God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams

by David F. Wells

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 1994

Overview

Here is the much-anticipated sequel to David F. Wells’ widely praised book No Place for Truth, which garnered multiple “Book of the Year” awards from Christianity Today. Building on the trenchant cultural and religious analyses of evangelical Protestantism set forth in his first volume, Wells argues in God in the Wasteland that the church is now enfeebled because it has lost its sense of God’s sovereignty and holiness. God, says Wells, has become weightless. He has lost the power to shape the church’s character, outlook, and practice.

By looking afresh at the way God’s transcendence and immanence have been taken captive by modern appetites, Wells is able to argue for a reform of the evangelical world—a reform without which evangelical faith will be lost—and develop a powerful biblical antidote to the modernity which has invaded the church.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common.” (Page 30)

“What damage has modernity done to the church’s appropriation of the doctrine of God? I believe the greatest loss we have suffered is not a matter of any particular aspect of God but rather of his place in the church and, beyond that, in society.” (Page 120)

“ In their own way, however, each camp was pursuing a form of civil religion.” (Page 26)

“But neither Christ nor his truth can be marketed by appealing to consumer interest, because the premise of all marketing is that the consumer’s need is sovereign, that the customer is always right, and this is precisely what the gospel insists cannot be the case.” (Page 82)

“This brings us to the central issue I am seeking to deal with in this book: the relationship between Christ and culture” (Page 28)

Product Details

• Title: God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams
• Author: David F. Wells
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 1994
• Logos Release Date: 2019
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Evangelicalism › United States--History--20th century; Christiantity and culture; Theology › 20th century
• ISBNs: 9780802841797, 0802841791
• Resource ID: LLS:GDWSTLNDFDNDRMS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:14:13Z

About David F. Wells

David Falconer Wells (born 1939) is Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books in which his evangelical theology engages with the modern world. Wells received his B.D. from the University of London; Th.M. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Ph.D. from Manchester University (England); and was a post-doctoral Research Fellow at Yale Divinity School. Wells is a Council member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.