Envisioning a Just and Peaceable Kingdom
Edited by Bruce Ellis Benson, Malinda Elizabeth Berry, and Peter Goodwin Heltzel (Eerdmans)
Evangelicals tend to reinvent themselves. The authors of this book are no exception. Unlike presumably Western, white, patriarchal, pietistic evangelicals, these "prophetic evangelicals" follow the shalom politics of Jewish prophet Jesus; emphasize deeds—"neighbor love, hospitality to the stranger, and the ministry of peace and justice"—over creeds; conceive of the church as mission more than polis; and envision a new social order, inspired by the abolitionist and civil rights movements, that challenges empire. Their minority report may be commended for its improvisational interpretation of Scripture and confession of Christian culpability in historic cruelties, but it goes overboard in its activism, reducing the biblical religion to a justice movement.—Christopher Benson
Matt Chandler with Jared Wilson (Crossway)
Nicholas Holtam (National Gallery Company)
In his debut book, popular Dallas pastor Matt Chandler reaches out to those weaned on what Reformed theologian Michael Horton once called "Christless Christianity": the man-centered, semi-Pelagian, therapeutic pseudoreligion all too prevalent in contemporary evangelical churches. Shunning this false gospel of self-improvement starring Jesus as life coach, Chandler walks readers through the "gospel on the ground" (God's work to redeem sinners) and the "gospel in the air" (God's work to restore the entire cosmos).—Matt Reynolds
Investigation: SBC Executive Committee staff saw advocates’ cries for help as a distraction from evangelism and a legal liability, stonewalling their reports and resisting calls for reform.