Life in the Wild : Fighting for Faith in a Fallen World

by Daniel DeWitt

"Life sucks! What are you going to do about it?" We see Jesus, we believe in Jesus and we wait for Jesus, yet still we suffer. This book offers real and rugged answers in life's dark places. Discover how to live with hope in a fallen world and be encouraged. Walking through Genesis 3, Dan DeWitt shows us how we can look at this world realistically but without despairing, as we wait for God to keep his promise to bring us out of the wild and into his new creation. It's the contrast between Eden, where everything reflects God's perfection, and exile, where everything is spoiled by sin. The book helps us survive living in exile - Life in the Wild - until "the glorious day when God will welcome us home, out of the wild." This book holds dark and light in balance. It shows how we are living with the effects of the fall (we are messed-up people living in a messed-up place) - but God's promise, made in Eden, serves as a beacon of light to guide our steps in this fallen world.

Genres: Christian

128 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2018

About the author

Daniel DeWitt, PhD, is a senior fellow at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO, where he leads the Center for Worldview and Culture and teaches courses on theology, apologetics, and C.S. Lewis. He is the author of multiple books, including Jesus or Nothing, The Friend Who Forgives, and Sketchy Views, and posts regularly at Theolatte.com. He and his wife, April, have four children.

Reviews

[Kim Cosgrove · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read to help myself think and thinking is enjoyable to me. For these reasons, I found Dan DeWitt’s new book an interesting journey to think deeply about life in a fallen world…how we got here and how we navigate it and thrive in it. This is my first read from this author, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I found his writing very honest and hopeful. Life is hard and there aren’t easy answers. His illustrations were helpful and interesting. One of my favorite illustrations was using an example from A Christmas Carol where Scrooge meets two children produced from his meanness called Ignorance and Want. He then uses that idea to show us two children which are offspring of humanity’s evil called Guilt and Shame. The author describes the “children”:
To liken Guilt and Shame to the children in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Guilt is the girl and Shame is the boy. And as the ghost says, “Beware of them both, but most of all beware the boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom.” What Guilt begins, Shame expands. Doom is written on his forehead.
No one can share in your guilt, but many can share in your shame. The child whose father is imprisoned, the wife whose husband is unfaithful, the daughter with an abusive mother— they all share in the shame. They feel as though their self- worth is lessened. Shame wraps its arms around their ankles tightly—allowing them to walk, but never to run.
Good stuff. I recommend this book…it is an easy read as the chapters are fairly concise. I think it will encourage you to follow Jesus in a fallen world.

[Erik Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in the Wild is an enjoyable, helpful, yet brief read. Dewitt provides an overview of the gospel essentials required for navigating life in a fallen world (the wild). The book offers helpful and hopeful reminders for the experienced believer or instructive insights for the new believer. Overall a warm and pleasant read.

[Brandon Boone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Suffering. Pain. Death.
All of these make multiple appearances in Dan Dewitt's Life in the Wild. And yet the reader doesn't walk away feeling depressed. Because, in the midst of the darkness, Dewitt weaves the light of hope.
And not fluffy, syrupy, close-your-eyes-and-pretend hope. Real hope. Gospel hope.
In his exploration of ways that living in the wild disappoints, grieves, and crushes us, he consistently circles back to Christ and God's ultimate solution to our problem.
But Dewitt's proffered hope isn't just grounded in the past or the future. He also gives insights that the reader can remember, enact, and share right now. Hope in the wild isn't produced by grin-and-bear-it eschatology, but by a life and mind transformed by Christ and impacting the present.
Buy it. Read it. Let it sink deep.
Life in the wild sucks. Life in the Wild can help.

[Zachary Stout · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan DeWitt has done a wonderful job of illustrating what life looks like “in the wild.” The Christian world view seems to be true because it makes the most sense of reality. The doctrine of creation and the fall makes sense of how humanity perceives reality, especially evil and injustice. Dan DeWitt outlines what life looks like when believers fight for faith as strangers and aliens in a cursed land that is not our home.

[Seth Woodley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is instructive and delightful to read. DeWitt provides keen insight from Scripture that helps us understand what it means to live in a broken world, which he calls the wild. DeWitt also provides connections with works of literature and film from Dickens, Lewis, Tolkien, Star Wars, and more.

Overall, this is a helpful book for believers who need to be reminded of biblical truths and the hope that one day all things will be made new. I think this book would also be valuable for small groups, high school and college students, and new believers. It is biblically rich and wonderfully accessible.

* I received an early copy of this book from the author in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Will Imfeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life in the Wild is a practical yet powerful guide to living in the "the already but not yet" world that we believers exist in. However, the book is not only beneficial for believers but describes the overall human condition very well, making the case that Christianity explains and provides a balm for the trials of this life.

[Rachel DeWeese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some good chapters on how we as believers should live as "already not yet" people in a fallen world. I would definitely recommend this to new believers, as this book goes through some essential truths of the Christian faith and life on earth.

[Cat Caird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. A reminder of the Gospel through the harsh realities of life! Lots of cultural references too which I loved! It's worth a read.