To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World Top Quality

Hunter was interviewed about this book by Christopher Benson in Christianity Today, May 2010, pp.33-36. The quote that sold me on buying the book was at the end of the interview: "Christians need to abandon talk about 'redeeming the culture', 'advancing the kingdom', and 'changing the world'. Such talk carries too much weight, implying conquest and domination. If there is a possibility for human flourishing in our world, it does not begin when we win the culture wars but when God's word of love becomes flesh in us, reaching every sphere of social life. When faithful presence existed in church history, it manifested itself in the creation of hospitals and the flourishing of art, the best scholarship, the most profound and world-changing kind of service and care - again, not only for the household of faith but for everyone. Faithful presence isn't new; it's just something we need to recover [p.36]."

Hunter hopes that "faithful presence" does not get reduced to simple, individual pietism, "Faithful presence is not the work of the individual alone but also the individual in concert with the community [p.35]."

If the title leads the reader to think that this is another treatise on how evangelicals can conquer the world for Christ, Hunter clarifies, "...the title of my book is ironic, because I'm trying to disabuse people of changing the world. We cannot control history - God alone is its author. We're accountable for our actions as individual believers and as a body of believers.... The point is NOT to change the world but to serve faithfully in our relationships, tasks, and spheres of social influence [p.35]."

I am particularly looking forward to the second essay in which Hunter, according to CT reviewer Benson, lumps James Dobson, Jim Wallis and Stanley Hauerwas (!!!) together as "'functional Nietzsheans' insofar as their resentment fuels a will to power, which perpetuates rather than heals 'the dark nihilisms of the modern age'[p.33]."

The CT review was great. I am betting that the book is better.Get more detail about To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.