A Letter to My Anxious Christian Friends: From Fear to Faith in Unsettled Times

In a book that's not likely to make any of his Christian friends less anxious or more hopeful, Mercer University professor Gushee (Kingdom Ethics) reflects on ways that Christians might assess, understand, and engage with a number of social issues confronting their faith. Gushee discusses race, sex, guns, money, education, and war, among other topics. For example, he argues passionately against the premises of American gun culture%E2%80%94"the most dangerous of these is that having 300 million guns in civilian hands makes us safer"%E2%80%94and concludes with a plea: "Christians, let's end this gun culture as soon as we can." After a helpful survey of the range of Christian positions on war, he unhelpfully writes simply that neither life nor death should motivate Christians, since they are committed to following Jesus the best way they can in a sinful world. Gushee certainly excels at pointing out the challenges Christians face, but he falls short at offering any comfort or wisdom about the ways to face them. (Sept.)