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Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power
Power corrupts—as we've seen time and time again. People too often abuse their power and play god in the lives of others. Shady politicians, corrupt executives and ego-filled media stars have made us suspicious of those who wield influence and authority. They too often breed injustice by participating in what the Bible calls idolatry. Yet power is also the means by which we bring life, create possibilities, offer hope and make human flourishing possible. This is "playing god" as it is meant to be. If we are to do God's work—fight injustice, bring peace, create beauty and allow the image of God to thrive in those around us—how are we to do these things if not by power? With his trademark clear-headed analysis, Andy Crouch unpacks the dynamics of power that either can make human flourishing possible or can destroy the image of God in people. While the effects of power are often very evident, he uncovers why power is frequently hidden. He considers not just its personal side but the important ways power develops and resides in institutions. Throughout Crouch offers fresh insights from key biblical passages, demonstrating how Scripture calls us to discipline our power. Wielding power need not distort us or others, but instead can be stewarded well. An essential book for all who would influence their world for the good.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2013
135 people are currently reading
1732 people want to read
About the author
Andy Crouch
29 books393 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
For twelve years Andy was an editor and producer at Christianity Today (CT), including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He joined the John Templeton Foundation in 2017 as senior strategist for communication. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing—and, most importantly, received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single "Non-Fiction." He serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.
For twelve years Andy was an editor and producer at Christianity Today (CT), including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He joined the John Templeton Foundation in 2017 as senior strategist for communication. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing—and, most importantly, received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single "Non-Fiction." He serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
September 14, 2013
Provocative, timely, important, written with some stellar prose and the poignancy Crouch is known for as a speaker. The end of the book takes a bit of a memoiristic slide in which Andy seems to be the constant example, but elsewhere he draws on the stories of others--in India, China, and elsewhere. I can't imagine who shouldn't read this.
I'll be writing a review for Comment magazine. Watch for it at http://cardus.ca/comment
I'll be writing a review for Comment magazine. Watch for it at http://cardus.ca/comment
January 19, 2015
I think many of us have developed our understanding of power from Lord Acton's axiom: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For most of us, that is the end of story and this accounts, at least among many Christians I know, for a deep aversion to anything like the exercise of power.
Andy Crouch has a different take that is evident in the word play in his title Playing God. We often think "playing God" is the worst manifestation of abusing power. But Crouch would argue that as image bearers, people who reflect something of the nature of God, we "play" like God in using power, and that this was originally intended for the flourishing of fellow human beings, and the creation, for creating cultural goods and even good institutions.
Crouch explores the original gift to power and how it has been distorted through idolatry, which he defines as giving to some cultural artifact ultimate significance. And idolatry leads to injustice as idols demand allegiance that undermines the flourishing of human beings. Crouch argues that instead of idol-making, our calling is to be icons, literally those who are seen through, giving glimpses of the Creator who made us to be like Him.
In the next part of his book, he explores the nature of power. Power is often hidden and yet exists, even in characters like Michael Scott from The Office. He talks about the realities of force, violence, and coercion and what impressed me is the nuanced fashion in which he did so, recognizing these can be used for evil or good (an argument pacifists may not accept). Finally, he exposes the realities of privilege, the perquisites of power we often are not even aware we have, except when we see ourselves through those who do not have them.
For me the third part of the book was most interesting because he explores power in the context of institution-making. Again, we often see institutions in a negative light but Crouch argues that institutions can be gifts for good if we assume our responsibilities as trustees of these institutions.
Finally, he explores the end of power through the lenses of discipline, sabbath, and the consummation of power in the return and ever-lasting reign of Christ. True power is like the prodigal father who uses all he has to maintain and restore his relationships and the flourishing of both of his sons, the younger profligate one, and the older resentful one.
This is an important book. What I believe often happens in Christian communities is that we try to deny the existence of power and thus become less self-aware of how we may exercise it, both for ill and for good. This, to me, seems greater than the danger of the conscious exercise of power that is cognizant of how power may be abused but also how power might be used to serve others and to promote their flourishing. Furthermore, our aversion to admitting the gift of power we've been given is the denial of the gifts of God, both those inherent in our humanity, and those spiritually endowed among the redeemed people of God. My hope is that Crouch's book is widely read, that a new way of using power is charted that neither makes it into an idol nor denies its existence but redeems this gift and uses it for good.
Andy Crouch has a different take that is evident in the word play in his title Playing God. We often think "playing God" is the worst manifestation of abusing power. But Crouch would argue that as image bearers, people who reflect something of the nature of God, we "play" like God in using power, and that this was originally intended for the flourishing of fellow human beings, and the creation, for creating cultural goods and even good institutions.
Crouch explores the original gift to power and how it has been distorted through idolatry, which he defines as giving to some cultural artifact ultimate significance. And idolatry leads to injustice as idols demand allegiance that undermines the flourishing of human beings. Crouch argues that instead of idol-making, our calling is to be icons, literally those who are seen through, giving glimpses of the Creator who made us to be like Him.
In the next part of his book, he explores the nature of power. Power is often hidden and yet exists, even in characters like Michael Scott from The Office. He talks about the realities of force, violence, and coercion and what impressed me is the nuanced fashion in which he did so, recognizing these can be used for evil or good (an argument pacifists may not accept). Finally, he exposes the realities of privilege, the perquisites of power we often are not even aware we have, except when we see ourselves through those who do not have them.
