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When Politics Becomes Heresy: The Idol of Power and the Gospel of Christ
Evangelicals have chosen heresy
Evangelicals fought for a place at the table, but we lost our house. The church has been consumed by politics―political priorities and allegiances. Christian brothers and sisters have become opponents. We are no longer united by shared faith, but divided by shared heresy.
When Politics Becomes Heresy is Tim Perry’s loving rebuke and call to repentance. Evangelicals are embracing the logic of ancient heresies, and these heresies lead to each other. Once we exchange the gospel for power (Simony), our faith becomes a mere add-on (Gnosticism), our Savior a teacher of self-improvement (Arianism), our mission social action (Pelagianism), and our unity division (Donatism).
The solution is not to switch sides or carve out a third way. Rather, the right response to unbelief is repentance. We must stop, turn around, and return to God’s gracious throne.
As for the idols of the nations, they are but silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
Those who make them are like them,
and so are all who put their trust in them.
Evangelicals fought for a place at the table, but we lost our house. The church has been consumed by politics―political priorities and allegiances. Christian brothers and sisters have become opponents. We are no longer united by shared faith, but divided by shared heresy.
When Politics Becomes Heresy is Tim Perry’s loving rebuke and call to repentance. Evangelicals are embracing the logic of ancient heresies, and these heresies lead to each other. Once we exchange the gospel for power (Simony), our faith becomes a mere add-on (Gnosticism), our Savior a teacher of self-improvement (Arianism), our mission social action (Pelagianism), and our unity division (Donatism).
The solution is not to switch sides or carve out a third way. Rather, the right response to unbelief is repentance. We must stop, turn around, and return to God’s gracious throne.
As for the idols of the nations, they are but silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
Those who make them are like them,
and so are all who put their trust in them.
216 pages, Paperback
First published April 9, 2025
16 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 6, 2026
Prob 3.5 stars (between good and very good)
Perry, a Lutheran priest in Canada, compares some of our current church political/cultural dilemmas to some classic historical heresies: Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism. While attempting to be scrupulously non-partisan, he contends that when Christians put too much faith in politics we end up distorting the gospel, and in ways that are reminiscent of these famous theological errors.
Simony, named after Simon Magus in Acts, is attempting to use money or political position to purchase spiritual gain. Perry uses the term for religious figures today that are willing to trade their spiritual position/power for political or financial gain. At first pass these may seem like opposites, but both are attempting to either buy or sell spiritual power using worldly currency. What exactly are we forfeiting in order to “have a seat at the table?”
Perry believes the modern counterpart of Gnostism is accommodating our faith with the surrounding culture. This will result in distorting our theology to fit political or ideological frameworks.
Arianism denied the full divinity of Jesus. “Jesus is not our savior, but someone who teaches us to save ourselves.“ The modern analogue is when we place our hope in political movements or political figures instead of Christ.
Pelagianism is the idea that we can attain perfection through human effort. Perry compares this to the modern belief that political reform will usher in the kingdom of God, reducing Christianity to social activism and self-help improvement.
Donatists stressed the importance of moral purity of the church (both for the priesthood and other believers). At the time this related specifically to baptizing those who had denied Christ during the previous era of persecution. The modern version leads Christians to treat political opponents as morally illegitimate.
Overall there is some great church history here as Perry details the history and implications of each of these heresies, and he rightly cautions the church to avoid similar traps today, even if the comparisons seem a bit stretched at times. As is the case with most books in this category, the main weakness is showing exactly what political engagement would look like for Christians who are properly balancing civic responsibility and theological orthodoxy.
Still a very worthwhile read.
Perry, a Lutheran priest in Canada, compares some of our current church political/cultural dilemmas to some classic historical heresies: Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism. While attempting to be scrupulously non-partisan, he contends that when Christians put too much faith in politics we end up distorting the gospel, and in ways that are reminiscent of these famous theological errors.
Simony, named after Simon Magus in Acts, is attempting to use money or political position to purchase spiritual gain. Perry uses the term for religious figures today that are willing to trade their spiritual position/power for political or financial gain. At first pass these may seem like opposites, but both are attempting to either buy or sell spiritual power using worldly currency. What exactly are we forfeiting in order to “have a seat at the table?”
Perry believes the modern counterpart of Gnostism is accommodating our faith with the surrounding culture. This will result in distorting our theology to fit political or ideological frameworks.
Arianism denied the full divinity of Jesus. “Jesus is not our savior, but someone who teaches us to save ourselves.“ The modern analogue is when we place our hope in political movements or political figures instead of Christ.
Pelagianism is the idea that we can attain perfection through human effort. Perry compares this to the modern belief that political reform will usher in the kingdom of God, reducing Christianity to social activism and self-help improvement.
Donatists stressed the importance of moral purity of the church (both for the priesthood and other believers). At the time this related specifically to baptizing those who had denied Christ during the previous era of persecution. The modern version leads Christians to treat political opponents as morally illegitimate.
Overall there is some great church history here as Perry details the history and implications of each of these heresies, and he rightly cautions the church to avoid similar traps today, even if the comparisons seem a bit stretched at times. As is the case with most books in this category, the main weakness is showing exactly what political engagement would look like for Christians who are properly balancing civic responsibility and theological orthodoxy.
Still a very worthwhile read.
Read
May 13, 2025Confronts evangelicals with the political lies that we believe, shows that the lies are grounded in ancient heresies, and calls us to repent and believe the Gospel
March 24, 2026
Outstanding book! Shows how the ancient heresies are alive and well when we substitute the gospel for political power. It is an hone at assessment of American church culture that avoids finger pointing of one side but provides an honest critique of the problem and steps to repent of our sin.
Quotes-
This book is a lament. The way the political polarization of our wider culture has been mirrored in our evangelical churches is ugly.
“If we dared to ask why [evangelical have embraced identity politics], perhaps we might find that the real problem is neither whiteness nor wokeness but plain, old-fashioned worldliness.”
The evangelical right calls us to retrench, to double down on the old alliances that brought us, rightly or wrongly, to prominence through the 1980s. The evangelical left is seeking to forge new alliances with the emerging elite while pouring scorn on previous generations. Each side, I believe, fails to see its mirror image in the other.
The solution is not to switch sides, and still less to carve out a political third way. The solution is to repent, in the sense of the New Testament word metanoia.
Summary -
Each side is hoping to maintain or secure political advantage by selling the gospel to political power brokers who may find us useful, but that’s about it. I have called that Simony. This invariably has led to changing the gospel from an announcement of an event, namely, the resurrection of Jesus, to a rhetorical flourish for a political message peddled for other reasons altogether. Jesus is malleable. His gospel can be shaped to fit whatever political needs are at hand. Jesus is still important, to be sure, but only insofar as he fits what we already believe for other reasons. In short, gnosticism. The good news of salvation soon becomes a message of self-improvement, in which the Savior helps us save ourselves by strengthening our hold on the right politics. A Savior who doesn’t save is the Christ of Arianism. Now christless, the political goal is conflated with the kingdom. Not a kingdom that’s erupting in our midst, but a kingdom we will build—Pelagianism. And finally, since the kingdom of God is the kingdom we’re building, our opponents must not simply be mistaken. They must be evil. Compromise was the art of politics when politics was penultimate. Now that politics are transcendent, compromise is impossible. For all our reluctance to believe in binaries anymore, any political discussion in America will reveal that the old distinctions between good and evil, clean and unclean, sacred and profane are alive and well and have moved from the temple to the state house. In the church, this is the resurgence of Donatism. Whether we’re white or woke, I believe this pattern holds. p. 141
Quotes-
This book is a lament. The way the political polarization of our wider culture has been mirrored in our evangelical churches is ugly.
“If we dared to ask why [evangelical have embraced identity politics], perhaps we might find that the real problem is neither whiteness nor wokeness but plain, old-fashioned worldliness.”
