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Gods That Fail, Revised Edition: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission
The globalizing world of late modernity is heavily awash with pseudo-gods. Gods That Fail provocatively deploys the theological concept of idolatry to explore the ways in which these gods blind their devotees and wreak suffering and dehumanization. Many of these pseudo-gods have infiltrated the life of the Church and compromised its witness. Combining lively social critique with fresh expositions of familiar biblical stories, this book engages with a variety of secular discourses as well as the sub-Christian practices that accompany and undermine Christian involvement in the public square.
"This revised edition of Gods that Fail is an incredible contribution to understand the ways in which people in the modern world live out their social existence and their expectations, and the deeper issues which underlie these expectations. In his typical lucid and insightful manner, Vinoth reminds his readers of what is really transpiring in our world today.
--Glenn Smith, Urban Missiologist; Executive Director, Christian Direction; Montréal
Academic Dean, Institut de théologie pour la Francophonie, Laval University
"In Gods that Fail, Ramachandra adroitly describes what worshiping the gods of Scientism, Consumerism, Nationalism, Capitalism, and Marxism (among others) has done to us. Inside and outside the church, we have succumbed to these flawed ideologies and lost our way. But there is hope. In these pages is a lucid description of what it means to be in the world without becoming of the world."
--Scott Bessenecker, Associate Director of Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Author
"Gods That Fail bears the hallmarks of Vinoth Ramachandra's exceptional contributions to Christian thought and practice. His writing is incisive and provocative, illuminating and challenging, profound and accessible. Ramachandra's careful logic exposes the deceptive illusions and distortions of our idolatries, and calls us into the life-giving light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ. Gods That Fail offers a compelling analysis of our context and confusion, and a motivating call to clarity and faithfulness."
--Mark Labberton, President, Fuller Theological Seminary; Author
Vinoth Ramachandra lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He serves as the international Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement for IFES, a global partnership of over 150 university-level national Christian movements. He holds both a B.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of London. He is a theological consultant to the Micah Network of relief and advocacy agencies, and A Rocha, a biodiversity conservation movement. Among his other books dealing with global public issues are Faiths in Conflict? and Subverting Global Myths.
"This revised edition of Gods that Fail is an incredible contribution to understand the ways in which people in the modern world live out their social existence and their expectations, and the deeper issues which underlie these expectations. In his typical lucid and insightful manner, Vinoth reminds his readers of what is really transpiring in our world today.
--Glenn Smith, Urban Missiologist; Executive Director, Christian Direction; Montréal
Academic Dean, Institut de théologie pour la Francophonie, Laval University
"In Gods that Fail, Ramachandra adroitly describes what worshiping the gods of Scientism, Consumerism, Nationalism, Capitalism, and Marxism (among others) has done to us. Inside and outside the church, we have succumbed to these flawed ideologies and lost our way. But there is hope. In these pages is a lucid description of what it means to be in the world without becoming of the world."
--Scott Bessenecker, Associate Director of Missions for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship; Author
"Gods That Fail bears the hallmarks of Vinoth Ramachandra's exceptional contributions to Christian thought and practice. His writing is incisive and provocative, illuminating and challenging, profound and accessible. Ramachandra's careful logic exposes the deceptive illusions and distortions of our idolatries, and calls us into the life-giving light of God's revelation in Jesus Christ. Gods That Fail offers a compelling analysis of our context and confusion, and a motivating call to clarity and faithfulness."
--Mark Labberton, President, Fuller Theological Seminary; Author
Vinoth Ramachandra lives in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He serves as the international Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement for IFES, a global partnership of over 150 university-level national Christian movements. He holds both a B.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of London. He is a theological consultant to the Micah Network of relief and advocacy agencies, and A Rocha, a biodiversity conservation movement. Among his other books dealing with global public issues are Faiths in Conflict? and Subverting Global Myths.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1996
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March 29, 2016
Summary: A consideration of how the false gods of late modernity both undermine human flourishing in a globalizing world and render ineffectual the witness of the church in that world, set in contrast with the biblical narratives of creation, the nature of evil, and the unique, transformative power of the cross.