For me the third part of the book was most interesting because he explores power in the context of institution-making. Again, we often see institutions in a negative light but Crouch argues that institutions can be gifts for good if we assume our responsibilities as trustees of these institutions.
Finally, he explores the end of power through the lenses of discipline, sabbath, and the consummation of power in the return and ever-lasting reign of Christ. True power is like the prodigal father who uses all he has to maintain and restore his relationships and the flourishing of both of his sons, the younger profligate one, and the older resentful one.
This is an important book. What I believe often happens in Christian communities is that we try to deny the existence of power and thus become less self-aware of how we may exercise it, both for ill and for good. This, to me, seems greater than the danger of the conscious exercise of power that is cognizant of how power may be abused but also how power might be used to serve others and to promote their flourishing. Furthermore, our aversion to admitting the gift of power we've been given is the denial of the gifts of God, both those inherent in our humanity, and those spiritually endowed among the redeemed people of God. My hope is that Crouch's book is widely read, that a new way of using power is charted that neither makes it into an idol nor denies its existence but redeems this gift and uses it for good.
February 16, 2017
Crouch remains one of the best authors I have ever read at crafting a paradigm and a framework into which vital concepts of life fit. In this one he looks at the complexities of power and our abuses and misunderstandings of it as well as what God intends for it. It is transcendent book in parts, but plods a bit here and there. Over all it is well worth reading and a valuable, helpful book.
January 1, 2014
Andy Crouch’s title
Playing God
has a double meaning. 1) Idols play God by lording it over and ultimately enslaving those underneath their sway. 2) But this doesn’t mean playing God is necessarily wrong—we were created to mimic our Creator not just in service but in what Genesis calls “dominion.” The difference between 1) playing God and 2) playing God is the difference between using your God-given power to enslave or limit other divine image-bearers and using it to enable their flourishing. It’s the difference, in biblical terms, between maximizing the profit from your fields and leaving the corners ungleaned for the benefit of the poor (a biblical idea Crouch helpfully explores). It’s the difference between using a poor man’s debt as an excuse to bond his children into lifelong slavery and using your power to strengthen the institution of law enforcement so that it can put a stop to this slavery. Power, Crouch argues, is not evil. It’s good. God made it and God has it. And God has apportioned it to us to use in holy, circumscribed imitation of him.
But Crouch’s subtitle is likely to put off some readers of this review: “Redeeming the Gift of Power.” I’d say only that if the Bible is allowed to use redemption terminology for something other than the salvation of individual souls (Luke 2:38), and if a writer is allowed to explain what he means, then there need be no problem. Crouch brings up the social gospel explicitly, and he just as explicitly excoriates it. But something he doesn’t exactly say (though what he says is quite consistent with it) might help us here: the Bible calls us on to perform “good works.” Don’t let legalistic religions steal “good works” from you! We were "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Eph 2:10), after all. And why should those good works be made into a category separate from our “secular" vocations? Why should we limit the performance of good works to after 5 pm and weekends? What is wrong with a Christian founding a micro-financing institution in rural Cambodia? He is using his God-given power creatively, for the benefit of others, for good works. And if he takes his Bible seriously, people around him will know to glorify his Father in heaven for these good works (Matt 5:16). Conservative Christians are right to probe for the “balance” on this issue: when do my good works for others actually start obscuring the verbal gospel message? But books like Crouch’s are a help, not a hindrance, in exploring this important question.
Playing God should be read as a sequel to Crouch’s other major book, Culture Making [three bucks on Kindle right now], which argued that God's original commands to mankind in Genesis 1—fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over it—have never been abrogated, that they require us today to cultivate and create. Cultivate what is good in existing human traditions and create anew on top of those traditions. "The only way to change culture is to make more of it.” (p. 201)
As I said in my review of that book, this statement should be a welcoming briar patch for all the Brer Rabbits in Christian liberal arts higher education. This is precisely what we do: we teach our students the existing tradition of our disciplines, and we hope that by doing so they will be able to develop those traditions in a biblically faithful direction whether by correction or addition. But in both of his major books, Crouch’s focus goes beyond education to all the realms of human culture. And in Playing God, he examines from many angles a topic, power, that is even more touchy than education.
True to this introductory paragraph, Crouch’s book is not a manual for Christian reconstruction along theonomist lines. Crouch even makes a great point of discussing the limits to our power that the Bible enjoins (much as, in Culture Making , he is less than optimistic about the results of Christian culture making, preferring to leave those in God’s hands). For example, Crouch is the first Christian I’ve ever heard seriously consider, let alone propose, that believers observe a “sabbath year.” It never occurred to me that a Christian might view this Old Testament principle as any sort of obligation, or even a blessing. And to be clear, I don’t think we’re obligated—nor do I think we can obligate God to fulfill his promise to Israel that he’d give them extra crops during the sixth year (the year before the sabbatical year). But Crouch doesn’t think ancient Israelites who took a year off were idle; they were free to engage in other cultural, familial, academic, and religious pursuits. This is a purposeful limiting of one’s agricultural power. Likewise the jubilee year is a limiting of one’s power to insist upon repayment of debts. Crouch’s exploration of this topic is penetrating and biblically rich.
But rather than tour his argument at length, I would like to focus on what was the most helpful and memorable section of Crouch’s book for me personally: his discussion of institutions (see him talk about this topic on YouTube). I found his analysis to be very illuminating. Institutions, he said (aided by the work of Hugh Heclo and D. Michael Lindsay) comprise four elements: arenas, artifacts, rules, and roles.
An institution like football has pretty clear rules, because it’s a formalized game. But its rules extend beyond those enforced by the referees to include those “rules” observed by fans (don’t cheer for rivals, don’t be a "fair-weather” fan), the media (cover important games and players), and others. And the roles the institution creates make it possible for some people to use gifts—like the ability to loft an oblong leather ball great distances under extreme pressure with astounding accuracy—that would never otherwise be used, or at least featured to the public. The arenas of the institution of football, too, include not just FedEx Field in D.C. but all of the many stadiums, offices, media sound stages, T-shirt designers, etc. used to keep the system flowing. It becomes clearer the more you think of the sheer number of jobs created by the institution of football that “institutions create and distribute power, the ability to make something of the world.” (p. 170)
Now apply this analysis to your most beloved institution: what is the arena in which it operates? What artifacts does it create? What are its rules? What roles does it create—in other words, how does it enable human flourishing (the true test of power, Crouch says)? How can you contribute to a good institution’s neighbor-loving goals? And because institutions are capable of great evil as well as great good, what’s wrong with the rules at your institution? Are roles being squelched that should be developed? Are its artifacts worth producing?
I don’t know that I was knowingly anti-institutional before this month, but this book (and an issue of Comment I read) have shown that I was largely taking institutions for granted. What I have now is not a program for climbing the ladder at my institution but a deepened, biblically informed desire to do good works for others by means of the multiplied effectiveness of group effort we know as an “institution." (One thing I might have liked Crouch to discuss a bit more is the limits and dangers of parachurch institutions.)
There is a great deal that separates me from Andy Crouch. He identifies with “Wesleyan instincts” (p. 284) I don’t share. He works for Christianity Today and other mainstream evangelical institutions. Especially at the level of institutions we have no links that I can think of—save, perhaps, for the diffuse “institution” of American evangelicalism. But it is a testimony to the power of evangelicalism’s take on the Bible and, I think, to the power of the Holy Spirit, that I can derive so much benefit from someone who differs from me so much. For example, I regard it as a very significant inconsistency that Crouch dismisses a straightforward reading of Genesis 1–3 and nonetheless builds his two major books (this one and Culture Making ) firmly on the teachings of those chapters. Far from diminishing my faith in Genesis 1, Crouch has strengthened it by showing how relevant it is to daily life in this world. And far from denying or diminishing the fall in Genesis 3, which becomes problematic if there was no historical Adam (see Rom 5), Crouch seems very sensitive to the effects of the fall on even the best, most well-intentioned efforts of mankind. He is no Pollyanna. And "Redeeming the Gift of Power" doesn’t mean launching an effort to get as many evangelicals as possible into positions of political authority. That’s just not the way Crouch talks.
I don’t see this book as a threat to Christian conservatives. I see it—along with its more or less prequel, Culture Making —as essentially a call to biblical obedience. I also see it as freeing for the vast majority of Christian conservatives, that is, the people who sit in the pews and live in the 9-to-5 secular world. I imagine it could sound cloying to a Christian factory foreman when a upper-class white intellectual who listens to John Eliot Gardiner on Spotify all day and types up blog posts on his MacBook Pro tells him, “Your job is a significant exercise of power for the good of your neighbor!” But I think it’s biblical truth. God has called us to teach all nations everything Christ commanded us. But He’s called most of us to spend far, far, far more of our daily hours making widgets, testing soil acidity, binding paperback books. This isn’t an accident. We should all use the power gifted to us for God-glorifying and neighbor-loving ends.
(One more note: this book is one side of a conversation Crouch is having with many people, but perhaps especially James Davison Hunter, author of To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World . That book is on my Kindle waiting to be read, so I can’t speak to his objections.)
But Crouch’s subtitle is likely to put off some readers of this review: “Redeeming the Gift of Power.” I’d say only that if the Bible is allowed to use redemption terminology for something other than the salvation of individual souls (Luke 2:38), and if a writer is allowed to explain what he means, then there need be no problem. Crouch brings up the social gospel explicitly, and he just as explicitly excoriates it. But something he doesn’t exactly say (though what he says is quite consistent with it) might help us here: the Bible calls us on to perform “good works.” Don’t let legalistic religions steal “good works” from you! We were "created in Christ Jesus for good works" (Eph 2:10), after all. And why should those good works be made into a category separate from our “secular" vocations? Why should we limit the performance of good works to after 5 pm and weekends? What is wrong with a Christian founding a micro-financing institution in rural Cambodia? He is using his God-given power creatively, for the benefit of others, for good works. And if he takes his Bible seriously, people around him will know to glorify his Father in heaven for these good works (Matt 5:16). Conservative Christians are right to probe for the “balance” on this issue: when do my good works for others actually start obscuring the verbal gospel message? But books like Crouch’s are a help, not a hindrance, in exploring this important question.
Playing God should be read as a sequel to Crouch’s other major book, Culture Making [three bucks on Kindle right now], which argued that God's original commands to mankind in Genesis 1—fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over it—have never been abrogated, that they require us today to cultivate and create. Cultivate what is good in existing human traditions and create anew on top of those traditions. "The only way to change culture is to make more of it.” (p. 201)
As I said in my review of that book, this statement should be a welcoming briar patch for all the Brer Rabbits in Christian liberal arts higher education. This is precisely what we do: we teach our students the existing tradition of our disciplines, and we hope that by doing so they will be able to develop those traditions in a biblically faithful direction whether by correction or addition. But in both of his major books, Crouch’s focus goes beyond education to all the realms of human culture. And in Playing God, he examines from many angles a topic, power, that is even more touchy than education.
