Book Review: What Are Christians For? by Jake Meador
A Vision For Life Together At The End Of The World
Jake Meador is just a tad older than me. In the post-9/11 era of the church, Jake was wrestling with his faith and going through something of a “deconstruction.”1 He’d go on walks and listen to Emergent Church leader Rob Bell as well as New Calvinism leader Mark Driscoll.2 He was wrestling with something that eventually became the central thesis of this book.
Around that time I wasn’t listening to any Christian teachers. Instead, though being Canadian, I got caught up in the libertarianism of Ron Paul. Surely, the thing wrong with the world is that we’ve gone astray from the principles that America was founded upon, right? I loved it. I was a huge Ron Paul fan. I was enthralled by the consistent critique that Ron Paul gave of our modern world. And yet, I did really like the Canadian healthcare system and I did really appreciate that cheque that came in the mail every semester thanks to my father’s disability. Something didn’t sit right.
A year later, I entered into Christianity first and foremost as an individual. I had existential questions that were only resolved in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I had no real sense of community, only a couple of Christian friendships, and no true church to belong to.
My interest in politics remained and I ended up being elected as the President of the Student Union at the University of Waterloo. It was a one-year gig. I did some good, but I had no vision for the world. I had no idea how a Christian should engaged in Western politics. So I gave up on politics and went into seminary to train to become a pastor.
I wonder how different my life would be if someone had given me this book back then…
One of Jake Meador’s central concerns, in his potential deconversion and now in this book, is the same question that Ron Paul was answering: what’s wrong with the world? And Meador not only gives a compelling answer, but he also teases out a vision for how the world should be.
Jake Meador says we can’t follow our Western tradition. The Christian vision for the world is something better, more holistic, more generous, and more human, even if it comes with a few additional burdens and responsibilities along the way.
Jake says:
our vision of the Christian life has too often been implicitly conditioned and defined to leave the characteristic idols of the Western world untouched, unscathed, and unchallenged.
He calls the industrial and sexual revolutions disastrous. He critiques various points in European history - the colonial spirit that brought about violence and racism. He destroys the idea that life would be so much better if we went back to the way things were. There is nuance needed.
If Carl Trueman presented an intellectual history that led to the sexual ethics of our day in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, then Meador brings forth a social history that led to today’s lonely, racist, sexually-selfish and consumeristic world in What Are Christians For?
The consistent problem faced by society is this: people and systems perpetuate the myth that we can and should "impose our will onto the world by force." That is the central problem, the central sin, which according to Meador started first in the Garden of Eden.
The first few chapters show how this myth surfaced itself in race, nature, industrialism, the sexual revolution, and in “the unmaking of the real.” Then in the last few chapters, Meador unpacks Christian social doctrine (against industrialism), how Christians should view the land (against aspects of colonialism), a vision for belonging (against the sexual revolution), and the benefits of wonder in the real world. For a more detailed description of each chapter, see the highlights I captured here.
Throughout the book, Meador weaves his own personal stories, doctrinal foundations from Martin Bucer (16th-century reformer) and Herman Bavinck (Dutch neo-Calvinist), as well as modern examples of Christians doing life together.
It’s funny, shortly after beginning seminary I read the book To Change The World by James Davison Hunter. It was my first taste of how Christians should engage politically. I wanted to change the world but Hunter told me I couldn’t! I was enraged. And yet, as I read that book I became convinced of his vision, and ultimately sided with him that Faithful Presence should be the Christian posture in the world.
Meador cites that same model of Faithful Presence as the way we Christians ought to live.
Critique and Recommendation
One thing that this book lacks is Biblical exegesis. It’s more history and social vision casting rather than being a breakdown of what the Bible says. Meador does ground his ideas in Scripture, and I don’t find him to contradict it, but you shouldn’t get this book if you’re looking for Biblical commentary.
But I do very much recommend What Are Christians For? It engages you in ways others don't. It is imaginative in so many ways. How would I care for my own dad if he suffered like Meador's dad did? How am I complicit in perpetuating the same sins as racist slave owners? How do I view God's creation not as a republican or democrat, but as a Christian? Who are the Christians that I know that I could try to live closer to? How do I embrace rather than hide from the burdens my family carries?
There are some aspects to the book that are highly specific and practical; Meador recommends studying ecology, learning cooking techniques, moving closer to other Christians or living with them, and being skeptical of new technology as a Luddite would. You don't have to follow all of these things precisely. And I think Meador himself would say that specific applications are going to vary. But Meador succeeds in helping us imagine better ways of living together.
Since this book condemns various political ideals of both the left and the right, starting with the failings of the ideals of the conservative right, this book provides a helpful apologetic in defending Christian sexual ethics to those on the left. Perhaps this book is especially helpful to "progressive Christians" who don't hold to Biblical sexual ethics. Meador might help persuade them in that direction. For example, here’s how Meador examples why the Christian view of sexuality is more restrictive yet more humane than the view currently in favor in the world:
In the Christian conception of sexuality, the self’s identity is secured ultimately in Christ but also proximally in the covenant of marriage. This securing of the self makes it possible to view sex as chiefly an act of self-giving rather than of self-realization. It re-orients the sexual act away from our own needs, experiences, and desires and toward the needs, experiences, and desires of the other. It is able to do this because [in the Christian view] sex is ultimately unnecessary for defining our identity. Sex is not necessary to live a good life. All the pressures that come with sex when it is seen as a primary way to self-designate are removed in the Christian vision of sexuality. A person can see their sexual life as chiefly serving and loving their partner.
I could have given other examples, but I hope this review helps convince you of the value of this book. It's heady and academic yet personal and inspiring. You should read it.
As told in an interview on the Digital Public Square Podcast. Link: http://tun.in/tlONUq
More of Jake Meador’s story here: