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Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture
Undaunted Hope in a Post-Christian World
We live in a post-Christian world. Contemporary thought--claiming to be "progressive" and "liberating"--attempts to place human beings in God's role as creator, lawgiver, and savior. But these post-Christian ways of thinking and living are running into dead ends and fatal contradictions.
This timely book demonstrates how the Christian worldview stands firm in a world dedicated to constructing its own knowledge, morality, and truth. Gene Edward Veith Jr. points out the problems with how today's culture views humanity, God, and even reality itself. He offers hope-filled, practical ways believers can live out their faith in a secularist society as a way to recover reality, rebuild culture, and revive faith.
We live in a post-Christian world. Contemporary thought--claiming to be "progressive" and "liberating"--attempts to place human beings in God's role as creator, lawgiver, and savior. But these post-Christian ways of thinking and living are running into dead ends and fatal contradictions.
This timely book demonstrates how the Christian worldview stands firm in a world dedicated to constructing its own knowledge, morality, and truth. Gene Edward Veith Jr. points out the problems with how today's culture views humanity, God, and even reality itself. He offers hope-filled, practical ways believers can live out their faith in a secularist society as a way to recover reality, rebuild culture, and revive faith.
320 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
55 people are currently reading
446 people want to read
About the author
Gene Edward Veith Jr.
45 books185 followersGene Edward Veith Jr., is the Culture Editor of WORLD MAGAZINE. He was formerly Professor of English at Concordia University Wisconsin, where he has also served as Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals, and God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
April 6, 2020
Really fine book. Rich and rewarding.
November 3, 2025
DNF because of school schedule, but read maybe half and enjoyed it
April 6, 2020
Occasionally a newly released book becomes irrelevant almost immediately. I suspect this may be the case for Gene Veith’s Post-Christian. However, being irrelevant does not mean useless. I am very interested in thinking about how Christians can live for the Kingdom of God and further God’s purposes in Western Culture. So I was excited to dig into Veith’s book, which I received as part of the Crossway Blog Review program. However even as I was reading Post-Christian, it appears the cultural currents may again be shifting. In the opening pages, Veith discusses Thomas Oden’s approach to identifying the major cultural trends of the last couple centuries, associating them with major disruptive events. Modernism, on this model, was ushered in with the fall of the Bastille during the French Revolution (1789). Modernism ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as Communism seemed to collapse. Veith identifies another shift with the events of 9/11. After 9/11 Postmodernism did not so much collapse as evolve into contemporary Intersectionality and ideological totalitarianism (the same could actually be said about the relationship between Postmodernism and Modernism, and Modernism and “Premodernism”). Whatever we make of this schema for cultural analysis, it is clear the world will look very different at the end of our current crisis. We may very well see the current (Post)Postmodernism transform into something wholly other or come of age in a new expression.
However, no matter the changes that happen in the next couple years, Veith’s book will prove very helpful for the pastor or lay Christian to understand Western Culture over the last 20 years. And many of the issues and trends he discusses will surely continue at the other end of COVID-19. In this book, Gene Veith intends to provide a sequel to his earlier book Postmodern Times, “offering a new ‘Christian guide to contemporary thought and culture’” (18). Veith does a good job summarizing the trends and developments over the last 20 years and offers some helpful suggestions how Christians can live faithfully and witness to the very areas where our society is weak. I will provide a brief summary of the book’s four parts and an evaluation, identifying some areas of weakness and areas where the reader will be benefitted.
Summary
Post-Christian is divided into four Parts, each part moving from a description of the current culture to a prescription for how Christianity answers the problem of that culture. Veith intends for the book to have “an arc,” identifying the consequences of secularism in its description and suggesting some prospects for a “post-secular society” in prescription. This is where Veith sees our culture heading, away from the secular / sacred divide of postmodernism (in which spirituality was okay so long as it was private) to a general openness to spirituality or religiousness that may allow Christianity to flourish.
In Part 1, Veith looks at the issues of constructivism, scientific dominance, and technology as they have affected and shaped our society. In Chapter 4 of this first part, Veith describes the post-secular vision of George Hamann, a contemporary of Kant. Hamann will be drawn on throughout the book to answer our contemporary crisis. Essentially, Veith sees Hamman as someone who beats Postmodernism and its children at their own game, critiquing the Enlightenment from a firmly Christian perspective and, therefore, not falling into the relativism of its secular critics.
Part 2 considers the degradation of the body in Postmodern society. Veith sees a proper theology of the body, and so marriage and children (among other things), as a prescriptive response to the radical Gnosticism of Postmodernism. Postmodernism is Gnostic, Veith argues, in its rejection of matter and its distinctive biological features for mental constructivism.
Part 3 considers the degradation of community and society under Postmodernism. Veith unveils the lack of community within western culture and the ideological totalitarianism of the new Postmodernism, of intersectionality. In his constructive chapter, Veith discusses several options taken by Christians to address the societal issues created by Postmodernism and suggests a doctrine of vocation as the Christian answer to many of these issues. Having written a book on the subject, Veith does not explain with sufficient detail (at least in my opinion) what a robust doctrine of vocation would look like.
Part 4 concludes the body of Post-Christian by considering religion. In this regard, the post 9/11 incarnation of Postmodernism has taken an interesting turn. Veith shows that far from dying as Secularisation Theory anticipated, religiosity or at least spirituality is actually on the rise in the 21st century. In the final chapter, Veith shows how secularism has infiltrated the church to some extent, yet global Christianity is on the rise and proving to be a force for de-secularisation. As such, this final chapter is not so much prescriptive as it is a contextualization of the true extent of secularism in the global context: Western Christianity may have struggled in the 20th century, but global Christianity is blooming and proving to be a sanctifying force on the Western Church.
Evaluation
Overall, there is much good to say about Post-Christian. Veith is a good writer; though over 300 pages long, Post-Christian is not a terribly difficult or lengthy read. Veith demonstrates a thorough familiarity with our culture, both its roots and current manifestations. The breadth of this survey will be a great help to the reader who does not have enough to time to explore the complexities of contemporary Western society. Furthermore, in contrast with many books, Veith answers the question “does Christianity have any answer to the crises of our day” with a resounding “Yes!” For these reasons, Post-Christian will be a welcome addition to the library of many pastors and students of Western culture. I recommend it to those looking for a better understanding of our culture (or at least, our culture before its current crisis). That said, I have several concerns with the overall approach and some sections of Post-Christian.
Compared with many writers (such as Neil Postman), Veith is not nearly as negative as he could be in the chapter on technology. However, after doing a good job raising the issues of our society’s “technopoly,” I don’t think Veith counters these issues sufficiently in his attempt to end on a positive note. The issues are huge, so this is understandable, but the reader who has not thought or read about these issues before may just find themselves with a new reading list rather than a helpful, Christian answer for interacting with and not being mastered by technology. More significantly, at least from a Reformed Protestant perspective, Veith does not spend sufficient time bringing the Scriptures to bear on the present issues. He provides enough proof texts to show that this is possible, but his main intent (at least it seems) is to do ressourcement: to show how a previous thinker, in this case George Hamann, can guide us through our contemporary crisis. Ressourcement is in itself a troublesome endeavour (in my opinion) but choosing Hamann as the object of ressourcement is even more troublesome. Hamann’s thought is difficult, so he will be out of the reach of most readers, and it seems to me that Veith attributes to Hamann greater value than is reasonable (I don’t think it is historically or substantially accurate to describe his Metacritique of the Purism of Reason as the “definitive” refutation of Kant’s thought, pg. 81). Lastly, Veith follows many Evangelical’s today in adopting too high a view of Western culture and its tradition. This is evident in the classical approach to education that is currently experiencing resurgence and receives Veith’s endorsement here, but Veith also speaks several times of a Christian approach to society “that can preserve the best of our civilization’s heritage through the new dark ages” (277, cf. 225-227). I have serious reservations about classical education and such a view of Western civilization. I am currently working on several writing projects that will expound these concerns further, however, for now all I can do is offer a caution to the reader: should this really be a priority for Christians? With these concerns registered, I do not hesitate to offer Veith’s book as a helpful guide to contemporary Western culture (or at least pre March 2020 Western culture).