Underlying much of the academic fascination with power, it seems to me, is the presupposition that power is essentially about coercion—that even when power looks life-giving and creative, it actually cloaks a violent fist in a creative glove. I believe this is exactly backwards. I actually believe the deepest form of power is creation, and that when power takes the form of coercion and violence, that is actually a diminishment and distortion of what it was meant to be. (pp. 10–11)
True to this introductory paragraph, Crouch’s book is not a manual for Christian reconstruction along theonomist lines. Crouch even makes a great point of discussing the limits to our power that the Bible enjoins (much as, in Culture Making , he is less than optimistic about the results of Christian culture making, preferring to leave those in God’s hands). For example, Crouch is the first Christian I’ve ever heard seriously consider, let alone propose, that believers observe a “sabbath year.” It never occurred to me that a Christian might view this Old Testament principle as any sort of obligation, or even a blessing. And to be clear, I don’t think we’re obligated—nor do I think we can obligate God to fulfill his promise to Israel that he’d give them extra crops during the sixth year (the year before the sabbatical year). But Crouch doesn’t think ancient Israelites who took a year off were idle; they were free to engage in other cultural, familial, academic, and religious pursuits. This is a purposeful limiting of one’s agricultural power. Likewise the jubilee year is a limiting of one’s power to insist upon repayment of debts. Crouch’s exploration of this topic is penetrating and biblically rich.
But rather than tour his argument at length, I would like to focus on what was the most helpful and memorable section of Crouch’s book for me personally: his discussion of institutions (see him talk about this topic on YouTube). I found his analysis to be very illuminating. Institutions, he said (aided by the work of Hugh Heclo and D. Michael Lindsay) comprise four elements: arenas, artifacts, rules, and roles.
“A football” is a cultural artifact, but “football” is a cultural institution: a rich and complex system of behaviors, beliefs, patterns and possibilities that can be handed on from one generation to the next. And it is within institutions, in this broad sense of the word, that our most significant human experiences take place. Institutions are at the heart of culture making, which means they are at the heart of human flourishing and the comprehensive flourishing of creation that we call shalom. Without institutions, in fact, human beings would be as feeble and futile as a flat football. (p. 170)
An institution like football has pretty clear rules, because it’s a formalized game. But its rules extend beyond those enforced by the referees to include those “rules” observed by fans (don’t cheer for rivals, don’t be a "fair-weather” fan), the media (cover important games and players), and others. And the roles the institution creates make it possible for some people to use gifts—like the ability to loft an oblong leather ball great distances under extreme pressure with astounding accuracy—that would never otherwise be used, or at least featured to the public. The arenas of the institution of football, too, include not just FedEx Field in D.C. but all of the many stadiums, offices, media sound stages, T-shirt designers, etc. used to keep the system flowing. It becomes clearer the more you think of the sheer number of jobs created by the institution of football that “institutions create and distribute power, the ability to make something of the world.” (p. 170)
Now apply this analysis to your most beloved institution: what is the arena in which it operates? What artifacts does it create? What are its rules? What roles does it create—in other words, how does it enable human flourishing (the true test of power, Crouch says)? How can you contribute to a good institution’s neighbor-loving goals? And because institutions are capable of great evil as well as great good, what’s wrong with the rules at your institution? Are roles being squelched that should be developed? Are its artifacts worth producing?
I don’t know that I was knowingly anti-institutional before this month, but this book (and an issue of Comment I read) have shown that I was largely taking institutions for granted. What I have now is not a program for climbing the ladder at my institution but a deepened, biblically informed desire to do good works for others by means of the multiplied effectiveness of group effort we know as an “institution." (One thing I might have liked Crouch to discuss a bit more is the limits and dangers of parachurch institutions.)
There is a great deal that separates me from Andy Crouch. He identifies with “Wesleyan instincts” (p. 284) I don’t share. He works for Christianity Today and other mainstream evangelical institutions. Especially at the level of institutions we have no links that I can think of—save, perhaps, for the diffuse “institution” of American evangelicalism. But it is a testimony to the power of evangelicalism’s take on the Bible and, I think, to the power of the Holy Spirit, that I can derive so much benefit from someone who differs from me so much. For example, I regard it as a very significant inconsistency that Crouch dismisses a straightforward reading of Genesis 1–3 and nonetheless builds his two major books (this one and Culture Making ) firmly on the teachings of those chapters. Far from diminishing my faith in Genesis 1, Crouch has strengthened it by showing how relevant it is to daily life in this world. And far from denying or diminishing the fall in Genesis 3, which becomes problematic if there was no historical Adam (see Rom 5), Crouch seems very sensitive to the effects of the fall on even the best, most well-intentioned efforts of mankind. He is no Pollyanna. And "Redeeming the Gift of Power" doesn’t mean launching an effort to get as many evangelicals as possible into positions of political authority. That’s just not the way Crouch talks.
I don’t see this book as a threat to Christian conservatives. I see it—along with its more or less prequel, Culture Making —as essentially a call to biblical obedience. I also see it as freeing for the vast majority of Christian conservatives, that is, the people who sit in the pews and live in the 9-to-5 secular world. I imagine it could sound cloying to a Christian factory foreman when a upper-class white intellectual who listens to John Eliot Gardiner on Spotify all day and types up blog posts on his MacBook Pro tells him, “Your job is a significant exercise of power for the good of your neighbor!” But I think it’s biblical truth. God has called us to teach all nations everything Christ commanded us. But He’s called most of us to spend far, far, far more of our daily hours making widgets, testing soil acidity, binding paperback books. This isn’t an accident. We should all use the power gifted to us for God-glorifying and neighbor-loving ends.
(One more note: this book is one side of a conversation Crouch is having with many people, but perhaps especially James Davison Hunter, author of To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World . That book is on my Kindle waiting to be read, so I can’t speak to his objections.)
January 20, 2021
Beautiful, true words. Crouch is not only philosopher and theologian, but also an artist and teacher. He writes in layman's language, in the style of a winsome poet. I want to read all his other books, plus the one he's writing now. Near the end of this book, Crouch describes Rublev's painting called "Rublev's Trinity." The way he unpacks the message of the painting is like ending a symphony with a fortissimo.
May 22, 2019
Great, read. Very convicting while being encouraging. Very recommend
Read
July 22, 2025DNF
Read
September 23, 2020I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. So much more sociology than I was expecting, and lots to think about in terms of how the gospel leads us to reimagine culture, power, institutions, and privilege.
December 9, 2019
Very solid read. At times it got a bit slow. I was hoping for more clarity on dealing with relationships where there is or could be a power disparity. However, this book deeply challenged my thinking about power.
August 25, 2024
If I could I’d give it 6 stars, I would. The way Crouch ties the right use of power with upholding image bearing, our own and others, is paradigm shifting. Very insightful and thought provoking.
April 6, 2020
Andy Crouch may be best known for his former role as the executive editor of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today (and known by a smaller group, Christian sexual minorities who submit to the traditional sexual ethic, like myself, for his leadership on the advisory council of Revoice). In Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, Crouch offers, and spends the rest of the book supporting, a thesis that is simple but profound and, for many, fairly shocking: power is not something which must always be spurned, it is not even a necessary evil, but a gift. “That,” Crouch writes in the introduction, “is this book’s central, controversial idea. (9)”
Upon first reading the introduction, I admit, the idea that power as a gift did not seem new or shocking. But as Crouch continued to support this thesis with stories, examples, and illustrations, I began to realize how much I have been conditioned to treat power as a necessary (and sometimes unnecessary) evil. Many in the modern West have been unknowingly influenced by a Nietzschean understanding of power as a zero-sum game, one in which all human beings are fighting for their own piece of the pie, and the more power one receives, the less power is available for another. In this Nietzschean worldview, there is no such thing as good and evil; these are made-up categories, “names to justify convenient alliances between those bodies who are ‘sufficiently related’ to one another, ‘conspiring for power.’ (47)”
Crouch contrasts this admittedly bleak vision with the biblical vision of power as directed toward the purpose of flourishing. In other words, power begets power, or as Crouch puts it, “true power multiplies power when it is shared. (41)” From this premise, Crouch overturns so many related long-held assumptions: idolatry and injustice in chapters 3-5 (which are not wrong because they are too characterized by power, as if power itself were evil, but wrong because they are the worst distortions of power) and institutions in chapters 9-10 (which, though they have a bad reputation in our Western individualistic culture, might actually be our only hope of saving it). He sketches out a vision for what it means to truly “play God” well, not as an idol, a dominating false god, but as an icon of the one true God, who has given us human beings image-bearing dominion (power ordered toward flourishing).
In thinking about power during the age of COVID-19, it may be impossible not to talk about how it is being used in the midst of the crisis. While politics in the United States has long centered on the discussion of the role of government and whether it should be “big” or “small” (given more or less power), few moments in the past few decades have forced our government to take such drastic, far-reaching measures: a stimulus package which purports to put $1200 checks in the hands of the majority of Americans, state-wide shelter-in-place orders, mandated border and business closings. Even discussions of a universal basic income, a breathtaking use of government power that has until recently been unthinkable for most Americans, is being openly considered.
It is here where Crouch’s analysis of power as it relates to institutions may come in handy. Though many in the modern West tend to distrust institutions (owing in part to a pervasive postmodern awareness of the real harm institutions can do), Crouch contends that “institutions are essential for flourishing. (169)” Far from being necessary evils, institutions “are at the heart of culture-making, which means they are at the heart of human flourishing and the comprehensive flourishing of creation that we call shalom. (170).” The government of the United States is one such institution, complete with artifacts (seals, signs), arenas (voting booths, cities, the White House), rules (laws and policies), and roles (president, senator, congresswoman, citizen, etc.), and ordered toward the creation and distribution of power. True power begets power. It might be suggested that what matters more than how much power is given to the government is how that power will be used, and whether it will rely on a Nietzschean zero-sum game or biblical flourishing, especially in the midst of a global crisis which is expected to take more than 100,000 American lives. Crouch’s analysis has far-reaching implications.
Crouch writes to a lay reader, and his writing is supremely readable; frequent clever turns of phrase not only make for the perfect tweet, but reinforce his main points and connect the dots of his arguments. Especially for those of us who have a bad taste in our mouth when it comes to power, having bad experiences with its misuse and abuse, Crouch casts a vision for power that is both realistic and hopeful.
