Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ In A Postmodern World

by David F. Wells

The deflation of the Enlightenment worldview and rise of the post-modern mood over the last decades has altered the relation of Christian faith to culture. How, in this new situation, should the church confess Christ? "Above All Earthly Powers" paints a picture of the West in all its complexity, brilliance, and emptiness. As David F. Wells masterfully depicts it, the postmodern ethos is relativistic, individualistic, therapeutic, and yet remarkably spiritual. By placing a premium on marketing rather than truth, the evangelical church is in danger of selling authentic engagement with culture for worldly success. Christians need to confess Christ as the center in a society lacking a center, as the sovereign in a world seemingly ruled by chance, and as the one who can give meaning in a nihilistic culture. "Above All Earthly Powers" issues a prophetic call to the evangelical church that it cannot afford to ignore.

Genres: Theology, Cultural, Philosophy, Christian, Christianity, Nonfiction, Religion

339 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

David F. Wells (PhD, University of Manchester) is the Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

In addition to serving as academic dean of its Charlotte campus, Wells has also been a member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and is involved in ministry in Africa.

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including a series that was initiated by a Pew grant exploring the nature of Christian faith in the contemporary, modernized world.

Reviews

[Marc Sims · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know that feeling when you are getting a massage and the person runs across a knot? They press in and you feel a spider-web of pain/tension shoot across your entire back; it is painful, but you know it is necessary. That’s what reading this book is like. Wells pinpoints the problem with much of our American culture, and precisely popular mega-church Evangelical culture, and digs his knuckles in till your ears are ringing.

This is a roving and expansive manifesto against the vapid, glitzed over, and shallow capitulation to “relevance” that is so prevalent in the church today. He takes the “seeker-sensitive” movement head on and pulls no punches. He tackles the deep currents that feed the movement of spiritual vagueness, rampant consumerism, and postmodern nihilism that have seeped into the bloodstream of pop culture. I often imagined what a Andy Stanley or Bill Hybels would be thinking if they read this.

Not only a fantastic argument, this book is also extremely well written. Wells is a beautiful writer who can take an abstract idea and put wonderful clothes on it. I wish every Christian, and CERTAINLY every Christian leader, would read this. This may be the best non-fiction book I have ever read.

[Justin Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve come to David F. Wells 4th book in his series on the Church (after No Place For Truth, God in the Wasteland, and Losing Our Virtue) and it is a doozy. More than the previous three books, I believe Wells brings the church into his crosshairs and not just the culture. In No Place, Wells talks extensively on how we got to the place that we are (primarily through modernity, postmodernism, capitalism, and urbanization). God in the Wasteland expounds more on the Church as a whole than any particular movements within it as does Losing Our Virtue (which describes how values have usurped virtue in our postmodern society). Above Earthly Pow’rs centers in on the seeker sensitive movement of the Evangelical Church after Wells talks at length about our postmodern world.

Wells begins by a short synopsis of everything he has discussed so far in the previous 3 books (which I will not extensively describe here but be sure to check out the linked book reviews). What is of significance in this volume is centered on postmodernism. He has to logically connect how we got to where we are today by demonstrating how postmodern thought has infiltrated 1) American culture, 2) the Church. He shows primarily by capitalism: the existence of preferential choice that we have today is astounding when compared to any other age in human history. Religion then, becomes a commodity in which the consumer (the one seeking spirituality [note I did not say “church” or “God” or even “enlightenment”, but simply spirituality which is a smokescreen that men try to fill with “good vibes” in order to appease their conscious]) is able to “shop around” for whatever pleases them. This produces a lack of objective truth, or in some cases, truth at all becomes the casualty in which the postmodern mind has laid down to propitiate the conscious in order to live a life that is free to do whatever the individual believes is right. Wells says this is the “…underlying motifs of the postmodern mind. They constitute a gravitational pull toward three simple affirmations: no (comprehensive worldview, no truth, and no purpose” (page 90).

