Books & Culture's Book of the Week: Be Careful What You Pray for
The strange tale of the controversial Bishop Pike and his fatal quest for relevance.
Reviewed by Michael G. Maudlin | posted 8/01/2004 12:00AM
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What are we to make of this strange story? No doubt God used this ecclesiastical gadfly to give voice to many just causes. Pike was an articulate and witty spokesman for racial equality, the poor, and the role of women in the church. But it all seems so accidental. Pike never seemed to recognize that giving voice to the prophetic makes some private demands on the prophet. And "relevance" is a harsh idol, demanding ever-larger sacrifices. Some aspects of the gospel will always be "foolishness to the Greeks."
Many Christians in the Fifties and Sixties worried that unless the church became more visible and more relevant, it would be relegated to the cultural sidelines. It is easy to see how Pike must have looked like an answer to their prayers. Perhaps the main lesson of this troubling biography, then, is that we should be careful what we pray for.
Michael G. Maudlin is the former managing editor of Christianity Today magazine and the editorial director of Harper San Francisco.
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Books & Culture Corner appears every Tuesday. Earlier editions of Books & Culture Corner and Book of the Week include:
Book 'Em! | The concluding installment of our three-part midyear book roundup (Aug. 24, 2004)
(Not Just) Summer Reading | Part 2 of our midyear report on outstanding books. (Aug. 17, 2004)
Real Fantasy | The first installment in a new Tolkien-inspired series shows genuine promise. (Aug. 17, 2004)
We've Got Books | The first installment of our new midyear book report. (Aug. 10, 2004)
'Be Happy!' | How the ancient Olympics differed from the modern spectacle. (Aug. 10, 2004)
Rediscovering 'Husbandry' | What Colonial farmers have to teach us about living with the land. (Aug. 03, 2004)
China's Spiritual Hunger | The lessons of Falun Gong (July 27, 2004)
Ambiguous Redemption | A riveting memoir by the author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. (July 20, 2004)
Tending the Garden | Evangelicals and the environment. (July 07, 2004)
How the Monster Grew | A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian looks at the origins of modern media. (July 05, 2004)
Wasn't That a Mighty Fall | Martha Stewart, VeggieTales, and Narnia revisted. (June 29, 2004)
Insect Theodicy | Who sent the locusts? And who exterminated them? (June 22, 2004)
Telling Lies, Telling Stories | Lars Saabye Christensen's The Half Brother reveals imagination as escape. (June 15, 2004)
The Art of Political War | A veteran columnist urges his fellow liberals to take a lesson from those nasty conservatives. (June 07, 2004)
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