Further along in his discussion of institutions, he quoted a chief executive of a nonprofit organization as saying that “the trustees of an institution are those who have forgiven it. (216)” I was reminded of my own experiences working in ministry, in which I experienced firsthand painful misuses of power, as well as deeply embedded idolatry and injustice. Toward the end of my time in one particular institution, I was encouraged to see a younger generation of ministers who had been deeply hurt rise up to forgive the organization for how they had been hurt, and to be a part of change. Crouch speaks to this when he writes that “[t]rustees have seen, and borne, the worst that institutions can do--and yet they have somehow escaped the abyss of cynicism. Instead, they enter into the life of their institutions, embodying a better way, bearing the institution’s pain and offering hope. (217)”. This vision of power is more…well, powerful than treating power as the end-all-be-all on the one hand or as completely evil on the other; by viewing institutions as gifts that can be stewarded, trustees are invited to contribute.
Readers with strong political persuasions (like myself) will want to place Crouch within a particular political outlook, but he remains fairly evasive, with perhaps the sole exception of mentioning that he voted against Barack Obama in 2008 (138). In a much more divided political context today, many readers will wish Crouch could be more clear in how his analysis of power might affect our current political system (and how we think about those currently in positions of power), but he is writing in 2013, which feels decades away. He does end up dwelling on seemingly impossible utopian dreams for the American way of life--weekly Sabbath, year-long sabbaticals every seventh year, and Jubilee, when all debts are cancelled and land returned to original owners--drawn directly from the Old Testament (252-267), but which seem to speak clearly but indirectly to our current ever-expanding wealth gap and record unemployment.
I recommend Playing God to anyone who wishes to explore the biblical theme of power, and how it might give us hope in a time in which we see it misused and abused. Crouch has written a treatise that challenges long-held assumptions and misconceptions, sketches out a vision for how the gift of power might be used well, and points toward a future when “people will bring the glory and honor [and power] of the nations” into the New Jerusalem to lay at Jesus’ feet (Revelation 21:26).
Upon first reading the introduction, I admit, the idea that power as a gift did not seem new or shocking. But as Crouch continued to support this thesis with stories, examples, and illustrations, I began to realize how much I have been conditioned to treat power as a necessary (and sometimes unnecessary) evil. Many in the modern West have been unknowingly influenced by a Nietzschean understanding of power as a zero-sum game, one in which all human beings are fighting for their own piece of the pie, and the more power one receives, the less power is available for another. In this Nietzschean worldview, there is no such thing as good and evil; these are made-up categories, “names to justify convenient alliances between those bodies who are ‘sufficiently related’ to one another, ‘conspiring for power.’ (47)”
Crouch contrasts this admittedly bleak vision with the biblical vision of power as directed toward the purpose of flourishing. In other words, power begets power, or as Crouch puts it, “true power multiplies power when it is shared. (41)” From this premise, Crouch overturns so many related long-held assumptions: idolatry and injustice in chapters 3-5 (which are not wrong because they are too characterized by power, as if power itself were evil, but wrong because they are the worst distortions of power) and institutions in chapters 9-10 (which, though they have a bad reputation in our Western individualistic culture, might actually be our only hope of saving it). He sketches out a vision for what it means to truly “play God” well, not as an idol, a dominating false god, but as an icon of the one true God, who has given us human beings image-bearing dominion (power ordered toward flourishing).
In thinking about power during the age of COVID-19, it may be impossible not to talk about how it is being used in the midst of the crisis. While politics in the United States has long centered on the discussion of the role of government and whether it should be “big” or “small” (given more or less power), few moments in the past few decades have forced our government to take such drastic, far-reaching measures: a stimulus package which purports to put $1200 checks in the hands of the majority of Americans, state-wide shelter-in-place orders, mandated border and business closings. Even discussions of a universal basic income, a breathtaking use of government power that has until recently been unthinkable for most Americans, is being openly considered.
It is here where Crouch’s analysis of power as it relates to institutions may come in handy. Though many in the modern West tend to distrust institutions (owing in part to a pervasive postmodern awareness of the real harm institutions can do), Crouch contends that “institutions are essential for flourishing. (169)” Far from being necessary evils, institutions “are at the heart of culture-making, which means they are at the heart of human flourishing and the comprehensive flourishing of creation that we call shalom. (170).” The government of the United States is one such institution, complete with artifacts (seals, signs), arenas (voting booths, cities, the White House), rules (laws and policies), and roles (president, senator, congresswoman, citizen, etc.), and ordered toward the creation and distribution of power. True power begets power. It might be suggested that what matters more than how much power is given to the government is how that power will be used, and whether it will rely on a Nietzschean zero-sum game or biblical flourishing, especially in the midst of a global crisis which is expected to take more than 100,000 American lives. Crouch’s analysis has far-reaching implications.
Crouch writes to a lay reader, and his writing is supremely readable; frequent clever turns of phrase not only make for the perfect tweet, but reinforce his main points and connect the dots of his arguments. Especially for those of us who have a bad taste in our mouth when it comes to power, having bad experiences with its misuse and abuse, Crouch casts a vision for power that is both realistic and hopeful.
Further along in his discussion of institutions, he quoted a chief executive of a nonprofit organization as saying that “the trustees of an institution are those who have forgiven it. (216)” I was reminded of my own experiences working in ministry, in which I experienced firsthand painful misuses of power, as well as deeply embedded idolatry and injustice. Toward the end of my time in one particular institution, I was encouraged to see a younger generation of ministers who had been deeply hurt rise up to forgive the organization for how they had been hurt, and to be a part of change. Crouch speaks to this when he writes that “[t]rustees have seen, and borne, the worst that institutions can do--and yet they have somehow escaped the abyss of cynicism. Instead, they enter into the life of their institutions, embodying a better way, bearing the institution’s pain and offering hope. (217)”. This vision of power is more…well, powerful than treating power as the end-all-be-all on the one hand or as completely evil on the other; by viewing institutions as gifts that can be stewarded, trustees are invited to contribute.
Readers with strong political persuasions (like myself) will want to place Crouch within a particular political outlook, but he remains fairly evasive, with perhaps the sole exception of mentioning that he voted against Barack Obama in 2008 (138). In a much more divided political context today, many readers will wish Crouch could be more clear in how his analysis of power might affect our current political system (and how we think about those currently in positions of power), but he is writing in 2013, which feels decades away. He does end up dwelling on seemingly impossible utopian dreams for the American way of life--weekly Sabbath, year-long sabbaticals every seventh year, and Jubilee, when all debts are cancelled and land returned to original owners--drawn directly from the Old Testament (252-267), but which seem to speak clearly but indirectly to our current ever-expanding wealth gap and record unemployment.
I recommend Playing God to anyone who wishes to explore the biblical theme of power, and how it might give us hope in a time in which we see it misused and abused. Crouch has written a treatise that challenges long-held assumptions and misconceptions, sketches out a vision for how the gift of power might be used well, and points toward a future when “people will bring the glory and honor [and power] of the nations” into the New Jerusalem to lay at Jesus’ feet (Revelation 21:26).
August 5, 2025
Very helpful book on power. Prior to reading this, I held a much more skeptical view of power than I do now. To be clear, I still feel that humans struggle mightily with the gift of power, but it cannot be denied that we are meant to exercise power and authority over the world. A redemptive and creative kind of power that brings about human flourishing undreamed of. I love Andy Crouch's other books, and this one is no exception.
February 8, 2023
I've read so much about the abuse of power recently that I found this book to be a refreshing reminder that the essence of power is not ugly. Power is a gift.
"Why is power a gift? Because power is for flourishing. When power is used well, people and the whole cosmos come more alive to what they were meant to be. And flourishing is the test of power."
"Why is power a gift? Because power is for flourishing. When power is used well, people and the whole cosmos come more alive to what they were meant to be. And flourishing is the test of power."
April 3, 2023
Felt very similar to reading a Malcolm Gladwell book. An interesting exposition on the concept of “power.” Crouch desires that everyone recognize the power they hold and utilize it to “play God.” However, this should not be the cheap imitation of an idol, but instead deep reflection of a powerful Creator.
May 26, 2018
Quite good, quite helpful. Andy is more philosopher than theologian, and that works in his favor for books like this, where he takes a high-level idea (power and power dynamics) and brings it back from its cultural captivity to enable a more theological understanding of it (power as God's character, image-bearing as a calling to rightly used power) to emerge.
December 31, 2019
One of my top books this year
So good. One of the best books I’ve read this year. Crouch, as usual, provides a different way of looking at the world, with nuance and insight, while shining fresh light on power from personal relationships to institutions to eschatology. Delightful.
So good. One of the best books I’ve read this year. Crouch, as usual, provides a different way of looking at the world, with nuance and insight, while shining fresh light on power from personal relationships to institutions to eschatology. Delightful.
never-finished
December 1, 201612/1/2016: switching this audiobook to my never-finished shelf. I find some of his thoughts interesting, but I've been disappointed so far that it's just not at a level to interact with the poli sci books of various sub-divisions that I'm reading about power. I think it's probably a good resource at a popular level, but I found some of his explanations frustratingly over-simplified myself. I've kept his list of references to check out, and actually, I already have one of the Oliver O'Donovan books mentioned on my shelf (The Desire of the Nations) that I've been meaning to get to. I may come back to Playing God at some point - it is in audio after all, so makes for good company - but for now, I'm setting it aside for other things.
started 9/2/2016
started 9/2/2016
March 22, 2018
My highest praise for this book is that I can't help but keep bringing it up in conversation over the last few weeks while reading it. Timely, and informing so many of my thoughts already.
I've read two books by Andy Crouch this month, both of which caused me to make significant, joyful alterations to my schedule and budget. A book that influences my thoughts, conversations, time, and down to even my checkbook is a good work indeed.
I've read two books by Andy Crouch this month, both of which caused me to make significant, joyful alterations to my schedule and budget. A book that influences my thoughts, conversations, time, and down to even my checkbook is a good work indeed.
March 6, 2021
good food for thought, to reframe power in a more positive light. but just very obviously written from a very specific (white american male) perspective to a very specific audience (white middle class american) that I could not place myself within. the way he describes things in broad terms as if declaring global truths is in reality only applicable to a specific context. (and doesn't this happen all the time in North American writing :/)
April 6, 2021
I still remember when I presented my research paper at the University of Iowa on Shusaku Endo's cynicism about the institution of the Catholic Church (which mirrored his cynicism about postwar authoritarian Japan). One of the professors at U of I asked me during the Q&A if I thought power could be a force for good since it has such a corrosive effect. I had half-baked answers about how I believed that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of humility, and that the paradox of the Christian faith is that power is found in weakness. I realize now that I was kind of unprepared to answer that question as I've never really pondered it before.
