C. S. Lewis famously penned the phrase “God in the Dock” and proposed that there was a “great divide” between ancient and modern humans in that our ancestors would have rightly seen themselves “in the dock” before God, while we moderns have placed God there before us. But what if what God’s love most desires for us, the gospel or “good news” of the only way of life for humanity, has been “in the dock” before us from the time of Adam and Eve? And what if it is also the case that the gospel is often “in the dock” as though it is not good, even for the church? 

My book, “The Gospel in the Dock,” builds upon and expands the “life and death” stakes Lewis proposed by demonstrating that the gospel way of faith itself, has been placed in the dock by us and in many ways ruined our relationships with God, with our own selves, with one another, and even with the natural world itself which we are meant to “steward” for its good. In these pages the reader will discover why the gospel that requires faith is good news, but why we so tragically default to our divisive and self-destructive ways.

“The Gospel in the Dock: Is the Gospel of Jesus Christ Good for the Church, Humanity, and the World?” by Bryan M. Christman is due to be published by Wipf and Stock in the fall of 2021.