However, no matter the changes that happen in the next couple years, Veith’s book will prove very helpful for the pastor or lay Christian to understand Western Culture over the last 20 years. And many of the issues and trends he discusses will surely continue at the other end of COVID-19. In this book, Gene Veith intends to provide a sequel to his earlier book Postmodern Times, “offering a new ‘Christian guide to contemporary thought and culture’” (18). Veith does a good job summarizing the trends and developments over the last 20 years and offers some helpful suggestions how Christians can live faithfully and witness to the very areas where our society is weak. I will provide a brief summary of the book’s four parts and an evaluation, identifying some areas of weakness and areas where the reader will be benefitted.
Summary
Post-Christian is divided into four Parts, each part moving from a description of the current culture to a prescription for how Christianity answers the problem of that culture. Veith intends for the book to have “an arc,” identifying the consequences of secularism in its description and suggesting some prospects for a “post-secular society” in prescription. This is where Veith sees our culture heading, away from the secular / sacred divide of postmodernism (in which spirituality was okay so long as it was private) to a general openness to spirituality or religiousness that may allow Christianity to flourish.
In Part 1, Veith looks at the issues of constructivism, scientific dominance, and technology as they have affected and shaped our society. In Chapter 4 of this first part, Veith describes the post-secular vision of George Hamann, a contemporary of Kant. Hamann will be drawn on throughout the book to answer our contemporary crisis. Essentially, Veith sees Hamman as someone who beats Postmodernism and its children at their own game, critiquing the Enlightenment from a firmly Christian perspective and, therefore, not falling into the relativism of its secular critics.
Part 2 considers the degradation of the body in Postmodern society. Veith sees a proper theology of the body, and so marriage and children (among other things), as a prescriptive response to the radical Gnosticism of Postmodernism. Postmodernism is Gnostic, Veith argues, in its rejection of matter and its distinctive biological features for mental constructivism.
Part 3 considers the degradation of community and society under Postmodernism. Veith unveils the lack of community within western culture and the ideological totalitarianism of the new Postmodernism, of intersectionality. In his constructive chapter, Veith discusses several options taken by Christians to address the societal issues created by Postmodernism and suggests a doctrine of vocation as the Christian answer to many of these issues. Having written a book on the subject, Veith does not explain with sufficient detail (at least in my opinion) what a robust doctrine of vocation would look like.
Part 4 concludes the body of Post-Christian by considering religion. In this regard, the post 9/11 incarnation of Postmodernism has taken an interesting turn. Veith shows that far from dying as Secularisation Theory anticipated, religiosity or at least spirituality is actually on the rise in the 21st century. In the final chapter, Veith shows how secularism has infiltrated the church to some extent, yet global Christianity is on the rise and proving to be a force for de-secularisation. As such, this final chapter is not so much prescriptive as it is a contextualization of the true extent of secularism in the global context: Western Christianity may have struggled in the 20th century, but global Christianity is blooming and proving to be a sanctifying force on the Western Church.
Evaluation
Overall, there is much good to say about Post-Christian. Veith is a good writer; though over 300 pages long, Post-Christian is not a terribly difficult or lengthy read. Veith demonstrates a thorough familiarity with our culture, both its roots and current manifestations. The breadth of this survey will be a great help to the reader who does not have enough to time to explore the complexities of contemporary Western society. Furthermore, in contrast with many books, Veith answers the question “does Christianity have any answer to the crises of our day” with a resounding “Yes!” For these reasons, Post-Christian will be a welcome addition to the library of many pastors and students of Western culture. I recommend it to those looking for a better understanding of our culture (or at least, our culture before its current crisis). That said, I have several concerns with the overall approach and some sections of Post-Christian.
Compared with many writers (such as Neil Postman), Veith is not nearly as negative as he could be in the chapter on technology. However, after doing a good job raising the issues of our society’s “technopoly,” I don’t think Veith counters these issues sufficiently in his attempt to end on a positive note. The issues are huge, so this is understandable, but the reader who has not thought or read about these issues before may just find themselves with a new reading list rather than a helpful, Christian answer for interacting with and not being mastered by technology. More significantly, at least from a Reformed Protestant perspective, Veith does not spend sufficient time bringing the Scriptures to bear on the present issues. He provides enough proof texts to show that this is possible, but his main intent (at least it seems) is to do ressourcement: to show how a previous thinker, in this case George Hamann, can guide us through our contemporary crisis. Ressourcement is in itself a troublesome endeavour (in my opinion) but choosing Hamann as the object of ressourcement is even more troublesome. Hamann’s thought is difficult, so he will be out of the reach of most readers, and it seems to me that Veith attributes to Hamann greater value than is reasonable (I don’t think it is historically or substantially accurate to describe his Metacritique of the Purism of Reason as the “definitive” refutation of Kant’s thought, pg. 81). Lastly, Veith follows many Evangelical’s today in adopting too high a view of Western culture and its tradition. This is evident in the classical approach to education that is currently experiencing resurgence and receives Veith’s endorsement here, but Veith also speaks several times of a Christian approach to society “that can preserve the best of our civilization’s heritage through the new dark ages” (277, cf. 225-227). I have serious reservations about classical education and such a view of Western civilization. I am currently working on several writing projects that will expound these concerns further, however, for now all I can do is offer a caution to the reader: should this really be a priority for Christians? With these concerns registered, I do not hesitate to offer Veith’s book as a helpful guide to contemporary Western culture (or at least pre March 2020 Western culture).
April 6, 2021
Post-Christian is a wonderful overview of the church's many opportunities and threats today. Veith's Jr's book is like Nancy Pearcey's excellent Total Truth, in its balance between complex scholarship and pleasant readability.
Veith Jr goes into detail about the challenges that a move to an 'information economy' brings, the limitations of political labels, and the contours of church growth quantitatively and qualitatively around the world. Consideration of each takes on added import after Covid-19 and the push for a worldwide, often soft totalitarian, 'new normal'.
Gene draws upon scripture and theology, philosophy, statistics, and more to guide us into the malevolent nature of our dominant modern secularist hegemony. Further, he reminds us of the church's proper public role, and her universal character and mission.
He doesn't want a retreat or a capitulation to secularism and offers some models for balanced engagement. I do still think a separation from huge urban cosmopolitan areas would help the church and that might meet the definition of 'Benedict Option', which he critiques, but he is right to suggest it is no cure-all solution, as sin is often as much of a problem within the church as outside. This has been the case through history.
Post-Christian assures us that we must avoid the pitfalls of secularism on many fronts: expressive individualism, a new tribal quasi-paganism, political panaceas, and perhaps most insightfully a new hyperreal internet culture. Regarding the latter, he shows that we face not just a leviathan state and corrupt corporate oligopolies but also a problem navigating the indiscriminate nature of computer-mediated communication. It offers us no clarity and can desensitise us.
So, we need to engage with the internet with much greater discernment and use it only as a supplement to a healthy embodied life: with real flesh and blood friends, embodied voluntary associations, games, and experiences.
Then he goes into the threat posed by transhumanism, transgenderism, etc. All of which fail to account for the theology of the body, all of which undermine God's creation, our uniqueness and our interesting differences, even the freedom our limitations bring. This is like Joshua Mitchell's excellent emphasis on 'liberal competence' and Simone Weil's need for roots.
Gene calls us to become 'post-secular', taking useful insights from Christian scholars and even non-Christians like Habermas. The latter, he shows, underestimates the nature of Christian living unsurprisingly. But he is a better ally than other more militant secularists and his more respectful approach might serve as a springboard to a more thorough pluralism, Veith Jr seems to suggest.
Being post-secular means avoiding the constant temptation to Gnosticism, by returning to the body and family at a distinctly theological level. Veith Jr wants to build upon JP2's work on a theology of the body but remove its un-Biblical elements. I am in enthusiastic agreement here. He would find Nancy Pearcey, whom I mentioned, as an ally amongst Protestants. Dr Wendy M. Wright and Dr Michael Martin are similar frontrunners amongst Catholics, and Vigen Guroian or Fr Dn Stephen Muse amongst Orthodox, in paving the way for a more Biblical theology of the body.
Overall, Post-Christian is a most refreshing move away from our Gnostic 'enlightenment' mindset and its dehumanising offspring, such as postmodernism and Critical Theories. We are back on a firmer Biblical foundation and ready to meet the challenges of our dominant, for now, Post-Christian culture.
Veith Jr goes into detail about the challenges that a move to an 'information economy' brings, the limitations of political labels, and the contours of church growth quantitatively and qualitatively around the world. Consideration of each takes on added import after Covid-19 and the push for a worldwide, often soft totalitarian, 'new normal'.
Gene draws upon scripture and theology, philosophy, statistics, and more to guide us into the malevolent nature of our dominant modern secularist hegemony. Further, he reminds us of the church's proper public role, and her universal character and mission.
He doesn't want a retreat or a capitulation to secularism and offers some models for balanced engagement. I do still think a separation from huge urban cosmopolitan areas would help the church and that might meet the definition of 'Benedict Option', which he critiques, but he is right to suggest it is no cure-all solution, as sin is often as much of a problem within the church as outside. This has been the case through history.
Post-Christian assures us that we must avoid the pitfalls of secularism on many fronts: expressive individualism, a new tribal quasi-paganism, political panaceas, and perhaps most insightfully a new hyperreal internet culture. Regarding the latter, he shows that we face not just a leviathan state and corrupt corporate oligopolies but also a problem navigating the indiscriminate nature of computer-mediated communication. It offers us no clarity and can desensitise us.
So, we need to engage with the internet with much greater discernment and use it only as a supplement to a healthy embodied life: with real flesh and blood friends, embodied voluntary associations, games, and experiences.
Then he goes into the threat posed by transhumanism, transgenderism, etc. All of which fail to account for the theology of the body, all of which undermine God's creation, our uniqueness and our interesting differences, even the freedom our limitations bring. This is like Joshua Mitchell's excellent emphasis on 'liberal competence' and Simone Weil's need for roots.
Gene calls us to become 'post-secular', taking useful insights from Christian scholars and even non-Christians like Habermas. The latter, he shows, underestimates the nature of Christian living unsurprisingly. But he is a better ally than other more militant secularists and his more respectful approach might serve as a springboard to a more thorough pluralism, Veith Jr seems to suggest.
Being post-secular means avoiding the constant temptation to Gnosticism, by returning to the body and family at a distinctly theological level. Veith Jr wants to build upon JP2's work on a theology of the body but remove its un-Biblical elements. I am in enthusiastic agreement here. He would find Nancy Pearcey, whom I mentioned, as an ally amongst Protestants. Dr Wendy M. Wright and Dr Michael Martin are similar frontrunners amongst Catholics, and Vigen Guroian or Fr Dn Stephen Muse amongst Orthodox, in paving the way for a more Biblical theology of the body.
Overall, Post-Christian is a most refreshing move away from our Gnostic 'enlightenment' mindset and its dehumanising offspring, such as postmodernism and Critical Theories. We are back on a firmer Biblical foundation and ready to meet the challenges of our dominant, for now, Post-Christian culture.
February 19, 2020
There has been lots of talk about postmodernism, so much so that it has become a catchphrase to simply represent anything after modernism. While the theologian Thomas Oden sees modernism as post-Communism and "hyper modernism," and the rise of relativism thought, the author feels that it is more about the loss of moral clarity in an increasingly "spiritual but not religious" climate. In this context, author Gene Edward Veith Jr has chosen to discuss the shape of Christianity in the midst of this postmodern atmosphere. Using the term "Post-Christian," he is careful to explain that it is not the end of Christianity per se, but a "new Christian guide to contemporary thought and culture." With great care and astute observation, Veith highlights the nature of the "universal wolf" having the tripartite of "power, will, and appetite":
POWER: Many institutions and movements have become "masks" for power; The fight for power is shrouded as a form of resistance against any form of transgression; (eg. push-backs by LGBTQ against traditionalists, racial minorities against whites, pro-choice against opponents, etc)
WILL: The will is higher than "moral meaning." Choice is the ultimate over all other things, feeding on the legislation of human rights.
APPETITE: We all have a right to what we want, what we feel, and what we desire.
In this book, he goes further to show us the extent of Postmodern reach. Part One is about the REALITY of our present state, on how the present cultural mood construct reality, especially in the world of science and technology. He notes how the public have drifted toward a more gnostic worldview, where the spirit of deconstructionism has even "interrogated" science. In other words, science is no longer an independent factual entity, but something subjected to the mercies of a constructionist and relativistic mindset. Veith helpfully traces the progression of thought from the Enlightenment's "Age of Reason" to the Romanticism's "exaltation of the self" and to our present state of rationalization and experienced reality as the final arbiter of truth. Man has become the center of the world. In science, Veith compares and contrasts the false reality of relativism against the objective truth. He distinguishes science from technology by saying that the former refers to "knowledge" while the latter is about "art or craft." He notes how the technological advances have given man the confidence to deify himself. We have substituted virtual reality in exchange for what is real. Veith concludes with Johann Georg Hamann's legacy to say that "truth is not necessary as clear and lucid as the rationalists wanted to make it seem."
Part Two is about the way people see their physical bodies with a focus on sex and having children. While the Bible teaches us the truth of "one flesh" union between a man and a woman, the postmodern construct expands the nature of sex to all kinds of combinations and unions. So much so that sex has pervaded politics, technology, and worldview. Veith gives several interesting observations which readers would be intrigued. He also observes the evolution of sex from the dangers of premarital sex, and the adulterous renditions of sexual relationships, and the evolution of same-sex preferences. He calls gay marriage as the "template" of postmodern construct. Sex has become divorced from childbearing. Man has substituted natural sex to engineering children. Such engineering prowess makes the term LGBTQ2 not as inclusive as it ought to be. Veith even proposed a new term "LGBTQQICAPF2K+"! He rightly observes that if the LGBT group wants to be truly inclusive, they ought to include heterosexuals as well. Interesting thought.
Part Three looks at the moods of SOCIETY in general with a focus on culture, politics, and civilization. Veith argues that this postmodern deconstruction has undermined community and the family. He even says that the rise of multiculturalism is a result of an arrogant desire to see different races represented. In other words, the goal is not cultural diversity, but to see different colors of people but all having the "same thoughts and values." In other words, they may look different on the outside, but inside they are similar, that is, they are race-discriminative. A deconstructionist mind takes control in the pursuit of power and politics. Veith also takes a look at Richard Niebuhr's "Christ and Culture" proposals and concludes that none of the five proposals are effective in this present postmodern climate. Veith proposes "rebuilding from the ground up," like how the Early Church rebuilds the Church in the midst of a disastrous Dark Ages era. It can be a new "Benedict option," or as Veith prefers, a "Luther option."
Part Four deals with RELIGION with a particular look at spiritual matters especially with regard to the future of Christianity. After discussing the spirituality awareness situation among people, even atheists, Veith feels that there is much hope because the age of secularization will not last. More likely there will be a new form of "New Age Movement." He also looks at the rise of the NONES, who will eventually feel that even though they trumpet the personal and private forms of faith, they lack the community that is so critical to the health of any spiritual person. Even atheists who may claim to have no religion, have religious rhythms in their thinking and behaving. As far as the Church is concerned, the need is to "desecularize the Church" rather than to be distracted by the outside secularizing world.
My Thoughts
There are three reasons why I like this book.
First, he gives us a good overview of the historical contexts of each movements. Starting from the Enlightenment era, he explains how the present world is not particularly different from past revolutions. In doing so, learning the history of cultural developments is a powerful way to determine how to approach the challenges posed by our present age. For instance, the way that he suggests on how Church can approach culture, he brings together the historical happenings of Benedict, Luther, and Niebuhr's to give us a possible route toward redemption.
Second, Veith is an authority in observing postmodern trends. As a writer of Postmodern Times which began in 1994, Gene Edward Veith Jr has seen the different trajectories of the postmodern movement(s). If there is a way to generalize what Postmodern effects are, it would be deconstructionism. Marriages have been deconstructed to include all other forms of marriage. Feminism have moved to include transgenderism. Multiculturalism and trans humanism have grown popular. We learn of how the sexual revolution has led to the pervasiveness of LGBT movements; and how so many sectors in society have become politicized.
Third, some of Veith's observations are arguable. His arguments can be dense and multilayered, which requires more careful reading or re-reading. Context is key before concluding anything. For instance, when he mentions the way the new deconstructionist mindset has undermined community and family, I find it curious because many secular groups have been strongly promoting the importance of community and family. Then I realize that Veith observation reaches beyond what meets the eye. The very reason for secular groups in promoting the importance of community and family is because they are experiencing first-hand alienation of individuals. Without addressing the underlying problems of society and postmodern constructionist philosophies, any efforts to promote community would achieve limited success.
I enjoy reading the many perceptive observations in this book that shows me that things are not what they seem to be. Many of them are powerful critiques of what many people would deem as norm. The biggest danger of it all is the deconstructionist mindset that seeks to unravel everything to the detriment of the natural makeup of creation. Man has become so arrogant of his ability to rationalize everything that he has manipulated everything to become what he is rationalizing. In his introduction to the book, Veith notes how the constructionist mind has upended the traditional views of everything. Be warned. This book is no easy read but richly enlightening.
Gene Edward Veith Jr is provost and professor of literature emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He previously worked as the culture editor of World magazine. Veith and his wife, Jackquelyn, have three grown children and seven grandchildren.
Rating: 5 stars of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
POWER: Many institutions and movements have become "masks" for power; The fight for power is shrouded as a form of resistance against any form of transgression; (eg. push-backs by LGBTQ against traditionalists, racial minorities against whites, pro-choice against opponents, etc)
WILL: The will is higher than "moral meaning." Choice is the ultimate over all other things, feeding on the legislation of human rights.
APPETITE: We all have a right to what we want, what we feel, and what we desire.
In this book, he goes further to show us the extent of Postmodern reach. Part One is about the REALITY of our present state, on how the present cultural mood construct reality, especially in the world of science and technology. He notes how the public have drifted toward a more gnostic worldview, where the spirit of deconstructionism has even "interrogated" science. In other words, science is no longer an independent factual entity, but something subjected to the mercies of a constructionist and relativistic mindset. Veith helpfully traces the progression of thought from the Enlightenment's "Age of Reason" to the Romanticism's "exaltation of the self" and to our present state of rationalization and experienced reality as the final arbiter of truth. Man has become the center of the world. In science, Veith compares and contrasts the false reality of relativism against the objective truth. He distinguishes science from technology by saying that the former refers to "knowledge" while the latter is about "art or craft." He notes how the technological advances have given man the confidence to deify himself. We have substituted virtual reality in exchange for what is real. Veith concludes with Johann Georg Hamann's legacy to say that "truth is not necessary as clear and lucid as the rationalists wanted to make it seem."
Part Two is about the way people see their physical bodies with a focus on sex and having children. While the Bible teaches us the truth of "one flesh" union between a man and a woman, the postmodern construct expands the nature of sex to all kinds of combinations and unions. So much so that sex has pervaded politics, technology, and worldview. Veith gives several interesting observations which readers would be intrigued. He also observes the evolution of sex from the dangers of premarital sex, and the adulterous renditions of sexual relationships, and the evolution of same-sex preferences. He calls gay marriage as the "template" of postmodern construct. Sex has become divorced from childbearing. Man has substituted natural sex to engineering children. Such engineering prowess makes the term LGBTQ2 not as inclusive as it ought to be. Veith even proposed a new term "LGBTQQICAPF2K+"! He rightly observes that if the LGBT group wants to be truly inclusive, they ought to include heterosexuals as well. Interesting thought.
Part Three looks at the moods of SOCIETY in general with a focus on culture, politics, and civilization. Veith argues that this postmodern deconstruction has undermined community and the family. He even says that the rise of multiculturalism is a result of an arrogant desire to see different races represented. In other words, the goal is not cultural diversity, but to see different colors of people but all having the "same thoughts and values." In other words, they may look different on the outside, but inside they are similar, that is, they are race-discriminative. A deconstructionist mind takes control in the pursuit of power and politics. Veith also takes a look at Richard Niebuhr's "Christ and Culture" proposals and concludes that none of the five proposals are effective in this present postmodern climate. Veith proposes "rebuilding from the ground up," like how the Early Church rebuilds the Church in the midst of a disastrous Dark Ages era. It can be a new "Benedict option," or as Veith prefers, a "Luther option."
Part Four deals with RELIGION with a particular look at spiritual matters especially with regard to the future of Christianity. After discussing the spirituality awareness situation among people, even atheists, Veith feels that there is much hope because the age of secularization will not last. More likely there will be a new form of "New Age Movement." He also looks at the rise of the NONES, who will eventually feel that even though they trumpet the personal and private forms of faith, they lack the community that is so critical to the health of any spiritual person. Even atheists who may claim to have no religion, have religious rhythms in their thinking and behaving. As far as the Church is concerned, the need is to "desecularize the Church" rather than to be distracted by the outside secularizing world.
My Thoughts
There are three reasons why I like this book.
First, he gives us a good overview of the historical contexts of each movements. Starting from the Enlightenment era, he explains how the present world is not particularly different from past revolutions. In doing so, learning the history of cultural developments is a powerful way to determine how to approach the challenges posed by our present age. For instance, the way that he suggests on how Church can approach culture, he brings together the historical happenings of Benedict, Luther, and Niebuhr's to give us a possible route toward redemption.
Second, Veith is an authority in observing postmodern trends. As a writer of Postmodern Times which began in 1994, Gene Edward Veith Jr has seen the different trajectories of the postmodern movement(s). If there is a way to generalize what Postmodern effects are, it would be deconstructionism. Marriages have been deconstructed to include all other forms of marriage. Feminism have moved to include transgenderism. Multiculturalism and trans humanism have grown popular. We learn of how the sexual revolution has led to the pervasiveness of LGBT movements; and how so many sectors in society have become politicized.
Third, some of Veith's observations are arguable. His arguments can be dense and multilayered, which requires more careful reading or re-reading. Context is key before concluding anything. For instance, when he mentions the way the new deconstructionist mindset has undermined community and family, I find it curious because many secular groups have been strongly promoting the importance of community and family. Then I realize that Veith observation reaches beyond what meets the eye. The very reason for secular groups in promoting the importance of community and family is because they are experiencing first-hand alienation of individuals. Without addressing the underlying problems of society and postmodern constructionist philosophies, any efforts to promote community would achieve limited success.
I enjoy reading the many perceptive observations in this book that shows me that things are not what they seem to be. Many of them are powerful critiques of what many people would deem as norm. The biggest danger of it all is the deconstructionist mindset that seeks to unravel everything to the detriment of the natural makeup of creation. Man has become so arrogant of his ability to rationalize everything that he has manipulated everything to become what he is rationalizing. In his introduction to the book, Veith notes how the constructionist mind has upended the traditional views of everything. Be warned. This book is no easy read but richly enlightening.
Gene Edward Veith Jr is provost and professor of literature emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He previously worked as the culture editor of World magazine. Veith and his wife, Jackquelyn, have three grown children and seven grandchildren.
Rating: 5 stars of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
August 6, 2020
This was an enlightening book that I reread from almost the first day. One of my favorite aspects is the way, in the first third or so, you can watch the intellectual assumptions and developments shift over time. Paragraph to paragraph, you see history step forward to today. It's both marvelous and shocking. The gradual shifts, though incremental, are decidedly mark-able. It's tempting to think some positions are universal when really they are built on modern mindsets. Or post-modern! Or now even post-secular!
Veith has touched on several of these topics elsewhere, as Veith is a prolific author & blogger who has touched on many cultural, intellectual, and artistic topics. See Family Vocation, for example, to read more about the human body. At the same time, this book is unparalleled. It's more than an update for Post-Modern Times. It's a culmination of his long career, reflecting both his academic skills and his skills of cultural critique.
Veith is known for smooth reading and being a lay-friendly author. (For example, The Spirituality of the Cross!) Well, this is lay-friendly and well-written, but it's also mentally heavy material. I'd love for serious high schoolers to read this, perhaps with a study guide of sorts. I'd love for college and seminary classes to go through it, and I'd certainly love Christians in general to think along these terms, considering exactly what people mean by expressions like post-Christian, post-modern, and post-secular. In fact, I wonder if this is a book written in part for professors, who benefit from books that bridge culture and religion, history and the church.
This is a book in which you want to understand chapters before you move on to the next part. The four sections may stand alone (Reality, The Body, Society, and Religion), but that doesn't mean chapters or sections are equally skimmable. :)
Great book.
Veith has touched on several of these topics elsewhere, as Veith is a prolific author & blogger who has touched on many cultural, intellectual, and artistic topics. See Family Vocation, for example, to read more about the human body. At the same time, this book is unparalleled. It's more than an update for Post-Modern Times. It's a culmination of his long career, reflecting both his academic skills and his skills of cultural critique.
Veith is known for smooth reading and being a lay-friendly author. (For example, The Spirituality of the Cross!) Well, this is lay-friendly and well-written, but it's also mentally heavy material. I'd love for serious high schoolers to read this, perhaps with a study guide of sorts. I'd love for college and seminary classes to go through it, and I'd certainly love Christians in general to think along these terms, considering exactly what people mean by expressions like post-Christian, post-modern, and post-secular. In fact, I wonder if this is a book written in part for professors, who benefit from books that bridge culture and religion, history and the church.
This is a book in which you want to understand chapters before you move on to the next part. The four sections may stand alone (Reality, The Body, Society, and Religion), but that doesn't mean chapters or sections are equally skimmable. :)
Great book.
October 13, 2021
This is one of the best books I've read in awhile. Substantive in its content, but well paced and easy to read, it is well written and accessible. I appreciate the author's thoughtful discussion and insightful perspectives. He is balanced and fair in his consideration of significant challenges facing the Church in our day, but no less clear and straightforward in his critique -- and, even more important, in his consistent confession of the confidence and hope that are found in Christ Jesus and His Word. He addresses the present climate and confusion involving politics and philosophy, science and technology, sexuality and "racial" issues, but he also points to indications that spiritualities and religiosity are actively present in all manner of ways, albeit idolatrous and secular in their bases and bearings. I most appreciated his look at the way similar trends have significantly impacted the piety and practice of those who consider themselves "Christians," many of whom have abandoned the life of the Church for individualistic exercises of their faith and worship. Veith's critique of these trends is evangelical and winsome, without failing to underscore the importance of the Church's corporate life.
April 26, 2024
Ambleside Online year 11 worldview option. I was totally prepared for most of the book to give it 5 stars. It was very well written and informative, I didn’t have any problems following him most of the time and I felt that he was usually fair and humble in his arguments. Towards the end of the book I felt that some of it was a bit redundant and also that his attitude changed a little and he seemed to forget a little bit “but by the grace of God there go I”. I did very much enjoy the book though and my year 11 student next year will be reading this one (the one after him will probably read Saving Leonardo though. Lol)
January 10, 2024
Great take! Gene Edward Veith Jr. surveys the ideologies, behaviours, perspectives, and problems of the post-Christian west, offering surprising glimpses of hope and thoughtful and theologically wise advice on what the church should do. This book is measured, but gutsy, and makes me want to be in the thick of what King Jesus is doing in the world today. It's not often that I agree with every word of a book, but this one got me. Take up and read, Chrizzos.
December 11, 2021
Sobering but ultimately hopeful. One of my best reads of the last 5 years.
February 27, 2020
Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture by Gene Edward Veith Jr.
2 stars DNF @42%
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
Plotastic Scale: 2
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover and the sparseness of it.
Thank you, Netgalley and Crossway, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
2 stars DNF @42%
Post-Christian focuses on addressing different topics of post-modernism that Christianity has faced in the fold of our modern world. Apparently, he originally wrote another novel on the post-modern movement in 1994, so this is a sequel of sorts building on the fact that his original hypothesis was wrong and that we have continued to expand on the ideals of the post-modern movement, but we have not actually left it. Essentially Veith points out that we have, as a society, only expanded on post-modernism by inflating ideals to epic proportions. The concept and theory that Veith is arguing for and against is interesting, but I equated this experience to sitting at a dinner table with my opinionated uncle. Every once in a while, he says something brilliant, but then he lack of empathy and coldness makes it hard to listen and then you realize his good idea turned into ravings. This book is filled with a lot of useless information and ravings. Great for history and science buffs, but the majority of the information felt unnecessary and like it bogged down the central argument. I also am a firm believer that Christians show Christ through empathy and cold, brashness can be very off-putting for most people. If I read this book as an early Christian, I think it could've been dangerous to my rocky shore of a foundation. However, I have a firmer foundation and recognize and discern opinion, Scriptural-truth, and the Spirit. Veith's book on post-modernism is not one to ignore, but it is one I recommend only to the firm believer because a lot of the teachings here do not adhere to the love of Christ and are heaped in emotional biases and prejudices. That's just my personal takeaway. The novel's introduction had me really excited, but my overall experience of reading this novel just makes me want to stop reading and leave on a note that isn't sour. The tone was a little too cynical and lacking in optimism for me. However, I think this will be a hit with certain audiences and readers- especially those looking to learn more about history and arguments.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
Plotastic Scale: 2
Cover Thoughts: I like the cover and the sparseness of it.
Thank you, Netgalley and Crossway, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
January 28, 2020
Pluralism has given way to identity politics. Relativism has given way to speech codes. Humanism has given way to transhumanism, the union of human beings and machines.
To me culture is how we see reality, not always truth but a norm. In Christianity, the fall of our faith is how respond to culture. If our faith is influenced by culture, we have no faith however, if culture is influenced by faith, we have a revival. Jesus was not influenced by the culture of his day, however, today he is still influencing the culture.
Veith takes a detailed look at thought and culture and how it applies for us today. We are not seeing something new and there never was the good ol days of Christianity flourishing. If anything, it is a time of examining what we believe and the most important who believe and why. This text is for Christians that maybe overwhelmed by the culture and to be reminded that there is nothing new.
Christianity is not over, but as in the past will prove itself in the hearts of men and women.
The text is broken into 4 parts, Reality, The Body, Society, and Religion. Together these 4 parts have progressed in culture but in Christianity have remained the same. The history of Christianity shows its error but it also shows the gospel. The glory of God for the good of God's creation. Highly recommend.
A Special Thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
February 13, 2021
Excellent. If only church leaders would take heed. This past year has made crystal clear that we are living in a post secular season of spirituality without religion. And when the gods of the pagans fail them, as they will, may the church be awake enough to point the way to the only true God. The only One deserving of worship.
February 9, 2023
I bought this book last year and had a hard time getting into it. For some reason now, this book flows like water for me. Was a really enjoyable and informative read. One of those books I need to read multiple times.
November 14, 2022
Excelente análise da nossa cultura!
October 20, 2024
Thoughtfully original. Never thought I’d read a book by a literature professor talking about incels, me-too, and internet trolls.
Read
December 18, 2019Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC!
In "Post-Christian" Gene Edward Veith, Jr, sets out to demonstrate that as we have become more secular, our preoccupations with power, will, and appetite have grown. His explanations and explorations of philosophy are solid, but readers should be aware that this is a very conservative text with broad generalizations (especially about academia) that Veith does not support with citations. The book takes issue with the many "demons" that haunt the far right: homosexuality, abortion, consumerism, technology, and pornography. As a liberal reader, the author's biases (a single, unified version of what is properly Christian) kept me from wanting to learn more about a state of the world that we have supposedly entered. There may be much to learn here, but Veith would do well to support his claims as ardently as he supports his scripture-based arguments. Of course, I am willing to note that my own biases may simply be in conflict with what Veith believes. Readers should know going in, however, that there is nothing neutral here.
In "Post-Christian" Gene Edward Veith, Jr, sets out to demonstrate that as we have become more secular, our preoccupations with power, will, and appetite have grown. His explanations and explorations of philosophy are solid, but readers should be aware that this is a very conservative text with broad generalizations (especially about academia) that Veith does not support with citations. The book takes issue with the many "demons" that haunt the far right: homosexuality, abortion, consumerism, technology, and pornography. As a liberal reader, the author's biases (a single, unified version of what is properly Christian) kept me from wanting to learn more about a state of the world that we have supposedly entered. There may be much to learn here, but Veith would do well to support his claims as ardently as he supports his scripture-based arguments. Of course, I am willing to note that my own biases may simply be in conflict with what Veith believes. Readers should know going in, however, that there is nothing neutral here.
August 3, 2020
Warning: Although this is a book review, I’m also presenting some controversial ideas. I want to ask you to do me a few favors. First, realize that I’m coming from a place of love. I believe you are a valuable person, made in the image of God, whether you agree with me or not. Second, please don’t close the tab before you’re finished. Before you make a decision, read it all. Thank you friends! Read on!
Note: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my view. This is my HONEST opinion.
Politics are more polarized, opinions more extreme. Outrageous views are popular and logical fallacies are the norm. Our world is chaotic right now, and I’ve been having a hard time understanding it.
It’s hard to understand why mainstream media supports the abortions of thousands of black babies while saying that they believe black lives are valuable. It’s hard to understand why schools are exposing children to dangerous ideas and discouraging trust in their own parents. It’s hard to understand why celebrities are telling us we can be whoever we want, whether it hurts us or not.
It’s hard to understand arguments built on a different foundation.
Marxist ideas are becoming more popular through the Black Lives Matter organization and constructivist ideas are hiding beneath the LGBTQ+ movement. Know what any of that means? I didn’t either a few months ago.
What is a Worldview?
Gene Edward Veith Jr. recently wrote Post-Christian to show the foundational beliefs behind the division going on in our world today. Everyone sees the world through a different lens, and that lens (or worldview) changes their actions.
For example, you probably know Hitler exterminated the Jews. If you go deeper, though, you’ll see that one of his foundational beliefs was that some humans are more valuable than others and that the less valuable ones should be destroyed. Further, he believed it is up to us to construct the reality we most desire. His worldview motivated him to act. He was trying to build what he saw as a “superior” race.
We each have a worldview that changes the way we live, whether we realize it or not.
Overview
Post-Christian is a thoroughly researched guide to the mainstream worldview today: the post-Christian worldview.
“(It is) what we are left with when we try to abandon the Christian worldview.”
The book covers the history behind it, the outworking of it, and what the author believes is coming next.
What I Didn’t Like (but why it didn’t ruin the book)
The beginning of the book covers the history of the post-Christian worldview and the philosophers who popularized the ideas that led up to it including Marx, Kant, and many others.
This section was difficult to get through due to an advanced vocabulary and long list of names. After reading the introduction I honestly dreaded reading the rest of the book. I thought it would be complicated throughout. Fortunately, the author breaks down complicated ideas in the rest of the book using examples and application points. Even though the book was well-written, it covered concepts that could be a bit over my head, so reading it sometimes felt like a chore.
But that’s how hard things generally go. If I could go back, I would totally read it again. Reading about advanced ideas and worldviews changed the way I listen to secular opinions. Post-Christian helped me better understand the world around me and showed me how to discern unfamiliar opinions from a Christian worldview.
I do not recommend this book to anyone younger than 14 or 15 as the sections on the sexual revolution, abortion, and other similar topics are advanced and unfiltered. The book is intended for a mature audience.
What I Liked
Post-Christian is thoroughly researched and covers all angles of the post-Christian worldview: the rejection of religion and the rise of nones (people who are “spiritual” but don’t consider themselves a part of a certain religion), the sexual revolution and how birth control wrecked families, the underlying belief that we are not a part of this earth but only ruin it, and many others. It is extremely applicable to everyday life and has helped me to discern the media, politics, and various articles and books. It also helped me to settle what I believe (and what I don’t believe) and why.
I talked to my mom about Post-Christian for hours, excited at how I could see this worldview everywhere. Once I knew where people were coming from, I could approach discussions with them in a more understanding way.
It is definitely a book for hard thinkers, but don’t be intimidated by the depth of it! If I can read it, you can too! Instead of leaving the hard books to the adults, approach it using a few strategies.
Tips for the Younger Audience
If you are a young teen like me, I would recommend having a parent reading through some of the difficult sections before you read it.
To help digest some of the advanced concepts, I recommend having someone to discuss the book with. It is also helpful to read Post-Christian in small sections and to keep a notepad and dictionary nearby. I read Post-Christian on a Kindle Paperwhite and was very thankful for the built-in dictionary.
Conclusion
Post-Christian is a must-read book for Christians today. And I’m not saying that because this is a sponsored post. I have greatly benefited from Vieth’s insight and will carry what I’ve learned from his book into my life. I find myself referencing Post-Christian at least on a weekly basis, and I truly appreciate Mr. Veith for writing it.
Note: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my view. This is my HONEST opinion.
Politics are more polarized, opinions more extreme. Outrageous views are popular and logical fallacies are the norm. Our world is chaotic right now, and I’ve been having a hard time understanding it.
It’s hard to understand why mainstream media supports the abortions of thousands of black babies while saying that they believe black lives are valuable. It’s hard to understand why schools are exposing children to dangerous ideas and discouraging trust in their own parents. It’s hard to understand why celebrities are telling us we can be whoever we want, whether it hurts us or not.
It’s hard to understand arguments built on a different foundation.
Marxist ideas are becoming more popular through the Black Lives Matter organization and constructivist ideas are hiding beneath the LGBTQ+ movement. Know what any of that means? I didn’t either a few months ago.
What is a Worldview?
Gene Edward Veith Jr. recently wrote Post-Christian to show the foundational beliefs behind the division going on in our world today. Everyone sees the world through a different lens, and that lens (or worldview) changes their actions.
For example, you probably know Hitler exterminated the Jews. If you go deeper, though, you’ll see that one of his foundational beliefs was that some humans are more valuable than others and that the less valuable ones should be destroyed. Further, he believed it is up to us to construct the reality we most desire. His worldview motivated him to act. He was trying to build what he saw as a “superior” race.
We each have a worldview that changes the way we live, whether we realize it or not.
Overview
Post-Christian is a thoroughly researched guide to the mainstream worldview today: the post-Christian worldview.
“(It is) what we are left with when we try to abandon the Christian worldview.”
The book covers the history behind it, the outworking of it, and what the author believes is coming next.
What I Didn’t Like (but why it didn’t ruin the book)
The beginning of the book covers the history of the post-Christian worldview and the philosophers who popularized the ideas that led up to it including Marx, Kant, and many others.
This section was difficult to get through due to an advanced vocabulary and long list of names. After reading the introduction I honestly dreaded reading the rest of the book. I thought it would be complicated throughout. Fortunately, the author breaks down complicated ideas in the rest of the book using examples and application points. Even though the book was well-written, it covered concepts that could be a bit over my head, so reading it sometimes felt like a chore.
But that’s how hard things generally go. If I could go back, I would totally read it again. Reading about advanced ideas and worldviews changed the way I listen to secular opinions. Post-Christian helped me better understand the world around me and showed me how to discern unfamiliar opinions from a Christian worldview.
I do not recommend this book to anyone younger than 14 or 15 as the sections on the sexual revolution, abortion, and other similar topics are advanced and unfiltered. The book is intended for a mature audience.
What I Liked
Post-Christian is thoroughly researched and covers all angles of the post-Christian worldview: the rejection of religion and the rise of nones (people who are “spiritual” but don’t consider themselves a part of a certain religion), the sexual revolution and how birth control wrecked families, the underlying belief that we are not a part of this earth but only ruin it, and many others. It is extremely applicable to everyday life and has helped me to discern the media, politics, and various articles and books. It also helped me to settle what I believe (and what I don’t believe) and why.
I talked to my mom about Post-Christian for hours, excited at how I could see this worldview everywhere. Once I knew where people were coming from, I could approach discussions with them in a more understanding way.
It is definitely a book for hard thinkers, but don’t be intimidated by the depth of it! If I can read it, you can too! Instead of leaving the hard books to the adults, approach it using a few strategies.
Tips for the Younger Audience
If you are a young teen like me, I would recommend having a parent reading through some of the difficult sections before you read it.
To help digest some of the advanced concepts, I recommend having someone to discuss the book with. It is also helpful to read Post-Christian in small sections and to keep a notepad and dictionary nearby. I read Post-Christian on a Kindle Paperwhite and was very thankful for the built-in dictionary.
Conclusion
Post-Christian is a must-read book for Christians today. And I’m not saying that because this is a sponsored post. I have greatly benefited from Vieth’s insight and will carry what I’ve learned from his book into my life. I find myself referencing Post-Christian at least on a weekly basis, and I truly appreciate Mr. Veith for writing it.
August 2, 2020
Aside to the overt innuendo of Gene's Lutheranism, this book was truly a thorough and thoughtful guide to contemporary thought and culture.
July 13, 2020
Gene Edward Veith Jr’s book - Post Christian - proposes a lense with which to view our culture. It starts strong, with fixed posts for the start and end of The Enlightenment, digs down into the meaning of the ‘Age of Reason’. From there he ascends to giving digestible explanations of Immanuel Kant’s A Critique of Pure Reason, and applies it to Christianity. He links some of Kant’s ideas to Nietzche - and rounds it out by quoting Hamann to tear down Kant’s work from a Christian perspective. Brilliant stuff in the first quarter of the book.
There is some narrative on the history of Christianity in America and how the rise and falls of manufacturing was linked to a rise and fall in Christianity. When talking about ideas in society, he fails to add the romantic philosophical ideas that influenced the Democratic party. Nor that social sympathies in the West for Puritanism/Evangelicalism were in part a societal reaction to the moral horrors of the pre-Victorian period.
The middle third of the book is the most poorly referenced and thought out. After that Gene takes Kant and Neitzche and blames all the evils he sees in society on that. (With the added blind spots of lacking empathy or a sense of justice.) Gender dysphoria? Kantian constructivism. Feminism? Neitsche’s Will to Power. Black Lives Matter? What’s that? As each chapter progresses, he systematically alienates another chunk of his readership with simplistic analyses.
If you stopped two thirds of the way through, you may conclude that this book is actually a philosophical justification for the Trump-Voting Evangelical American bubble-like world view. It gets better.
Veith then implicitly apologises for the whole Trump movement and says that Christians really need to get behind other political movements. Phew!
Eventually, Veith concludes that Western Civilization is on a downward spiral. He helpfully points out precedents from the Roman empire where Christian churches and schools continued whilst Civilization fell apart around them. Veith does a spot-on critique of Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option”. He comes back with his own alternative, ‘The Luther Option’, which is fascinating.
Veith then attacks the sacred cows of ordinary people’s love of, and hope in technology; calling it an idol. He says this is fundamentally a hope in materialism. This is a real thing amongst the people all around us. He then goes off into a weird tangent criticising technology celebrities who spruik an AI-lead future called ‘The Singularity’.
Veith finishes well, saying the problem is that churches have allowed themselves to be secularised. He does point out that the percentage of convictional Christians has held steady over the years. That secularism has been a ‘refining influence’ on the church. He then quotes from Jenkin’s book 'The Next Christendom' and talks about the rise of the Church in Africa, South America and Asia. He praises GAFCON. He points to the irony of a Kenyan Lutheran Bishop travelling to Sweden, to ordain conservative bishops and pastors to create an orthodox church body, as an alternative to the liberal State church.
Veith creates context to the Western World: “In this vast sea of faith, Americans and Europeans occupy a small island of secularism, like teenagers fixed on their cell phones, oblivious to what is happening all around them. It turns out this is not a post-Christian world after all.”
Veith then points out that materialism and moral relativism are profound blockers to people becoming Christians, but there are plenty of reasons for hope. He quotes another philosopher, Jurgen Habermas who brings up a post-secular framework for society, one which is being adopted in sociology, education, philosophy, communication and the arts. One in which there are plenty of doors for Christian ideas to come from. He links this to a work “The Post-Secular Vision of J.G. Hamann.”
Veith says that in reality, Western society is becoming a Post-secular pagan one. A one which reverts to pre-Christian ideas and beliefs. He sees this as a big opportunity, as this is where the church has had success in the past.
He finishes trusting in the sovereign power of God. “Christ builds his church. God acts. The succession of ages and movements are all in his hands - premodern, modern, postmodern, post-Christian, post secular and whatever will come next.”
There is some narrative on the history of Christianity in America and how the rise and falls of manufacturing was linked to a rise and fall in Christianity. When talking about ideas in society, he fails to add the romantic philosophical ideas that influenced the Democratic party. Nor that social sympathies in the West for Puritanism/Evangelicalism were in part a societal reaction to the moral horrors of the pre-Victorian period.
The middle third of the book is the most poorly referenced and thought out. After that Gene takes Kant and Neitzche and blames all the evils he sees in society on that. (With the added blind spots of lacking empathy or a sense of justice.) Gender dysphoria? Kantian constructivism. Feminism? Neitsche’s Will to Power. Black Lives Matter? What’s that? As each chapter progresses, he systematically alienates another chunk of his readership with simplistic analyses.
If you stopped two thirds of the way through, you may conclude that this book is actually a philosophical justification for the Trump-Voting Evangelical American bubble-like world view. It gets better.
Veith then implicitly apologises for the whole Trump movement and says that Christians really need to get behind other political movements. Phew!
Eventually, Veith concludes that Western Civilization is on a downward spiral. He helpfully points out precedents from the Roman empire where Christian churches and schools continued whilst Civilization fell apart around them. Veith does a spot-on critique of Rod Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option”. He comes back with his own alternative, ‘The Luther Option’, which is fascinating.
Veith then attacks the sacred cows of ordinary people’s love of, and hope in technology; calling it an idol. He says this is fundamentally a hope in materialism. This is a real thing amongst the people all around us. He then goes off into a weird tangent criticising technology celebrities who spruik an AI-lead future called ‘The Singularity’.
Veith finishes well, saying the problem is that churches have allowed themselves to be secularised. He does point out that the percentage of convictional Christians has held steady over the years. That secularism has been a ‘refining influence’ on the church. He then quotes from Jenkin’s book 'The Next Christendom' and talks about the rise of the Church in Africa, South America and Asia. He praises GAFCON. He points to the irony of a Kenyan Lutheran Bishop travelling to Sweden, to ordain conservative bishops and pastors to create an orthodox church body, as an alternative to the liberal State church.
Veith creates context to the Western World: “In this vast sea of faith, Americans and Europeans occupy a small island of secularism, like teenagers fixed on their cell phones, oblivious to what is happening all around them. It turns out this is not a post-Christian world after all.”
Veith then points out that materialism and moral relativism are profound blockers to people becoming Christians, but there are plenty of reasons for hope. He quotes another philosopher, Jurgen Habermas who brings up a post-secular framework for society, one which is being adopted in sociology, education, philosophy, communication and the arts. One in which there are plenty of doors for Christian ideas to come from. He links this to a work “The Post-Secular Vision of J.G. Hamann.”
Veith says that in reality, Western society is becoming a Post-secular pagan one. A one which reverts to pre-Christian ideas and beliefs. He sees this as a big opportunity, as this is where the church has had success in the past.
He finishes trusting in the sovereign power of God. “Christ builds his church. God acts. The succession of ages and movements are all in his hands - premodern, modern, postmodern, post-Christian, post secular and whatever will come next.”