I wish I would've read more of Crouch's work then (or, at least, pushed through Milbank's Theology and Social Theory) because Crouch is quickly becoming my go-to practical theologian. He even applies and simplifies Milbank's Theology and Social Theory for me by making a case for "creational" power. Instead of seeing power as a means of abusing, hoarding, and looting, he argues that true power actually builds and empowers the communities around those who exercise power. God's creative act in Genesis 1 is a great example which he points to, an act which does not lessen God's own power, but rather multiplies it.
This goes hand-in-hand with Crouch's Culture Making. In both books, Crouch seems to speak against the "spiritual but not religious" crowd who are anti-all forms of institutional religion because he believes institutions have been granted the opportunity to "play God" rightly by creating lasting "cultures" in imitation of God's creational act in Genesis. Rather than repeating Lord Acton's mantra that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Christians ought to embrace the gift of power and wield it wisely and responsibly.
I wish I would've read more of Crouch's work then (or, at least, pushed through Milbank's Theology and Social Theory) because Crouch is quickly becoming my go-to practical theologian. He even applies and simplifies Milbank's Theology and Social Theory for me by making a case for "creational" power. Instead of seeing power as a means of abusing, hoarding, and looting, he argues that true power actually builds and empowers the communities around those who exercise power. God's creative act in Genesis 1 is a great example which he points to, an act which does not lessen God's own power, but rather multiplies it.
This goes hand-in-hand with Crouch's Culture Making. In both books, Crouch seems to speak against the "spiritual but not religious" crowd who are anti-all forms of institutional religion because he believes institutions have been granted the opportunity to "play God" rightly by creating lasting "cultures" in imitation of God's creational act in Genesis. Rather than repeating Lord Acton's mantra that "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Christians ought to embrace the gift of power and wield it wisely and responsibly.
February 6, 2022
Andy Crouch is a highly talented author who knows how to craft words with cleverly structured sentences that are both philosophical and thought-provoking for the readers. There are, however, certain matters in this book that I found unnecessary. At times, it seems like he just wrote what he wrote and extended his thoughts by crafting words to express the same ideology in different ways and with various illustrations. His main points could have been easily articulated much more effectively with less than half the book's length and more Scriptural support. As a person who enjoys theology, when reading a book with the title "Playing God," I naturally approach this book with the hope for more theology than nicely crated ideologies. However, despite my honest critique, Crouch's way with words is undoubtedly intriguing and motivates the reader to keep on reading. There is also much that can be learned from the wisdom he presents in his writing, even if the reader may be in disagreement with him.
July 13, 2019
Crouch does an incredible job at portraying what biblical power should look like, how power is abused today, and what power will one day be. He goes from such grand scales of institutions and governments to the personal disciplines and stories of real people. I think this should be a required read for those on politics and in CEO positions.
What I really appreciate is that Crouch gives a very optimistic and realistic dimensions of power, with what could be and what ultimately always is with human societies. It is only through the power of Christ that we are going to be able to truly understand power, how to create flourishing, and bring absolutely shalom on earth.
What I really appreciate is that Crouch gives a very optimistic and realistic dimensions of power, with what could be and what ultimately always is with human societies. It is only through the power of Christ that we are going to be able to truly understand power, how to create flourishing, and bring absolutely shalom on earth.
October 15, 2024
I thought this was a brilliant exploration of power, and it's legitimate (and false) uses both in our human calling and within the church. The chapters on the value of institutions and on Sabbath (and sabbatical) were especially thought provoking.
December 9, 2024
Probably the best book I read all year. This book transforms the mind and heart with imagining the Image of God and the use of power to celebrate and facilitate flourishing. I would pause for long periods just to let certain chapters sink in - and to savor the transformation I was undergoing.
December 28, 2025
Stunningly good and profound book! What a way to finish off my year of reading! The last chapter had me agape, mind blown in how he brought the whole of his argument together. Beautifully written and really helpful to me in gaining a right perspective on power. Highly recommended!
June 5, 2017
Wow, what a book. Penetrating and paradigm-shifting examination of power. Certain sections could have been shortened or eliminated, but overall this is a gift of a book.
April 24, 2025
I read this on release date and agree with the author's comment that it's one of his best works.
June 11, 2024
Per usual, Andy Crouch has insightfully and compellingly challenged the default understanding of power, idolatry, and injustice. Read everything he writes.
January 26, 2021
2.5 stars
So... apparently this book took me 8 years to read. I remember reading the first half of it very quickly, and getting a lot of insight from those chapters... but the second half of it dragged.
So... apparently this book took me 8 years to read. I remember reading the first half of it very quickly, and getting a lot of insight from those chapters... but the second half of it dragged.
April 2, 2024
A paradigm-shifting book on power. I decided to read this as a complement to Robert Caro's The Power Broker, and it paired well with that book. Crouch rightly acknowledges power's corruptive uses, yet he also insists on power's gifts and considers these within a scriptural framework. I think Crouch is a master at making complex subjects understandable through well-chosen word-pictures, and I was left with many useful tools of thought. (His linking of idolatry and injustice is powerful, and his chapters on Sabbath and gleaning are worth the price of admission in themselves.)
I listened to the audiobook of this, so some sections passed me by faster than I was able to ruminate on them. I intend to read this again, slower and more contemplatively.
I listened to the audiobook of this, so some sections passed me by faster than I was able to ruminate on them. I intend to read this again, slower and more contemplatively.
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