This is a book with a global vision. It explores the failure of the gods of both western secularity and materialism and eastern spirituality. The author sees a common element in these--the effort to obtain power through some form of technique, whether of science and technology, or economics, or the techniques of spirituality to manipulate the powers of the spiritual world. Yet these gods invariably disappoint and lead both personal futility and the dehumanization of others. But the author is not merely setting his sights on the failures of others. He also sees these forms of idolatry as vitiating the mission of the church. He writes:
"The book's subtitle is deliberately ambiguous. Does Christian mission involve a confrontation with the 'idols of our time?' Or does Christian mission, at least in some prominent aspects, unconsciously disseminate forms of idolatry around the globe? Or are large sections of the Christian Church so riddled with idolatry that their missionary vision has been paralysed? The burden of this book can be summed up by saying that all three of these questions require the emphatic answer: 'Yes' "(p. 25).
The book both commends the biblical narrative as one that renders a true and compelling alternative to the dehumanizing gods of modern idolatry and serves as a ringing call to Christians east and west to recognize and repent of their own idolatries and captivities to the false gods of their cultures.
The author is uniquely suited to this task. He is a native of Sri Lanka, educated at the University of London. He serves as the international Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a global partnership of over 150 student movements on every continent. His account is a model of fluent, sweeping and yet incisive analysis.
Following an introduction laying out his thesis and plan of argument, Ramachandra turns to the biblical account of creation, taking both scientists and Christians alike to task for the focus on questions of how and when and totally overlooking the narratives assertions of Who the Creator is and his relation to humankind and the rest of creation. This leads to a consideration of evil and suffering in the book of Job, the idolatry implicit in the answers of Job's comforters, and the reality that God gives no direct answer to Job's question because evil and suffering are in fact a "monstrous absurdity" in God's good world.
Chapter 4 turns from biblical narrative to the critiques of religion posed by Marx and Freud, which Ramachandra actually sees as a telling critique on what Christian Smith has called "moral, therapeutic deism". Just as Israel succumbed to the deities of the surrounding nations that provided fertility and prosperity while allowing them to ignore the poor, Ramachandra sees the critiques of Marx and Freud justly exposing bourgeois religion that domesticates God and is unconcerned about injustice. The god these atheists attack is one Christians have no business defending. Chapter 5 goes on to consider the violence of idols beginning with the mental formation behind things like money in which we embue things and concepts with power that come to dominate us. Ramachandra trenchantly illustrates this in his discussion of "development", challenging our western notions of unfettered growth and what constitutes "development" which others might consider "regression." He concludes this chapter with a return to Genesis showing how the chaos of the flood and the confusion and disintegration of Babel are inevitable results.
Chapters 6 and 7 concern science and reason as modernist projects and the assaults of post-modern anti-science and unreason upon these projects. In both chapters, Ramachandra demonstrates the rootedness of objective truth in a Creator and the false dichotomy between reason and revelation that need not set science, reason, and Christian faith against one another.
The concluding chapter considers the stark contrast of the crucified God of Christianity who does not cling to power but dies at the hands of power to give life to a humanity in thrall. It is when Christians renounce nationalisms, and economic and political power, to walk in the way of the cross and the hope of the resurrection that they are most true to their message and are able to speak most compellingly about the true God in a world of idols.
This work is a revision of a work originally published 20 years ago. The author notes that the most significant change is switching chapters 2 and 4 in the original book, which he believed improved the flow of argument. He brings some examples and statistics up to date but has not substantively re-written the book. And it is here where there might be some criticism of the work in that it reflects an engagement with post-modernism and its assault on science and reason that perhaps has moved on to the social sciences and political theory in the years since and receives little treatment here.
One of the challenges of all thoughtful people, and certainly Christians is to "understand the present time" (Romans 13:11, NIV). Without such reflection, and sometimes, the self-criticism that results, we may easily be swept up in the cultural captivities of the day and unwittingly give our worship to creations of our own hands. This book is a clarion call that can cut through the clouds of our murky thinking and cultural blind spots. I welcome this revised edition, which could not come at a more timely moment, at least for the North American church of which I am a part.
______________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
This is a book with a global vision. It explores the failure of the gods of both western secularity and materialism and eastern spirituality. The author sees a common element in these--the effort to obtain power through some form of technique, whether of science and technology, or economics, or the techniques of spirituality to manipulate the powers of the spiritual world. Yet these gods invariably disappoint and lead both personal futility and the dehumanization of others. But the author is not merely setting his sights on the failures of others. He also sees these forms of idolatry as vitiating the mission of the church. He writes:
"The book's subtitle is deliberately ambiguous. Does Christian mission involve a confrontation with the 'idols of our time?' Or does Christian mission, at least in some prominent aspects, unconsciously disseminate forms of idolatry around the globe? Or are large sections of the Christian Church so riddled with idolatry that their missionary vision has been paralysed? The burden of this book can be summed up by saying that all three of these questions require the emphatic answer: 'Yes' "(p. 25).
The book both commends the biblical narrative as one that renders a true and compelling alternative to the dehumanizing gods of modern idolatry and serves as a ringing call to Christians east and west to recognize and repent of their own idolatries and captivities to the false gods of their cultures.
The author is uniquely suited to this task. He is a native of Sri Lanka, educated at the University of London. He serves as the international Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement for the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a global partnership of over 150 student movements on every continent. His account is a model of fluent, sweeping and yet incisive analysis.
Following an introduction laying out his thesis and plan of argument, Ramachandra turns to the biblical account of creation, taking both scientists and Christians alike to task for the focus on questions of how and when and totally overlooking the narratives assertions of Who the Creator is and his relation to humankind and the rest of creation. This leads to a consideration of evil and suffering in the book of Job, the idolatry implicit in the answers of Job's comforters, and the reality that God gives no direct answer to Job's question because evil and suffering are in fact a "monstrous absurdity" in God's good world.
Chapter 4 turns from biblical narrative to the critiques of religion posed by Marx and Freud, which Ramachandra actually sees as a telling critique on what Christian Smith has called "moral, therapeutic deism". Just as Israel succumbed to the deities of the surrounding nations that provided fertility and prosperity while allowing them to ignore the poor, Ramachandra sees the critiques of Marx and Freud justly exposing bourgeois religion that domesticates God and is unconcerned about injustice. The god these atheists attack is one Christians have no business defending. Chapter 5 goes on to consider the violence of idols beginning with the mental formation behind things like money in which we embue things and concepts with power that come to dominate us. Ramachandra trenchantly illustrates this in his discussion of "development", challenging our western notions of unfettered growth and what constitutes "development" which others might consider "regression." He concludes this chapter with a return to Genesis showing how the chaos of the flood and the confusion and disintegration of Babel are inevitable results.
Chapters 6 and 7 concern science and reason as modernist projects and the assaults of post-modern anti-science and unreason upon these projects. In both chapters, Ramachandra demonstrates the rootedness of objective truth in a Creator and the false dichotomy between reason and revelation that need not set science, reason, and Christian faith against one another.
The concluding chapter considers the stark contrast of the crucified God of Christianity who does not cling to power but dies at the hands of power to give life to a humanity in thrall. It is when Christians renounce nationalisms, and economic and political power, to walk in the way of the cross and the hope of the resurrection that they are most true to their message and are able to speak most compellingly about the true God in a world of idols.
This work is a revision of a work originally published 20 years ago. The author notes that the most significant change is switching chapters 2 and 4 in the original book, which he believed improved the flow of argument. He brings some examples and statistics up to date but has not substantively re-written the book. And it is here where there might be some criticism of the work in that it reflects an engagement with post-modernism and its assault on science and reason that perhaps has moved on to the social sciences and political theory in the years since and receives little treatment here.
One of the challenges of all thoughtful people, and certainly Christians is to "understand the present time" (Romans 13:11, NIV). Without such reflection, and sometimes, the self-criticism that results, we may easily be swept up in the cultural captivities of the day and unwittingly give our worship to creations of our own hands. This book is a clarion call that can cut through the clouds of our murky thinking and cultural blind spots. I welcome this revised edition, which could not come at a more timely moment, at least for the North American church of which I am a part.
______________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
April 21, 2025
A Christian Noam Chomsky
18 April 2025
Well, it is always refreshing we I find a Christian book that takes a swipe at the modern economic system, and in doing so outlines that fact that the global south simply exists to prop up the consumer orientated global north. Mind you, the author of this book is a nuclear physicist turned evangelist so there are deep dives into how the church responds to certain scientific aspects verses the Bible.
The thing is that this book was written in the 90s, which you could say was the beginning of the post-truth reality, namely with relativism, and whatever you believed was correct. Mind you, in the thirty odd years since this seems to have switched with a lot of the relativists coming back to a world bounded by truth, particularly with Climate Change, and the church slipping into post truth, particularly with the big lie of 2020.
I do remember growing up in this time period, and there was a lot of discussion over the trend toward relativism, and that the church was fighting against it, claiming that morality wasn’t something that you made up yourself, but rather something that was based on Biblical truth. Mind you, since the author was writing from the viewpoint of a South Asian, he did rightly apply this to how religion would shape one’s scientific view of the world (the Christian west tended to move towards the idea of the Big bang and the heat death of the universe, while the East tended to have move towards the steady state theory – namely that the universe always existed and moved in cycles).
He also explored the concept of how the Bible related to science, and this was a big thing as well, since the secular world argued that science disproved the Bible while the fundamentalists argued that the Bible disproved science. His position is the same position that a lot of the churches that I attended would take, and namely that the Bible is not a scientific text book, and even the early readers of Genesis understood that it was to be taken poetically, not literally.
However, as you can tell, the title of the book indicates that it is about idols, and that is another thing that would always appear, and still appears. Mind you, these days we have fundamentalist Christian nationalists attending conferences with idols of their leaders, and claiming that they are God’s anointed. Even one of our former Prime Ministers channelled Moses to claim that his removal from office equated to the nation rejecting God (and no doubt he was put up to that by the church leaders).
I have actually discovered his blog and a quick read of it indicates that he really, really doesn’t like Donald Trump, but that is beside the point. The point is about how we, especially in the west, have been caught up in idols of economic growth, and an individualist rhetoric, though the thing is that this just isn’t the west, but it is the church as well. Sure, the church does talk about greed, but the thing is that a lot of these sermons are just covers to ask for more money. Sure, we should reject greed, but the question is where do we send our money – well, we shouldn’t be giving it all to the church.
Yeah, this is a pretty awesome book, and he certainly doesn’t pull any punches. Seriously, we really need more Christian leaders who are willing to confront the idols of our age as opposed to just skirting around the edges for fear of upsetting their donors.
18 April 2025
Well, it is always refreshing we I find a Christian book that takes a swipe at the modern economic system, and in doing so outlines that fact that the global south simply exists to prop up the consumer orientated global north. Mind you, the author of this book is a nuclear physicist turned evangelist so there are deep dives into how the church responds to certain scientific aspects verses the Bible.
The thing is that this book was written in the 90s, which you could say was the beginning of the post-truth reality, namely with relativism, and whatever you believed was correct. Mind you, in the thirty odd years since this seems to have switched with a lot of the relativists coming back to a world bounded by truth, particularly with Climate Change, and the church slipping into post truth, particularly with the big lie of 2020.
I do remember growing up in this time period, and there was a lot of discussion over the trend toward relativism, and that the church was fighting against it, claiming that morality wasn’t something that you made up yourself, but rather something that was based on Biblical truth. Mind you, since the author was writing from the viewpoint of a South Asian, he did rightly apply this to how religion would shape one’s scientific view of the world (the Christian west tended to move towards the idea of the Big bang and the heat death of the universe, while the East tended to have move towards the steady state theory – namely that the universe always existed and moved in cycles).
He also explored the concept of how the Bible related to science, and this was a big thing as well, since the secular world argued that science disproved the Bible while the fundamentalists argued that the Bible disproved science. His position is the same position that a lot of the churches that I attended would take, and namely that the Bible is not a scientific text book, and even the early readers of Genesis understood that it was to be taken poetically, not literally.