Wells focuses on immigration in one chapter, showing how the postmodern dilemma was exacerbated by influences of immigrants coming to America, particularly Eastern spirituality. He argues that while in times past, men and women understood religion within the context of a structure, namely the church, that was an outward expression of their faith. Today, “faith” or any belief in a higher power is no longer outward, but an inward “spirituality” that is uniquely tailored for the individual. This is sometimes called “pluralism” by theologians: just as America is the “melting pot” of various different nationalities, the inward spiritual state of her people has become a “melting pot” of varying different beliefs that are concocted together to form a syncretistic worldview, adapted specifically for that individual that is to appease the demons of guilt and produce a happy, healthy energy. Obviously, from a Christian worldview, we see the problem in the fact that we are guilty before God and are of in need of a savior, that being Jesus Christ. But more to come.

Dr. Wells presents an interesting correlation between these differing views of spirituality that become a theme through the rest of the book illustrated in the Greek words for love: eros and agape. Eros love is traditionally romantic love between two people while agape love is divine or self-sacrificing love. Eros love is what we see in romantic movies where two people move from dating to marriage while agape is seen when a soldier or Marine lays their life down for their friends. The spirituality of eros, therefore, is in wanting or where man is at the center. Agape spirituality is God who is at the center: eros is upward where the sinner finds God and agape is downward where God finds the sinner.

Dr. Wells goes on to say much more about the postmodern mind, but I want to shift emphasis to what this all means to the church. Dr. Wells spends the last two chapters of this book on a particular movement of the Church who call themselves “seeker sensitive.” The premise of this movement is based off of the postmodern ideals of the supremeness of the individual. Since we live in a capitalistic saturated society where the individual’s preferences, likes, and dislikes are taken into consideration by advertisements and surveys, why waste time on an aging and ultimately archaic way of doing church that is doomed to irrelevance? Much like the everyday shopping malls we go to, Church can also appeal to the masses by curbing certain practices and inventing new ones so that when people are “church shopping,” they will find a vibrant community, hip music, coffee shops and more that resonate with their inward sense of self-fulfillment rather than be changed by the Gospel. Seeker sensitive Churches often times will send out surveys to the local community to find out what type of music they like, what turns them off of organized religion, what would make them feel most comfortable etc. in order to adjust their liturgy to appease the biggest group of people possible. The problem with all of this? It sacrifices doctrine, theology, and ultimately the Gospel for shallow, ineffective Christians. In order to get the largest Church possible requires pastors to withhold some information about the Gospel that is also central to it: namely, the doctrine of sin. How cliche would it be to do all the work to bring people TO Church if, when they got there, they were turned away by a pastor teaching hell and brimstone? Thus, the individual continues to reign supreme and the Church becomes malnourished by a lack of solid teaching. Dr. Wells says, “It is that the only means to survival in the modern world is to adapt Christian faith in some way. The liberals did this by modifying its doctrinal content; seeker-sensitive evangelicals claim not to be doing this, but, rather modifying its form of delivery… Seeker churches, then, represent a coalition bound together not by a theological vision of the world but by a common strategy for reaching particular segments of society…” (page 281).

This, I believe, is one of the worst threats to Evangelicalism today. Seeker sensitives mask the truth in everyday “hip” language that does not challenge, nurture, or grow a congregation but simply lets them feel like their weekly commitment to God has been fulfilled. There is no fear of God, no daily exercise of Christian disciplines, no inward struggle between sin and God but rather a feel-good message that makes everyone happy. This is not how the Apostles Paul, John or Peter spoke; this was not how the Prophets of the Old Testament spoke; and this is not how Jesus spoke.

Much more to be said about seeker sensitives, but I think you will have to get the book to read more. Dr. Wells follow up book, “The Courage to be Protestant” also deals with this issue.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Robert Renteria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wells gives an exposition on postmodernism. From a Reformed perspective this is adequate. However, it is deficient because the mode of thought has permeated culture at large and Wells demonstrates, not even he is immune. He does admit we cannot simply just dismantle the construct but how we interact and engage those immersed in this way of thinking is a rather different story. I was disappointed to not see any reference at all to Francis Schaeffer who deals with postmodern thought in its inception and provides solutions. High brow intellectualism is the medium that cultivates late modern thinking. How do we deal with this animal that has consumed our way of life in the West?

[Doug Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part four of a quartet of books examining the state of the evangelical church in the postmodern world. The picture Wells paints in these books (No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue, and Above All Earthly Pow'rs) is not pretty but Wells, if not optimistic, is not without hope. As he notes "God is the God of new beginnings" if we the Church are willing to take up the challenge to speak and live the truth of Jesus Christ. The books are, at times, a challenging read. Some chapters, which in this volume tended to be long, took effort to read and time to process. I think the books reward the effort.

[Wes F · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another amazing, spot-on, insightful, and challenging book by David Wells. It's a clarion call to the evangelical church/believers to take careful stock of where they stand--and to get off the recent treadmill of seeking to please the customer with its marketing approach & watered-down doctrines & teaching.

[Taylor Belt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very informative, despite it being written 20 years ago. I believe that it is also still completely relevant to our times that we live in today, so I can't highly recommend it enough to anyone who wants to read it.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! Very insightful and challenging.

[Taylor Sines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haven’t read a better book on the subject. Dr Wells accurately places his finger on the consumeristic presuppositions shaping modern churches,

[Ben Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a penetrating and helpful view of our current cultural moment, read this book.

[Daniel Warriner]

Read in seminary over a decade ago, would be smart to read it again with fresh eyes.

[Joseph Rowland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. I imagine it was fairly groundbreaking for many at the time of its publication. Wells’ almost “old school,” Bible thumping, back to the basics approach is a breath of fresh air. He also had a very keen eye for the new spirituality of our age—one that has only increased in fervor and followship.

[Jay Munroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book showed a true way forward in locating direction of place in this late modern society when I found little reason our society could hope for any when I read it in College, and have been reflecting on it since.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is much in this volume to praise and to amen. Wells understands postmodernism, its allure and its failings. He is also very much an orthodox thinker and understands the importance of theology in the life of the church. He aggressively criticizes the weaknesses in the modern church and their failure to answer modernism, as well as the failure to keep postmodernism out of the church.

So while there is much good here, I can't help but recognize the book's failure to fully engage with the fundamental problems involved. Wells spends a great deal of time in psychological and sociological analysis, but what he fails to do is argue at the fundamental level of human rebellion and sinfulness. That may sound strong, since Wells clearly understands sin and total depravity. The problem is that he too often gets stuck in the swamp of modernist vocabulary and psycho-babble about "the self."

The problem, at root, is human rebellion and the autonomy of man outside of the covenant relationship with God. Wells does address this, but he never takes it to the kind of depth that it deserves to be discussed.

If you've read the previous volumes you'll recall that Wells writes ad nauseum about "the self" and he does so here as well. Frankly, it gets tiresome.

The book is much too long and doesn't seem to cover much new ground compared to the previous three volumes. There's much good here, but frankly, most of the material can be found in other books or resources.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I slowly ruminated on this book (just a chapter or so a week) right alongside another title: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church", by D.A. Carson. Both works are provocative and call into question a lot of the assumptions made by churches and writers in their attempts to reach post-moderns, while affirming them at other times. This book was a little stronger in helping me understand postmodernism as it relates to modernism and the enlightenment. My main critique of this book is that it's length could have probably been whittled down by 25% without much of a loss of content... I found some thoughts repeated a little too much. Also, it seemed a little too critical and one-sided in its criticism of the seeker movement.

In addition to staying in touch with the North American post-modern culture, I also found both of these books personally helpful in reminding me how my thought processes are driven by WESTERN modern and post-modern assumptions, and how these are similar at times but completely different at others from the Asian culture in which I have been living these past 12 years. I'd recommend either title heartily to anyone wanting to learn about the so-called "Emerging Church."

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally purchased this when I was in high school some 8 years ago. I'm glad I bought it and I'm also glad that I didn't read it then because the brilliance of this book would have flown straight over my head. I picked this book up a few weeks ago after having a conversation with a friend about postmodernism, Christianity, and how this book was a "game-changer" for him growing up. I also remembered that the cover had a picture from 9/11 on it and on the anniversary a few weeks ago, I picked it back up.

This is the final part of a series of books that Wells put out that are all supposed to be great. In this book, however, Wells seeks to critique modernism & postmodernism from a Biblical worldview and is really one of the best books on "culture" that I have ever read. So many of his insights are strikingly true especially in my context in Austin.

When it comes to culture, I will definitely be returning to Wells' wisdom often. I would heartily recommend this to anyone who wants to understand how to properly engage culture from a Christian worldview -- with constantly changing political and spiritual climates, it should be required reading.