The evangelical right calls us to retrench, to double down on the old alliances that brought us, rightly or wrongly, to prominence through the 1980s. The evangelical left is seeking to forge new alliances with the emerging elite while pouring scorn on previous generations. Each side, I believe, fails to see its mirror image in the other.
The solution is not to switch sides, and still less to carve out a political third way. The solution is to repent, in the sense of the New Testament word metanoia.
Summary -
Each side is hoping to maintain or secure political advantage by selling the gospel to political power brokers who may find us useful, but that’s about it. I have called that Simony. This invariably has led to changing the gospel from an announcement of an event, namely, the resurrection of Jesus, to a rhetorical flourish for a political message peddled for other reasons altogether. Jesus is malleable. His gospel can be shaped to fit whatever political needs are at hand. Jesus is still important, to be sure, but only insofar as he fits what we already believe for other reasons. In short, gnosticism. The good news of salvation soon becomes a message of self-improvement, in which the Savior helps us save ourselves by strengthening our hold on the right politics. A Savior who doesn’t save is the Christ of Arianism. Now christless, the political goal is conflated with the kingdom. Not a kingdom that’s erupting in our midst, but a kingdom we will build—Pelagianism. And finally, since the kingdom of God is the kingdom we’re building, our opponents must not simply be mistaken. They must be evil. Compromise was the art of politics when politics was penultimate. Now that politics are transcendent, compromise is impossible. For all our reluctance to believe in binaries anymore, any political discussion in America will reveal that the old distinctions between good and evil, clean and unclean, sacred and profane are alive and well and have moved from the temple to the state house. In the church, this is the resurgence of Donatism. Whether we’re white or woke, I believe this pattern holds. p. 141
April 7, 2025
“When Politics Becomes Heresy” by Lutheran pastor Tim Perry expounds on how the heresies of church history persist even today in our current era, and calls the church to respond rightly in repentance and returning to the Gospel and God’s ways.
It’s no surprise to us now that politics has a growing influence in the church in concerning ways. In this book, ancient heresies are addressed and related to the current state of much of the church, to include:
1. Gnosticism (integrating our faith with worldliness)
2. Simony (using the gospel for power)
3. Arianism (exchanging our heavenly Savior for a human helper)
4. Pelagianism (transforming our mission into social action)
5. Donatism (demonizing other believers)
This book does not name names but is thoroughly researched and a needed addition to this topic for believers, especially those in the midst of America’s current political and religious landscape. Though it was a slightly challenging read, I appreciated the information on the history of these heresies in the early church, which sets the stage for how they relate to the church today.
Highlights:
“Whatever debates or discussions we evangelicals have, they need to be brought back inside and not aired on social or mainstream media . . . we are making a mockery of the gospel when we parade our divisions in front of the world.”
“To embrace a heresy is to deny some core aspect of the gospel.”
“The rejection of false ideas in the pursuit of truth is part and parcel of being the church in history; it is the task of faith seeking understanding, of faith and reason working together in the pursuit of him who is the Truth.”
“The biblical story cannot be adapted and adopted into modernity. It must out-narrate, transform, indeed convert and annihilate modernity.”
“. . . the Bible is not a handbook, and its purpose is not to produce a happy, well-adjusted life. Its purpose is to absorb the world, to tell the truth about it, and to call it and us to repentance.”
“Pick a hot-button political issue, and you will find someone insisting Jesus is exclusively on their side.”
Total: 3.5 ⭐️
Readability: 3
Impact: 4
Content: 4
Enjoyment: 3
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.
It’s no surprise to us now that politics has a growing influence in the church in concerning ways. In this book, ancient heresies are addressed and related to the current state of much of the church, to include:
1. Gnosticism (integrating our faith with worldliness)
2. Simony (using the gospel for power)
3. Arianism (exchanging our heavenly Savior for a human helper)
4. Pelagianism (transforming our mission into social action)
5. Donatism (demonizing other believers)
This book does not name names but is thoroughly researched and a needed addition to this topic for believers, especially those in the midst of America’s current political and religious landscape. Though it was a slightly challenging read, I appreciated the information on the history of these heresies in the early church, which sets the stage for how they relate to the church today.
