophetic word is to run it by Scripture. If it is not upheld by the infallible Word of God, reject it – no matter how much you may respect the person who gives you a word.

I am grateful in particular for two things in my life. First, my parents taught me to read my Bible daily. This is what they did. The thought of not reading at least a chapter a day in the Bible was out of the question. Second, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – my chief mentor – introduced me to Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Bible Reading plan many years ago. As a consequence I think I can say I have read the entire Bible through some forty times and the New Testament eighty times. A Bible Reading Plan “keeps you in the Word”, Dr. Lloyd-Jones used to say to me.

Many preachers only consult their Bibles when they need a sermon. I persuaded a very close friend – a high profile prophetically gifted man – to start reading his Bible. Two years ago he began a plan and read the Bible through for the first time in his life! He could not thank me enough. He was (amazingly) amazed over how much it meant to him!

Why had he not been doing this sooner? You tell me.

Philip Yancey, The Bible Jesus Read (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1999), 221 pages. 

Philip Yancey has written The Bible Jesus Read to help answer the question posed by his first chapter: is the Old Testament worth the effort? Drawing heavily on his own struggles reading these ancient books, he lights a way through the very sections that have sent us running for the familiar sights and sounds of the New Testament. He states in chapter one, “Eventually I found myself wanting to read those thirty-nine books, which were satisfying in me some hunger that nothing else had—not even, I must say, the New Testament. They taught me about life with God: not how it is supposed to work, but how it actually does work” (pp. 21, emphasis his).

Yancey jumps in head first, wrestling with Job in chapter two. Then, one by one, he tackles the books that have crossed all of our eyes at one time or another. Deftly, he shows us how he himself began to not only make sense of them, but truly enjoy the reading. Each will find, as I did in his chapter on Psalms, that we shared a struggle, or misunderstanding with him. The obstacles were cleared for me to enjoy and profit from the Psalms by the time the chapter was finished. No doubt most who read this book will share my experience.

I recommend this book to those who avoid the Old Testament as well as those who love it. As one who has always loved it, I can say this book was a tremendous help, though I confess I didn’t think I needed any. Those who have avoided it, for the small price of this book, need avoid it no longer.

Reviewed by Mike Dies