Antipas Harris introduces his new book, the serious challenge behind it, and his invitation to join him in proclaiming anew that Jesus is Good News for everyone.

Without doubt, we are living through troubled times. The world is engulfed in noxious uncertainties: contentious politics, racial unrest, hate groups and global warming, to name a few. Now, amidst the devastation of coronavirus, or COVID-19, many people are turning to – or back to – faith. Amid the constant resurgence of blatant racism, as exemplified in the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, reminds us that we are really battling two pandemics, simultaneously. People are looking for answers, seeking the “peace that passes all understanding,” and a new and better normal. As president of a divinity school, my primary aim is ensuring that current and future ministers are prepared to bear witness more effectively for such a time as this. To that end, seminarians and faith leaders alike will discover refreshing new strategies for overcoming obstacles and deepening faith in my forthcoming book, Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion?

Americans searched for God with renewed interest in the last decade, and it seems that COVID-19 has only intensified this quest. Spiritual fulfillment, after all, is an important dimension of the human psyche. While many people will continue to look to the Bible and their Christian faith for guidance, others question the relevance of the Bible for contemporary times. In any case, people in general are scouring America’s spiritual landscape, hoping to find a faith that is real, one that heals and unifies. I explore this faith anew in Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion?

Let me share an experience I had a few years ago while teaching a graduate course on leadership. A 22-year-old student interrupted my lecture with a question: “What do you say to people who are leaving the church and arguing that Christianity is the white man’s religion?” I was taken aback by the question. First, it was unrelated to the topic. Second, I wondered who in the world would argue such a thing. I knew that this had been a common question back during the Jim Crow era, and I almost brushed it off. However, the discussion that ensued opened a world of discovery. Apparently, my ethnically diverse class of millennials was more attuned to the relevance of the question than I.

Unable to shake the discussion from my thoughts, I embarked on a journey of research and found that many Christians are unaware that much pondering about faith exists outside the church. How relevant is the Bible for understanding today’s complex issues? What does the Bible offer to a nation of multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-generational individuals? The answers to these and similar questions led me to write Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion?

From the September 3, 2016 blog post “My quest for a great fall show (network TV edition)”:

Happy Fall, everyone! ‘Tis the season to find a new t.v. obsession and I am always looking for new shows that bring religion, sci-fi, & fantasy together in a pop-culture package.

Jefferson Bethke has a brilliant way with words. This is no surprise to anybody who discovered him through his “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video which went viral in early 2012. He knows how to connect with our culture and the millennial generation. When I started reading Jesus > Religion: Why He Is So Much Better Than Trying Harder, Doing More, and Being Good Enough, it was a breath of fresh air and I could seldom put down my Kindle so long as this book was on it.

He engaged me. He spoke to me like we were having a coffee and I felt like I could see him winking from time to time to make sure I knew not to take him too seriously, which ironically was why I felt a poignancy and power to his insights. This book is chock full of Tweetable quotes and and citations you can make Instagram photos with.

All of these are what make Bethke the person you could allow into your home to have a conversation about spiritual matters even if you would never darken the doorstep of a church. It really is no surprise his message and this book have been so warmly received. This is a book you can — and should — give to that friend or family member who is done with church or never was affiliated in any way with institutionalized religion to begin with. Bethke’s got a voice and a tone that is disarming.

The book begins with Bethke mentioning he has no formal seminary training. This didn’t bother me but it may annoy some due to the nature of the book and the large platform he has attracted since his viral video came on the scene a few years ago.

I immediately thought of people to recommend this book to. People who would certainly have felt they’ve been in the author’s shoes. Bethke lets the reader in behind the curtains of his own upbringing with his parents’ divorce, to his mother’s sexual orientation and to his party lifestyle and drug abuse before dedicating his life to Christ during University. The transparency in the book almost reads like an autobiography, weaving his personal life into and out of his thoughts and this helps you realize you’re reading a person’s journey and not just reading a theological manifesto. None of the content is wordy or academic, even though Bethke clearly likes to read and has no shortage of references to his favorite authors. Being well-read doesn’t turn this book into something overly academic. This book will not overwhelm the average reader.

If there was something I’d find fault with, it’s merely how young he is in expertly proclaiming some of his views. He stated that he was only 23 at the time of writing this book and sometimes his insights in to life and how the world works betray his age and worldview. But that’s also precisely why young people will not have a hard time relating to this book and benefitting from its content. Those not of the millennial generation may yawn at some of his insights and realize he’s not stating anything really new here, but he has new and brilliant ways of communicating it in a way that works. The book covers basic foundational Christian principles. Bethke is upfront with the fact that he’s not a theologian, and admits to being largely “unqualified” to write this book from the get go. While I think that is the beauty of this book, some might fault the book for that reason.

Over all, the good far outweighs the little bad there is to found here, and there’s very little to find fault with in a book that can be read by non-Christians, recent converts or old timers alike. If this is the kind of book he can write in his early twenties, then just wait and see what he provides the Body of Christ in the years to come. I believe his writing will only continue to improve as Jefferson Bethke is truly a man wise beyond his years.

Reviewed by Steve Bemner

Book promotional page: http://jesusisgreater.tv

This guest review essay originally appeared in Trinity Journal and is reprinted here by permission of the author.

This work[1] is the result of a conference in Costa Rica (1996) devoted to a selection of issues emerging from the ongoing globalization of what Presbyterian theologian J. Rodman Williams identifies as the Pentecostal Reformation,[2] a movement which represents more than one third of the world’s practicing Christians, more than all of Protestantism combined.  In Williams’ case, for example, his many writings,[3] especially his trilogy, Renewal Theology,[4] have been of some assistance to the global Pentecostal and Charismatic renewal movements as have the biblical contributions, for example, of Arrington, Ervin, Horton, Palma and Rea[5] from within the Pentecostal sector.  These movements[6] continue to attempt to reach out to Christians in various denominations through conferences and symposia around the world, as is the case with the current effort of Dempster et al.  The estimate that the Pentecostal and Neo-Pentecostal movements now numerically dwarf all Protestantism combined is probably a conservative numerical estimate by Baptist statistician David Barrett’s latest tabulation[7] and accords with the belief of travelling observers that there are over a million Pentecostal churches in villages, towns and cities across the world.  Given the contributions of the Reformed/Evangelical and Catholic tradition to the Charismatic Renewal, joining Pentecostalism’s renewed emphasis on Scripture and experience in theological reflection and hermeneutics,[8] and to various former and ongoing dialogues with Pentecostals,[9] perhaps the fruits and outreach of this conference in Costa Rica, along with associated theological ramifications, may be of interest to readers of the Trinity Journal.

Dempster, Klaus, and Peterson have put together a collection of essays built around three pre-selected themes, somewhat similar in style to the earlier Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture.[10]  Here, the editors and conference organizers come from the disciplines of social ethics (Dempster) and missiology (Klaus and Peterson).  The immensity and diversity of the Pentecostal movement and its burgeoning offspring, the international charismatic renewal (not considered in this volume), afford a wide possibility for scholarly consideration.  Those topics chosen here reflect the concerns and interests of the conveners and are grouped into three categories: Changing Paradigms in Pentecostal Scholarly Reflection, Pentecostalism as a Global Culture, and Issues Facing Pentecostalism in a Postmodern World.

As a brief assessment cannot give due consideration to all the contributions, perhaps it is appropriate to focus on some of the highlights and lowlights, as well as some backgrounds, in an effort to provide an overall perspective of the volume.  In the first category, Changing Paradigms, Wonsuk Ma, writes on “Biblical Studies in the Pentecostal Tradition: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” (52-69).  Noting that two thirds of the world’s people in the Third World are more open to the supernatural world enunciated in Scripture than in Western cultures, Ma points out that “The Pentecostal movement has long treasured Scripture.  These ‘people of the Book’ have never questioned the authority of the written word” (54), citing some of the scholarly books and journals produced in the tradition.  Use of biblical narrative is widespread and Ma seems to side with the critical interpretative methods that emphasize the legitimacy of employing narrative for doctrine and practice, “Though the use of narrative for constructive theological work and doctrinal formulation has been criticized from both within and without, narratives are still viewed by Pentecostals, not only as an effective, but also as an authentic means of communicating traditions and truths” (62).

Read the title carefully! This book is a “primer.” In the publishing world, that means “a short introduction to a subject.” In this case, the book introduces the reader to the dialogue between science and religion. The book does not defend either position nor attempt to convince you to join any particular side. Instead, this primer is simultaneously an introduction, an encyclopedia, an annotated bibliography, and a survey on the intersection of the two seemingly antithetical disciplines. In this context, the book is not alone. Many other excellent guides to the science and religion dialogue exist that are far more in-depth (e.g. the Science and Religion Encyclopedia or The Oxford Handbook on Science and Religion) or even available online (e.g. the websites of the Metanexus Institute or the Counterbalance Network). But the former are very expensive and the latter only accessible with a computer; most of them require extensive preliminary knowledge of the subject matter. This is the point where A Science and Religion Primer stands out as an affordable and practical resource for anyone interested in the topic and as a handy companion to those who need guidance while reading other texts in the vast arena of the subject.

Heidi A. Campbell is assistant professor of communication at Texas A&M University.

The main part of the book consists of an alphabetical listing of entries that discuss a variety of concepts related to the science and religion dialogue from historical, philosophical, scientific, and theological perspectives, including key figures and important events. Each entry is divided into three parts: a definition of the concept, a summary of the key points and significant issues, and a section with resources. Here, the reader finds information from Altruism to the Verification Principle, on significant figures like Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein, on concepts like evolution and miracles, or on fields like natural philosophy and quantum mechanics.

The essays and encyclopedic entries are well-written and clear. Although kept intentionally short, the introductions are informative and highlight a number of important issues in the dialogue of science and religion in a balanced view that favors neither side. The heart of the text is undoubtedly the encyclopedic section, covering more than three quarters of the book. The entries are short and to the point, and the annotated bibliography at the conclusion of each entry offers a highly valuable entry-point for further reading. However, the introduction fails to state the actual motivation for selecting the entries contained in the collection. In a relatively short collection, such as this one, it is not surprising that many topics were not included. The more important question is what fields of interest were left out. From a Pentecostal perspective, the essays and entries show a remarkable lack of emphasis on the blossoming field of pneumatology. The notion of Spirit/spirit and spirituality is almost completely absent from both sections of the book. Entries that could have included particular references to pneumatology, such as “emergence,” “divine action,” or “panentheism,” either fail to make any reference to Spirit/spirit or are not included at all in the collection. In light of the remarkably well-rounded bibliographies included in the book, it is a particularly surprising fact that none of those texts seem to have directed the writers to this significant issue in the science and religion dialogue.