Highlights:
“Whatever debates or discussions we evangelicals have, they need to be brought back inside and not aired on social or mainstream media . . . we are making a mockery of the gospel when we parade our divisions in front of the world.”
“To embrace a heresy is to deny some core aspect of the gospel.”
“The rejection of false ideas in the pursuit of truth is part and parcel of being the church in history; it is the task of faith seeking understanding, of faith and reason working together in the pursuit of him who is the Truth.”
“The biblical story cannot be adapted and adopted into modernity. It must out-narrate, transform, indeed convert and annihilate modernity.”
“. . . the Bible is not a handbook, and its purpose is not to produce a happy, well-adjusted life. Its purpose is to absorb the world, to tell the truth about it, and to call it and us to repentance.”
“Pick a hot-button political issue, and you will find someone insisting Jesus is exclusively on their side.”
Total: 3.5 ⭐️
Readability: 3
Impact: 4
Content: 4
Enjoyment: 3
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.
August 27, 2025
I realized about halfway through that I would have gotten a lot more out of this book if I had a degree in theology. So this is a review from an ignorant layman.
I didn't like it. Perry took such great pains to be vaguely critical of "both sides" that he was unable to give any direct examples of the heresies he's talking about. Just admit that you're condemning the American Church's involvement in the MAGA movement, man. The author KKOWS that the vast of American Evangelicals are conservative/far-right/republican, but he won't address the elephant in the room.
Then again, he made his political position pretty clear when he went on a strange tangent against renewable energy.
I'm glad Perry tried to call the American Evangelical Church away from politics and back to Christ. I just wish he'd been bolder about it.
I didn't like it. Perry took such great pains to be vaguely critical of "both sides" that he was unable to give any direct examples of the heresies he's talking about. Just admit that you're condemning the American Church's involvement in the MAGA movement, man. The author KKOWS that the vast of American Evangelicals are conservative/far-right/republican, but he won't address the elephant in the room.
Then again, he made his political position pretty clear when he went on a strange tangent against renewable energy.
I'm glad Perry tried to call the American Evangelical Church away from politics and back to Christ. I just wish he'd been bolder about it.
December 28, 2025
Reads contemporary evangelism, especially in our obsession with politics, through the lens of classical heresies (Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism). I'm predisposed to agree with him and appreciated his thoughtfulness but he tries so hard to avoid picking a side between right and left that he intentionally avoids any concrete examples in contemporary evangelicalism and is purposely vague. He said he did this to avoid losing readers on either side of the aisle, but I think this choice takes away from the book's impact. I suspect he is, like me, wary of both the progressive evangelicalism that gets its marching orders from the culture and the MAGA right that also gets its marching orders from culture but his failure to connect the dots weakens his argument (that I think is probably largely correct, but as it is, remains unfinished).
July 13, 2025
God, deliver me from ever believing that an alliance with the powers of this world will even capture a glimpse of Your Kingdom come.
Here, Tim Perry captures an evangelical crisis with humility and a long view of history. He elucidates heresies with sympathy for their formulators and outlines how they really just germinate from fears and proposed solutions common to all of us.
Comfort seems to be at least a large part (or perhaps the main objective) of the error that Perry identifies (in himself just as much as in the wider movement). We could afford to be comfortable as American evangelical Christians when most everyone still had a Bible in the house for one reason or another and stories from the Bible were still cultural touchstones that most folks off the street had heard. And so, like often happens in comfort, we didn't build anything. Nothing that could last, anyway. Sure, we constructed a sub-culture of sorts, but we didn't feel the need to cling to Scripture, the Spirit, and the ekklesia to try and imitate and anticipate the in-breaking heavenly Kingdom as distinct from the powers. We were too comfortable.
So, when comfort was snatched away by radically changing cultural tides, we didn't have anything to fall back on. We forgot that worldly culture was never supposed to like us or incorporate us. And we really wanted to stay comfortable. We lent Jesus' voice to any cause that we liked, forgetting to put His purpose and the simple proclamation of His death and resurrection front and center and the source of all our efforts. We lost Him in this process in many instances. We started to believe that we could build the Kingdom ourselves, on the corpses of those who disagree. We started to think, in all our (sometimes understandable) concern for the future of our movement in the church, like those who started with real issues and landed in the wrong places despite their best, sincerest efforts. And now we are comfortable again.
Problem? Vote it away. Protest it away. Legislate it away.
What Perry suggests (again, primarily to himself) is to do something far more uncomfortable. Repentance demands that we become less insular, more patient, more trusting, perhaps more foolish and naïve as the world might estimate it. It requires that we look quite different. It requires submission to the Word and to each other. It requires that we work more toward the crucifixion hill than toward a project of power-fueled world change, an incarnation of the Kingdom that we would all-too-happily stamp our faces on. It requires that we refuse to bow to Caesar and to look to the true King.
It's going to take time, and conversation, and holding our ideas with an open hand. But a thousand years is like a day to our Lord. While we get antsy during the climaxes of our election cycles, hoping that our (often Kingdom-minded) objectives will be expediently brought to bear by the next guy, He is already assured of His victory and restoration. We can participate, and it isn't by grabbing a shovel and trying to dig a foundation for our vision of the Kingdom, meanwhile attempting to shore up our survival against a culture that is, after all, hostile to us. It certainly isn't by telling our brothers and sisters how to vote (I don't think Perry goes this far, but I would go as far as to say it's not even by telling anyone to go vote in the first place). It's found here, as Perry references in the final chapter:
"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength." - Is. 30:15
If we live quiet lives and trust the Lord, all the things we hope to establish as shadows of the Kingdom will come to pass as an outflowing of His Spirit and love within us, and we will look different from those who want to leverage power and steamroll those who disagree. We won't be comfortable. But it's not comfort we should be after. It's rest.
Here, Tim Perry captures an evangelical crisis with humility and a long view of history. He elucidates heresies with sympathy for their formulators and outlines how they really just germinate from fears and proposed solutions common to all of us.
Comfort seems to be at least a large part (or perhaps the main objective) of the error that Perry identifies (in himself just as much as in the wider movement). We could afford to be comfortable as American evangelical Christians when most everyone still had a Bible in the house for one reason or another and stories from the Bible were still cultural touchstones that most folks off the street had heard. And so, like often happens in comfort, we didn't build anything. Nothing that could last, anyway. Sure, we constructed a sub-culture of sorts, but we didn't feel the need to cling to Scripture, the Spirit, and the ekklesia to try and imitate and anticipate the in-breaking heavenly Kingdom as distinct from the powers. We were too comfortable.
So, when comfort was snatched away by radically changing cultural tides, we didn't have anything to fall back on. We forgot that worldly culture was never supposed to like us or incorporate us. And we really wanted to stay comfortable. We lent Jesus' voice to any cause that we liked, forgetting to put His purpose and the simple proclamation of His death and resurrection front and center and the source of all our efforts. We lost Him in this process in many instances. We started to believe that we could build the Kingdom ourselves, on the corpses of those who disagree. We started to think, in all our (sometimes understandable) concern for the future of our movement in the church, like those who started with real issues and landed in the wrong places despite their best, sincerest efforts. And now we are comfortable again.
Problem? Vote it away. Protest it away. Legislate it away.
What Perry suggests (again, primarily to himself) is to do something far more uncomfortable. Repentance demands that we become less insular, more patient, more trusting, perhaps more foolish and naïve as the world might estimate it. It requires that we look quite different. It requires submission to the Word and to each other. It requires that we work more toward the crucifixion hill than toward a project of power-fueled world change, an incarnation of the Kingdom that we would all-too-happily stamp our faces on. It requires that we refuse to bow to Caesar and to look to the true King.