However, as you can tell, the title of the book indicates that it is about idols, and that is another thing that would always appear, and still appears. Mind you, these days we have fundamentalist Christian nationalists attending conferences with idols of their leaders, and claiming that they are God’s anointed. Even one of our former Prime Ministers channelled Moses to claim that his removal from office equated to the nation rejecting God (and no doubt he was put up to that by the church leaders).
I have actually discovered his blog and a quick read of it indicates that he really, really doesn’t like Donald Trump, but that is beside the point. The point is about how we, especially in the west, have been caught up in idols of economic growth, and an individualist rhetoric, though the thing is that this just isn’t the west, but it is the church as well. Sure, the church does talk about greed, but the thing is that a lot of these sermons are just covers to ask for more money. Sure, we should reject greed, but the question is where do we send our money – well, we shouldn’t be giving it all to the church.
Yeah, this is a pretty awesome book, and he certainly doesn’t pull any punches. Seriously, we really need more Christian leaders who are willing to confront the idols of our age as opposed to just skirting around the edges for fear of upsetting their donors.
September 4, 2019
Leitura concluída! Que livro fantástico! Uma perspicácia incomparável para identificar os ídolos modernos da tecnologia, da ciência, do poder financeiro, do misticismo e do liberalismo político e todos os males que eles acarretam, e uma lucidez incrível para bater tanto no Chico Ocidental quanto no Francisco Oriental (vindo de alguém que vive no Sri Lanka).
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Recomendo a todos que estão cansados da superficialidade da dicotomia “esquerda X direita”, ou “capitalismo X socialismo”, e que desejam ser surpreendidos e confrontadas ao encontrarem ídolos onde não achavam que fosse possível encontrá-los. O argumento não é encadeado e facilmente identificável, então leia-o direto, como uma carta que contém uma mensagem urgente!
⠀
Recomendo a todos que estão cansados da superficialidade da dicotomia “esquerda X direita”, ou “capitalismo X socialismo”, e que desejam ser surpreendidos e confrontadas ao encontrarem ídolos onde não achavam que fosse possível encontrá-los. O argumento não é encadeado e facilmente identificável, então leia-o direto, como uma carta que contém uma mensagem urgente!
December 10, 2022
I loved this read; it was very heady but the concepts were SO GOOD. I think the richness of this book came from his questioning of the course of history and the implications of actions and our interpretation of those actions throughout the centuries.
September 28, 2022
A little technical at times with complicated logic but a powerful critique of modern Western Christianity. Exposes idolatry in our culture and churches. Worth reading again!
Want to read
June 7, 2024recommended by Paul Trip on the rise and fall of OVERT idolatry that the author grew up with which could be informative to your experience.
August 11, 2020
A stirring rebuke of modern idols in Science, Philosophy, Economics et cetera. Ramachandra draws on his extensive knowledge as a Christian Missionary and Nuclear Scientist to critique everything from crude Logical positivism to Postmodern Cultural Relativism and paired Post-Colonial idolatries- Christ as a quasi Churchill or quasi Che Guevara, as it were. Building on the sturdy foundations of The Scripture and The Spirit as well as forerunners like Newbigin and Michael Polanyi, Vinoth deftly and wisely discerns the good and the bad in the Christian missionary spirit and it's little sister, Science. Offering good and properly Theological guidance- worshipping communities should be embracing unique cultural and linguistic vernaculars as we simultaneously share in universal brotherhood, boycotting bad business practices and lopsided manipulation of majority world resources, resisting unjust governments; even when they're well intentioned and taking personal and corporate responsibility to live intentional and knowledgeable Christian lives; always centred around The Crucuified One.
May 23, 2016
Clear, detailed, and very well researched insight into the nature of idolatry from all aspects of culture. Provides a clearly articulated understanding of our only hope to keep ourselves from idolatry: namely, a vital and growing understanding and lived experience if the gospel of Jesus expressed through his death and resurrection.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews