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But sophisticated, this book ain't.

So is anything in American Theocracy instructive for Christians? For those willing to risk being caught reading this book when Jesus returns, perhaps! But it's not all that new. After all, Phillips isn't the first to bemoan oil's devastating hold on American foreign policy. Nor are his worries about consumerism original.

Apparently, it never occurred to Phillips that many millions of "radical" Christians share his concerns—and perhaps might be willing to work with him. Many of us worry that some oil-producing nations flip record profits to fund their nuclear ambitions (Iran) or genocidal warfare (Sudan). Others (Saudi Arabia) rely on oil money to retain their stranglehold on religious life and suppress the church. This is not news to evangelicals, whose involvement in fighting poverty, AIDS, and sex trafficking led The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof to dub us the "new internationalists." Closer to home, who is on the cutting edge of fighting personal debt if not conservative Christians? (See "The Debt Slayers," May, p. 40.)

Alas, such an alliance is too much to ask for between supposedly sworn enemies—at least until Kevin Phillips actually speaks with more of us alleged theocrats.

Collin Hansen is an associate editor of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

American Theocracy is available from Amazon.com and other book retailers.

In First Things, Ross Douthat recently reviewed a spate of books worried about theocracy.

Books & Culture editor John Wilson discussed a similar book by Randall Balmer.

Philip Yancey worried in his column in CT about the lure of theocracy for evangelicals.

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September 2006, Vol. 50, No. 9