It's going to take time, and conversation, and holding our ideas with an open hand. But a thousand years is like a day to our Lord. While we get antsy during the climaxes of our election cycles, hoping that our (often Kingdom-minded) objectives will be expediently brought to bear by the next guy, He is already assured of His victory and restoration. We can participate, and it isn't by grabbing a shovel and trying to dig a foundation for our vision of the Kingdom, meanwhile attempting to shore up our survival against a culture that is, after all, hostile to us. It certainly isn't by telling our brothers and sisters how to vote (I don't think Perry goes this far, but I would go as far as to say it's not even by telling anyone to go vote in the first place). It's found here, as Perry references in the final chapter:
"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength." - Is. 30:15
If we live quiet lives and trust the Lord, all the things we hope to establish as shadows of the Kingdom will come to pass as an outflowing of His Spirit and love within us, and we will look different from those who want to leverage power and steamroll those who disagree. We won't be comfortable. But it's not comfort we should be after. It's rest.
November 21, 2025
Tim Perry's When Politics Becomes Heresy is a challenge to North American evangelicals. Perry does not so much make an argument, but he asks the reader to reconsider their perception of the Christianity that surrounds them. Through the lens of heresies, Perry argues evangelicals come into sharper focus.
While he is not claiming that everyone you share a pew with at church is heretical, and headed toward hell, he does believe evangelicalism is suffering versions of Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism.
Too many of us, on the right and the left, have rendered to Caesar the things that are God's, even if it is unconscious. The gospel has been trimmed to fit categories of right and left for the sake of political influence. This affects how we view Christ, sin, salvation, and reality itself.
I find Perry's book provocative and sometimes persuasive. He generally chooses not to use particular examples as evidence. This is understandable because he is seeking to maximize his audience and by choosing particular figures to attack, he would alienate their followers. He is correct in this assessment, but this also weakens the presentation. He is allowed, then, to abstract his heresies, root them in a historical setting, and then generally nod to our current time and place. Sometimes, it feels like it would be harder to demonstrate his claims if he had to compile direct evidence.
Either way, it is an interesting read.
While he is not claiming that everyone you share a pew with at church is heretical, and headed toward hell, he does believe evangelicalism is suffering versions of Simony, Gnosticism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Donatism.
Too many of us, on the right and the left, have rendered to Caesar the things that are God's, even if it is unconscious. The gospel has been trimmed to fit categories of right and left for the sake of political influence. This affects how we view Christ, sin, salvation, and reality itself.
I find Perry's book provocative and sometimes persuasive. He generally chooses not to use particular examples as evidence. This is understandable because he is seeking to maximize his audience and by choosing particular figures to attack, he would alienate their followers. He is correct in this assessment, but this also weakens the presentation. He is allowed, then, to abstract his heresies, root them in a historical setting, and then generally nod to our current time and place. Sometimes, it feels like it would be harder to demonstrate his claims if he had to compile direct evidence.
Either way, it is an interesting read.
September 30, 2025
This book is much needed today. The problem, so accurately diagnosed here, is that Christians on both the political right and the political left have, by embracing the ancient heresies of the church, gotten into bed with politics thinking that political leaders, political parties, and political power are the answer to the problems of the world. But, as Anglican theologian Tim Perry rightly points out, only Jesus is the answer to the problems of our world today, and those answers are given to us in the promise of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. To that end, Tim Perry does a good job of explaining in each chapter one of the classic heresies of the church and identifying how that heresy has taken on a new form today; he then calls the church to repentance for embracing these heresies before calling us back to faith in the dying and rising Christ given to us in the Scriptures. This is a book that all pastors and lay persons should read today. There are a lot of wisdom and insight here. Highly recommended!
October 29, 2025
Phenomenal book!!
I highly recommend it. The Bible warns us throughout Scripture of how tempting it is to idolize politics. Saul, Psalm 146, Israel and Egypt (Isa 30), and multiple other warnings. Something in our heart wants control and sees government as the answer, so we replace God with government and break the 1st Commandment.
Yes it’s okay to be politically active, but please do so fully aware of the dangers. It’s like plutonium, has a purpose, but should be handled with caution.
