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The Mission of God: A Manifesto of Hope for Society
The Mission of God is a work of theological apologetics and cultural philosophy that examines the religious foundations of all thought and action in human life. In this expanded tenth-anniversary edition, Joseph Boot explores the biblical perspective on everyday cultural matters, demonstrating the abiding validity and authority of the whole Word of God for every aspect of life.
He writes in the introduction, "What is the calling of God's covenant people in history? What is the kingdom of God, and how does it manifest itself? What does the reign of God look like, and how are we to discern God working? What is the relationship between faith and public morality and policy? What should the relationship between church and state be? Is religious pluralism a biblically compatible and workable theology of state? Does the church have a future in history? Are Christians called to transform cultures? In short, what is the mission of God, and what part do we have to play? These questions have become increasingly pertinent for the church today, especially in the Western world, because it is widely recognized that Western civilization is facing an epochal turning point."
The Mission of God is an exhortation to rediscover an unashamedly biblical and public commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ for every dimension of human existence.
He writes in the introduction, "What is the calling of God's covenant people in history? What is the kingdom of God, and how does it manifest itself? What does the reign of God look like, and how are we to discern God working? What is the relationship between faith and public morality and policy? What should the relationship between church and state be? Is religious pluralism a biblically compatible and workable theology of state? Does the church have a future in history? Are Christians called to transform cultures? In short, what is the mission of God, and what part do we have to play? These questions have become increasingly pertinent for the church today, especially in the Western world, because it is widely recognized that Western civilization is facing an epochal turning point."
The Mission of God is an exhortation to rediscover an unashamedly biblical and public commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ for every dimension of human existence.
850 pages, Hardcover
Published November 13, 2024
About the author
Joseph Boot
31 books78 followersRev. Dr. Joseph Boot (M.A., Ph.D.) is a cultural theologian, leading Christian apologist, founding pastor of Westminster Chapel in Toronto and founder of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity (EICC). Originally from Great Britain, he served with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries for seven years as an apologist based in Oxford England and Toronto Canada. Joe has spoken all over the world in 25 countries at numerous universities, seminaries, churches, colleges, and conferences from Eton College and Oxford University, to Forman University in Lahore, Pakistan. He regularly addresses pastors and Christian leaders as well as medical, legal, and business professionals in North America, Britain, and the Middle East and has publicly debated leading atheistic thinkers and philosophers in Canada and the United States.
Joe did his undergraduate studies in Theology (Birmingham Christian College, U.K), earned his Master’s degree in Mission Theology (University of Manchester U.K), and holds a Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual Thought (WTS, Florida USA). A contributing author to Thomas Nelson’s major Christian apologetics volume, Beyond Opinion, Joe’s other apologetic works include Searching for Truth (Crossway), Why I Still Believe (Baker), and How Then Shall We Answer (New Wine) which have been published in Europe and North America. His most recent book, The Mission of God, is a systematic work of cultural theology exploring the biblical worldview as it relates to the Christian’s mission in the world. Joe serves as Senior Fellow for the cultural and apologetics think-tank truthXchange in Southern California; is Senior Fellow of cultural philosophy for the California based Centre for Cultural Leadership and serves as faculty for both the Wilberforce Academy in Cambridge U.K and The Alliance Defending Freedom’s Blackstone Legal Academy in Phoenix Arizona. In 2011 Joe was recognized by Toronto’s Centre for Mentorship and Theological Reflection as ‘Best Preacher Apologist’ for his contribution to apologetic and expository preaching. Joe is general editor of the Ezra Institute’s Journal, Jubilee, serves as chancellor for Westminster Classical Christian Academy, and has regularly been heard on Toronto radio, and seen on Sun News Network. Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife, Jenny, and their three children: Naomi, Hannah, and Isaac.
Joe did his undergraduate studies in Theology (Birmingham Christian College, U.K), earned his Master’s degree in Mission Theology (University of Manchester U.K), and holds a Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual Thought (WTS, Florida USA). A contributing author to Thomas Nelson’s major Christian apologetics volume, Beyond Opinion, Joe’s other apologetic works include Searching for Truth (Crossway), Why I Still Believe (Baker), and How Then Shall We Answer (New Wine) which have been published in Europe and North America. His most recent book, The Mission of God, is a systematic work of cultural theology exploring the biblical worldview as it relates to the Christian’s mission in the world. Joe serves as Senior Fellow for the cultural and apologetics think-tank truthXchange in Southern California; is Senior Fellow of cultural philosophy for the California based Centre for Cultural Leadership and serves as faculty for both the Wilberforce Academy in Cambridge U.K and The Alliance Defending Freedom’s Blackstone Legal Academy in Phoenix Arizona. In 2011 Joe was recognized by Toronto’s Centre for Mentorship and Theological Reflection as ‘Best Preacher Apologist’ for his contribution to apologetic and expository preaching. Joe is general editor of the Ezra Institute’s Journal, Jubilee, serves as chancellor for Westminster Classical Christian Academy, and has regularly been heard on Toronto radio, and seen on Sun News Network. Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife, Jenny, and their three children: Naomi, Hannah, and Isaac.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2026
The Mission of God has my hearty recommendation for Christians who want a systematic treatment of theonomy, postmillennialism, and the public claims of Christ’s kingship. It situates the Great Commission within the lordship of Christ over all things. Christ reigns, and so the nations must be discipled in the whole counsel of God. Missiology is not just about evangelism or even ecclesiology, but touches doctrine, worship, family, education, law, culture, and every aspect of public life.
Boot is strongest when he emphasizes the centrality of God’s Law and Christ’s kingship. He refuses to treat biblical law as an embarrassment, a concern for specialists, or a problem to be explained away before Christians can speak about justice. Justice, liberty, charity, civil authority, resistance to tyranny, and cultural renewal all require a standard. Boot presses the reader to see that the standard will either be God’s Word or some rival authority. One of the book’s most poignant lines captures the point well: “To be lawless is to be loveless.” Scripture, and the Law in particular, cannot be judged by a vague standard of love drawn from emotion or social consensus. God’s Law defines love. Without Scripture, we would not know how to love our God or our neighbor. Contrary to the claims of many of its critics, God’s Law limits coercion, protects the weak, restrains evil, and teaches the nations what righteousness requires.
The additions in the Tenth Anniversary Edition are well-earned and give the book a renewed relevance. The material on Romans 13 and the church’s response to the COVID era fits naturally within Boot’s larger argument and gives us an excellent practical example to analyze. If Christ is Lord of the conscience, the church cannot outsource its moral reasoning to the state just because the civil authorities claim to be acting for the common good. Boot's cultural analysis works here primarily because it is theological before it is political. He treats secularism as a rival religion with its own doctrines of sovereignty, salvation, guilt, sacrifice, and social order, which makes his critique of modern politics and culture sharper than it would be as a partisan complaint.
The book is academic, but not overwhelmingly so. Boot writes as a scholar, pastor, and cultural critic all at once: passionate, knowledgeable, and regularly practical in his exhortations. His biblical exegesis is sound and thorough and he does an excellent job grounding positions that are too often dismissed as novel or ahistorical in the broader history of the Church. He handles both secular and Christian sources with obvious mastery of the subjects involved, and the result is a compelling cumulative argument instead of merely a scattering of chapters dealing with partially interrelated claims.
Any weaknesses here are mostly practical. This is an 800-plus-page book, and it can feel like one. Boot sometimes repeats himself, meanders getting to the point of the chapter, or follows rabbit trails that likely interest him more than the reader. Some of this comes from the reconstructionist instinct to cover a subject exhaustively—I’ve found Rushdoony, North, and Gentry to have the same tendency. Most of the time, though, I find the thoroughness endearing. I would rather have a book that gives me more argument than I need than one that fails to prove its point.
Those minor flaws do little to weaken the substance. Boot makes the case for God’s Law in missions, culture, and society with force and clarity. He makes it difficult to treat theonomy as an intramural debate or to dismiss postmillennialism as naive optimism or theological novelty. If the nations are to be discipled, they must be taught the Word of the King.
I would recommend The Mission of God to pastors, elders, thoughtful laymen, politically engaged Christians, and serious skeptics of theonomy or postmillennialism who want a thorough treatment of these questions with the Great Commission in view. The book demands patience, but it is one of the most substantial works I have read on Christ’s lordship over all of life.
Boot is strongest when he emphasizes the centrality of God’s Law and Christ’s kingship. He refuses to treat biblical law as an embarrassment, a concern for specialists, or a problem to be explained away before Christians can speak about justice. Justice, liberty, charity, civil authority, resistance to tyranny, and cultural renewal all require a standard. Boot presses the reader to see that the standard will either be God’s Word or some rival authority. One of the book’s most poignant lines captures the point well: “To be lawless is to be loveless.” Scripture, and the Law in particular, cannot be judged by a vague standard of love drawn from emotion or social consensus. God’s Law defines love. Without Scripture, we would not know how to love our God or our neighbor. Contrary to the claims of many of its critics, God’s Law limits coercion, protects the weak, restrains evil, and teaches the nations what righteousness requires.
The additions in the Tenth Anniversary Edition are well-earned and give the book a renewed relevance. The material on Romans 13 and the church’s response to the COVID era fits naturally within Boot’s larger argument and gives us an excellent practical example to analyze. If Christ is Lord of the conscience, the church cannot outsource its moral reasoning to the state just because the civil authorities claim to be acting for the common good. Boot's cultural analysis works here primarily because it is theological before it is political. He treats secularism as a rival religion with its own doctrines of sovereignty, salvation, guilt, sacrifice, and social order, which makes his critique of modern politics and culture sharper than it would be as a partisan complaint.
The book is academic, but not overwhelmingly so. Boot writes as a scholar, pastor, and cultural critic all at once: passionate, knowledgeable, and regularly practical in his exhortations. His biblical exegesis is sound and thorough and he does an excellent job grounding positions that are too often dismissed as novel or ahistorical in the broader history of the Church. He handles both secular and Christian sources with obvious mastery of the subjects involved, and the result is a compelling cumulative argument instead of merely a scattering of chapters dealing with partially interrelated claims.
Any weaknesses here are mostly practical. This is an 800-plus-page book, and it can feel like one. Boot sometimes repeats himself, meanders getting to the point of the chapter, or follows rabbit trails that likely interest him more than the reader. Some of this comes from the reconstructionist instinct to cover a subject exhaustively—I’ve found Rushdoony, North, and Gentry to have the same tendency. Most of the time, though, I find the thoroughness endearing. I would rather have a book that gives me more argument than I need than one that fails to prove its point.
Those minor flaws do little to weaken the substance. Boot makes the case for God’s Law in missions, culture, and society with force and clarity. He makes it difficult to treat theonomy as an intramural debate or to dismiss postmillennialism as naive optimism or theological novelty. If the nations are to be discipled, they must be taught the Word of the King.
I would recommend The Mission of God to pastors, elders, thoughtful laymen, politically engaged Christians, and serious skeptics of theonomy or postmillennialism who want a thorough treatment of these questions with the Great Commission in view. The book demands patience, but it is one of the most substantial works I have read on Christ’s lordship over all of life.
June 7, 2025
A necessary call for a return to a Puritan worldview. This is truly an important work.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews