Oct
29
2009
A New American Gospel?
In the current issue of byFaith (the Web magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America) Richard Doster has an interesting interview with Michael Horton.
Before reading Horton's latest book, The Gospel-Driven Life (read excerpt here), it will be helpful to read this interview for the summary critique of the book that preceded it, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church.
The first question Doster asks Horton gets at the heart of what Horton considers the "alternative gospel of the American church":
The title of the book is a pretty jarring oxymoron. What, exactly, is “Christless Christianity”?
First of all, it is not a claim that all the churches in America are Christless. It’s certainly not a claim that we have reached a point where Christ is no longer being preached. Rather, it’s motivated by a concern that there’s this creeping fog of what sociologist Christian Smith called “moralistic-therapeutic-deism.” This has turned God into a tool we can use rather than the object of our faith and worship. I’m concerned that the gospel is being taken for granted, that Christ is a sort of life coach, but not the Savior. With the general shallowing within the culture, there is a shallowing of Christian faith and practice. We don’t really know what we believe and why we believe it.