When Politics Becomes Heresy does a good job of both confronting our heart through errors made by people in church history.
At times the historical analysis is tedious, but keep reading. The lessons are valuable
Once we no longer rest in God, willing to address ideas with patience replacing disciple making with cancelling people, we’ve lost the Gospel. Asking government to establish the kingdom ignores that our citizenship is in heaven. Great book!
Btw He’s not saying no involvement, but know the dangers and rely on the Lord.
I highly recommend it. The Bible warns us throughout Scripture of how tempting it is to idolize politics. Saul, Psalm 146, Israel and Egypt (Isa 30), and multiple other warnings. Something in our heart wants control and sees government as the answer, so we replace God with government and break the 1st Commandment.
Yes it’s okay to be politically active, but please do so fully aware of the dangers. It’s like plutonium, has a purpose, but should be handled with caution.
When Politics Becomes Heresy does a good job of both confronting our heart through errors made by people in church history.
At times the historical analysis is tedious, but keep reading. The lessons are valuable
Once we no longer rest in God, willing to address ideas with patience replacing disciple making with cancelling people, we’ve lost the Gospel. Asking government to establish the kingdom ignores that our citizenship is in heaven. Great book!
Btw He’s not saying no involvement, but know the dangers and rely on the Lord.
December 29, 2025
Four and a half stars.
A little repetitive, and I think chapters 4 (Arianism) and 5 (Pelagianism) are essentially making the same point.
But for all that, a searing and prophetic indictment on both the theological right and left, especially as they tend, in our day, to strain towards the political right and left. His analysis is almost as relevant here in the UK as it is in the author's USA context.
To his brief constructive final chapter, I would add: communion (or eucharist, or the Lord's Supper; call it what you will). To this table we can come only and entirely upon the Lord's terms and at his bidding (rejecting the temptation of Simony and the deceptive offers of Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism), and here we discover ourselves as sinners and our sisters and brothers as forgiven and redeemed (countering our tebdency to Donatism).
A little repetitive, and I think chapters 4 (Arianism) and 5 (Pelagianism) are essentially making the same point.
But for all that, a searing and prophetic indictment on both the theological right and left, especially as they tend, in our day, to strain towards the political right and left. His analysis is almost as relevant here in the UK as it is in the author's USA context.
To his brief constructive final chapter, I would add: communion (or eucharist, or the Lord's Supper; call it what you will). To this table we can come only and entirely upon the Lord's terms and at his bidding (rejecting the temptation of Simony and the deceptive offers of Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism), and here we discover ourselves as sinners and our sisters and brothers as forgiven and redeemed (countering our tebdency to Donatism).
March 3, 2026
Perry's book has some great cultural exegesis and great words of wisdom to speak into the church's relationship with politics in our moment. However, I am not fully sold on the idea that these tensions we feel in politics as Christians are rooted in ancient heresies. I see the threads that he links between the heresies and modern, sinful patterns of political engagement, but, personally, I feel as though correlation doesn't mean causation here. Are these misaligned patterns idolatrous? sinful? in need of change? Yes to all three. Rooted in heresy? I'm just not quite there.
I think the book is definitely worth a read. Perry's definition of heresy is very helpful, and (like mentioned above) he has some wonderful cultural exegesis.
I think the book is definitely worth a read. Perry's definition of heresy is very helpful, and (like mentioned above) he has some wonderful cultural exegesis.
May 6, 2025
I was shocked at how much I loved this little firecracker of a book. The historical research and grounding is solid, and the prophetic cultural critique is outstanding. A really stand-out book, with a refreshing take, in a very-crowded publishing space. Highly, highly recommended!
Full video review here: https://youtu.be/UexJwlv-DeQ
Full video review here: https://youtu.be/UexJwlv-DeQ
September 14, 2025
There are some good points made but sometimes the heresies as applied seems a stretch. Some much needed criticisms are pointed out.
January 16, 2026
To be honest . . . I could not get into this book. It's not the topic but the style of writing. It seemed to go here, there, and everywhere. I never finished reading it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews