Paved with Good Intentions

There is a book I have been meaning to review for a long time.  It’s been sitting in my pile of books waiting to be reviewed for months and months.  Why?  A curious matter, that.

This is a little known book; most of those reading this blog have never heard of the book or the author.  It deserves a wider readership than it has received.  It’s a good book, but not a book for everyone.  It’s not a Great Book, not even close, but it is making a serious argument that would be good for many people to read.  And it does a fine job making the case it wants to make.  It’s clever.  It’s reasonably well-written (nobody is going to confuse the author with Milton, but the prose won’t make anyone wince).

But, since the book is so little known, I’ve wanted to write a review which will convince people who should read it that they should read it.  The book deserves a serious, thoughtful review which will induce serious, thoughtful people to buy a copy and read it.  I don’t have much hope that anyone else will write such a review.  To date, only two people have reviewed it on Amazon and I can’t find a review anywhere else.  As I said, a little known book.

So, with the weight of needing to provide a definitive review weighing heavily upon me, I have never had the stamina to bear that fardel and write the review this book deserves.  Until now.  Why now?  Well, I should be grading, and this was the only excuse I could find to put off grading a little longer.  But, I will note at the outset, that I am very afraid that this review will be insufficient to the task at hand.

The book:

The Wormwood Archive, by T. G. Brown

(See, I told you that you had never heard of it—well except those few of you who have heard of it, but let’s be honest, the only reason you have heard of it is that you know the author.)

Who should read it:  Anyone curious or worried about the state of the Evangelical Church in America.  Seriously—anyone who fits into that category would benefit from reading this book.  It’s short (143 pages) and a quick read.  It is deeply insightful about the nature of the modern evangelical church. 

The idea: The book is a sequel to C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.  That book is one of the pop classics of the modern church.  If you haven’t read it, it’s typical Lewis—clever and interesting as long as you don’t think about it too much.  Brown’s book updates Lewis’ book.  The temptation in the sequel though is no longer the temptation of a man, but rather of a church.

The concept is what makes the book so insightful.  There are many complaints about the state of the modern evangelical church.  Many.  But they tend to fall into the “See how Horrible those Church Growth/Vineyard/Seeker Sensitive types (or those Old-Fashioned/Stuck on tradition types) are” category.  What Brown does well here is imagines that this isn’t a case of Terrible, Horrible people trying to do Terrible, Horrible things.  What if we have a case of good, well-meaning people who end up doing Terrible, Horrible things because they were seduced into thinking they were doing the Right Thing?  What would the temptation of the Whole Church look like?  This book is, in other words, a lot like Whitaker Chamber’s masterpiece, “The Devil.”  (Life, 1948, reprinted in Ghosts on the Roof—if you haven’t read it, you should.  (That advice is for everyone –the Chambers’ essay is worth reading for anyone who enjoys Great Books and Ideas.))

What tempts the modern church?  As the devils in this book indicate, the church is tempted by the desire to become more efficient at what it does.  It wants more customers—because after all a happy customer is a saved soul, right?  It wants a better market image—after all a better image means more customers which means more saved souls, right?  It wants more direction and a better management structure and a more contemporary feel.  It wants to be better.  The Church has to change with the times, don’t you know?  It can't stay stuck in the past.  Read the media, won’t you?  (And there is another problem—why did I just write “read” the media?  Who reads anymore?  Watch the media.  And add some videos and powerpoint slides to that church service while you are at it.)  Christians are so old-fashioned, stuck on outdated principles.  If we want to reach the modern generation, then we need to figure out what the modern generation wants.

And before you know it, the church is no longer recognizable.

This idea that the church has been seduced is surely correct.  The shock of recognition which happens with striking regularity when reading this book is disturbing in a way.  Who hasn’t felt this temptation, the temptation to help improve the church a bit, just a bit, because God, well, he can be so Old Fashioned sometimes, and if only he were around today, then He would probably want this change too, and after all, I’m supposed to be helping God out with the Church things, aren’t I? 

The Road to a Heretical Church is paved with Good Intentions.