[Baff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wells describes the difference between postmodern philosophy and what the avg. person in western culture believes today. I was very opposed to what he said at first, but then I thought, "Why DO we al-ways describe postmodernism as if every person walking around is a philosopher who reads Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty?
I think the deconstuctionist movement does bear on discussions about postmodernism. However, my every attempt to explain the logical comedy of postmodern thought to people has been utterly useless. Everyone simply repeats over and over again, "There is no absolute truth, we have no access to reality as such," or some such contradictory Newspeak. As the Duffers say, "That's right, nothing like an opposite!"
Anyway, Wells makes important revisions to philosophical critiques of postmodern thought, focusing instead on cultural (not philosophical) forces that affect what people believe. Most helpful.

[Ray Wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. This is Wells contribution to Christology, albeit in a quite unique way. Wells weaves the work of Christ into and throughout his discussion of the current postmodern dilemma. If you are familiar with Wells' previous writings then some of this book will seem repetitive. He focuses on the current demise of truth in postmodern culture as well as in the evangelical church.

The strength of this book is when he discusses the result of postmodernism on society and the individual and reveals how the biblical Christ is the solution. The emptiness, fear, and dread that are the result of a world devoid of meaning, a world where spirituality has been internalized and personalized, can only be answered by the Christ who came to rescue humanity from sin.

The last two chapters are a bit of a redo if you have read Wells' "No Place for Truth," but still worth the read. Anyone seeking help in how to preach Christ to a postmodern generation should read this book.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think it's the book's fault that I only made it 2/3rds of the way through. I think I'm just non-fiction religioned out for the moment. It's a good book. There are multiple fantastic points, at least in the portions of text that I didn't gloss over as I skimmed my eyes down the page. I think I might have appreciated this as a 20 page essay more, it seems like he hasn't actually begun to expound upon his points yet, and I'm around page 170. It all feels like background.

The problem is real, however, and I'm glad that there has been a scholarly treatment of the post-modern plague on current day Christianity. Hopefully one day I'll finish it. I need to read something less dense first.

[William Dicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five books by Wells are a must read for every Christian today. They show the theological and moral bankruptcy of the modern church and calls for a theological reformation.

The books are:
1. No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?
2. God in the Wasteland: The Reality of truth in a World of Fading Dreams
3. Losing our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover its Moral Vision
4. Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World
5. The Courage to be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World

[Chuck]

This is the 4th book written by Wells (and read by me) in which he critiques the church from the viewpoint of post-modern culture (the others are: No Place for Truth; God in the Wasteland; Losing Our Virtue). They are excellent summaries of how the church has caved in to pressures from the modern world, and what believers must do to stay faithful to the Lord and his Word. I'm just getting started on this one.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the biggest disappointments ever.

Wells, who was so enlightening in "No Place for Truth" and "God in the Wasteland", has nothing new to say. Several sections of the book are trying to get through, and once you do get through each one, you find that Wells' "point" is nothing you hadn't known already, if you have read his previous works.

[Shelby Stafford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much and I feel like it gave me a foundation to read more books on the subject. As quoted in the book: Pelagianism is the natural heresy of zealous Christians who are not interested in theology. - J.I. Packer
It took a few chapters to get into it but persevere and it'll be worth it

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was huge for me. Wells delves deeply into our culture and post-modernism, and comes out glorifying Christ despite them. A telling analysis, and an important book.

Re-read in 2010, and it was a excellent as ever.

[Paul Jeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A piecing analysis of the state of the church in postmodern times. Reflects Wells' characteristic integration of sociology and theology. A worthwhile book for all pastors and lay leaders who seek to understand their times and to do ministry in a winsome and thoughtful manner.

[Mark Seeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last volume was the best. Wells is excellent in integrating theology and culture.

March 15, 2020. . . just completed my third reading of Above All Earthly Powers. Fifteen years old now and Wells' diatribe remains as relevant as ever.

[John Rabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth and final volume of Wells' trilogy on the state of the American church. You and your pastor need to read all four of them.

[Jay Risner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Undeniably good.

[Wes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A modern classic. Absolutely love this book. Dr. Piper did a whole conference on this book alone. However, it's a bit deep for the normal person.

[Wes Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part 4 of the series - in many way goes over familiar ground - still a classic on Christianity and contemporary culture from a thinker.