Theology

DAVID WELLS ' GOD IN THE WASTELAND (A Book Critique

Introduction

In the God in the Wasteland , David Well 's provides compelling ideas that influenced many people , particularly his target audience , the Christian churches . He continues , as he had in his previous publications , his analysis , and diagnosis of the church 's problem . He tries to provide solution to the problem presented in his first book where modernism , technology , culture , and pastors shoulder a significant part of the blame in the transforming effect the modern believers are facing

Brief Summary

Wells

' No Place for Truth can be summarized in the following simple statement : Evangelical Christianity , no less than liberal Protestantism , has capitulated to modernity 's triumph of the management and therapeutic mind-set '1 Pragmatic market forces have drove truth and theology aside , thus , the religious consumer , not Christian doctrine , is sovereign . In the same way , God in the Wasteland continues the attack that includes the category of worldliness ' popular among the prior generations , which is also the heart of the matter . Wells also vigorously contends in this book the recovery of a sense of God 's transcendence and holiness which can be the cure or the antidote to the irresistible temptation the modernity 's offers

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1 . John Bolt , God in the Wasteland : The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams By David F . Wells ' Theology Today (January 1996 The worst effect of modernization to people , as Wells said , is the reing and redefinition of the self . Modern people are now losing their external connections to local cultures , family , community , craft and of transcendent reference points . As a result , people have sought to relocate all reality internally in their efforts to find meaning outside themselves , which is simply detached from any fixed moral norms . They are becoming innocent of sin since they don 't see moral accountability that is beyond what they found appealing for themselves . Modernity dispatches God who is outside , and all that remains is the God who is inside ' says Wells . For Christians , their inward thoughts have turned them to focus on what God is doing for them personally and privately and not into what God is doing in the world . In this view , God becomes a product which is experienced only by the customer who buys Him

In the end , however , Wells advised a solution : a thoughtful treatment on the otherness ' or holiness ' of God 's existence is the antidote to the church 's shallowness . People must not only focus on the inside God ' but also to the outside God ' being his transcendental nature

Critical Interaction with the Author 's Work

Wells ' purpose is to call the attention of the modern Christians to reflect into the current status of theology in their lives particularly , where God resides . The main issue that he continues to attack is the consequences of modernization . He considered the reing and redefinition of self as the most profound consequence Instead of turning into the external connections , people are now turning inwardly...