June 10, 2024
I enjoyed this book because of how informative and educational it was, and I liked the way the topics were split up into reality, the body, society, and religion. The language was strictly factual / research based and made me think that the author's goal was to present the facts about our society, so that the reader (Christian or not) can think critically about how to choose to live. Overall, though, it was pretty hard to get through because it felt like I was reading a textbook LOL
I think the book made a point about how our post-Christian society strives to have all-powerful control and it's to our own detriment because we are merely finite humans with limited understanding of what's truly good and evil. Our true place is below God, as creatures who are made and loved by him, but when we reject our "creatureliness" and try to become our own gods, things go astray. "Our very attempts to exalt ourselves to the point of taking God's place disclose how sinful and small we are, as the god we turn ourselves into is pathetic, tyrannical, unloving, and unworthy of worship."
Towards the end, there was a part about how our god is that which we "expect all good from", "take refuge in all distress", "set our heart upon", and "put our trust in" — for me, sometimes it's money, acceptance from peers, and worldly accolade, but I was convicted of how cheap these gods are and how they will never give me true fulfillment in life :/// Throughout the book, the focus consistently shifts towards Jesus and his way of self-denial, which is the true way to find fulfillment. Jesus showed how to take up your cross in the everyday things, not just big crises. Was reminded that I have so much to learn from Jesus' way of life ...........
Main message and takeaway for me was that a life that worships the self is a miserable way to live. I could see how what may start out as a desire for more control over one's life can ultimately become a desire to be in control of all things, and also administer retribution / revenge on whoever gets in the way. The lasting question I was left with was "How can I live in a post-Christian society, separate from the world, but still in the world?" — which the book answers through prayer, devotion to Scripture, hospitality & love, digital asceticism, community, and serving — but, I guess, thinking about how this can look in my life and how I can be more intentional in these areas.
I think the book made a point about how our post-Christian society strives to have all-powerful control and it's to our own detriment because we are merely finite humans with limited understanding of what's truly good and evil. Our true place is below God, as creatures who are made and loved by him, but when we reject our "creatureliness" and try to become our own gods, things go astray. "Our very attempts to exalt ourselves to the point of taking God's place disclose how sinful and small we are, as the god we turn ourselves into is pathetic, tyrannical, unloving, and unworthy of worship."
Towards the end, there was a part about how our god is that which we "expect all good from", "take refuge in all distress", "set our heart upon", and "put our trust in" — for me, sometimes it's money, acceptance from peers, and worldly accolade, but I was convicted of how cheap these gods are and how they will never give me true fulfillment in life :/// Throughout the book, the focus consistently shifts towards Jesus and his way of self-denial, which is the true way to find fulfillment. Jesus showed how to take up your cross in the everyday things, not just big crises. Was reminded that I have so much to learn from Jesus' way of life ...........
Main message and takeaway for me was that a life that worships the self is a miserable way to live. I could see how what may start out as a desire for more control over one's life can ultimately become a desire to be in control of all things, and also administer retribution / revenge on whoever gets in the way. The lasting question I was left with was "How can I live in a post-Christian society, separate from the world, but still in the world?" — which the book answers through prayer, devotion to Scripture, hospitality & love, digital asceticism, community, and serving — but, I guess, thinking about how this can look in my life and how I can be more intentional in these areas.
May 2, 2020
Gene Edward Veith’s book Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Crossway, 2020) is more of a State of the Union Address than a call to arms. The topics covered in this book are wide and sweeping; and though Veith provides suggestions to the church sprinkled throughout on how to respond, overall the book is a photograph of the landscape — a statement on where we’re at in Western culture and where the church stands within that culture.
It's a readable, relatively quick book for the amount of land it covers. He covers trends in modern Western thought, worldview, religion, science, technology, politics, sex and sexuality, our ideas about reality, the body, truth, certainty, and even newer cultural phenomenons like intersectionality, transgenderism, transhumanism, genetic engineering, sex robots, and the loss of community. As I said, he covers a lot of ground!
Veith’s work is insightful and important. As any decent missionary, pastor, or church planter can tell you, Christians need to know the cultural context of where they’re doing ministry. Post-Christian is certainly a good guide to give us the big picture of the spirit of the age and the challenges facing the church.
*I received a review copy of Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (2020) by Gene Edward Veith Jr. from publisher Crossway.
It's a readable, relatively quick book for the amount of land it covers. He covers trends in modern Western thought, worldview, religion, science, technology, politics, sex and sexuality, our ideas about reality, the body, truth, certainty, and even newer cultural phenomenons like intersectionality, transgenderism, transhumanism, genetic engineering, sex robots, and the loss of community. As I said, he covers a lot of ground!
Veith’s work is insightful and important. As any decent missionary, pastor, or church planter can tell you, Christians need to know the cultural context of where they’re doing ministry. Post-Christian is certainly a good guide to give us the big picture of the spirit of the age and the challenges facing the church.
*I received a review copy of Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (2020) by Gene Edward Veith Jr. from publisher Crossway.
February 24, 2024
Veith gets a lot of things right in this book. His handling of “isms” and his review of the current state of affairs—including within the church and outside it— are insightful. However, Veith is not afraid to flaunt his highly conservative colors. Make no mistake, he is in the right about the evils of abortion, and about the bizarre and concerning sexual revolution (among so many other woes facing society, especially Christians, today!), but I cannot totally endorse a voice that is so staunchly right-leaning (of course, I would feel the same about someone who is staunchly left-leaning), as I am sure that Jesus would not call himself a total republican OR a total democrat. There is much to like and learn from this book, but just be aware of the biases.
December 14, 2020
Veith in this book looks at our existing culture and dissects it thoroughly. He then proceeds like a doctor to give a diagnosis of the problems and all of the symptoms and causes. One area of weakness in the book is the limited amount of time he spent on solutions to said problems.
I appreciated that he gave lots of sources and footnotes to back his claims with data. However, I would say this book is a fly by overview and should be read as such. It felt more like musings from a veteran rather than an argument written for a skeptic.
I didn't fully align with him on all topics, but did on most. He's a great writer and I'd recommend this book to anyone.
I appreciated that he gave lots of sources and footnotes to back his claims with data. However, I would say this book is a fly by overview and should be read as such. It felt more like musings from a veteran rather than an argument written for a skeptic.
I didn't fully align with him on all topics, but did on most. He's a great writer and I'd recommend this book to anyone.
November 9, 2024
Veith walks the reader through our post-Christian world and examines how many of the current ideas and thoughts are rooted in philosophies that won't satisfy.
I wanted to to like this book more than I did as it seemed very interesting as a survey of post-Christian cultural changes. However, the first part of the book fell flat at times especially in the science section and how some science was blown out of proportion (ie, the potential to make designer babies). I think the latter part of the book that explained more how politics have shifted over time was well done.
I wanted to to like this book more than I did as it seemed very interesting as a survey of post-Christian cultural changes. However, the first part of the book fell flat at times especially in the science section and how some science was blown out of proportion (ie, the potential to make designer babies). I think the latter part of the book that explained more how politics have shifted over time was well done.
December 23, 2020
Excellent commentary on our contemporary culture. I especially found part 2 about the body/sex and part 3 about society/politics to be helpful. There were entire pages that I marked. He does a great job synthesizing complex subjects and explaining them succinctly.
Highly recommended, but read Postmodern Times (one of the most enlightening books I’ve ever read) by this author first if you don’t yet have an understanding of modernism and postmodernism.
Highly recommended, but read Postmodern Times (one of the most enlightening books I’ve ever read) by this author first if you don’t yet have an understanding of modernism and postmodernism.
January 21, 2022
Very informative. For the sake of time, he does fly through the reason we are now in a post-Christian society in the first few chapters. If you are interested in the ideas discussed in the opening chapters reading 'The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self' by Trueman, will fill in a lot more information for you.
March 25, 2023
I've enjoyed many books written by Veith and this is no exception. He writes clearly, engaging the reader to think clearly about current issues. As usual, I found myself underlining many passages, making notes in the margin, and contemplating my own muddled thinking. It is a book that I will continue to ponder and will re-read in the future.
May 8, 2024
While there were some chapters I did not always agree with, I loved the treatment of culture and Christian response. The first section on reality was probably my favorite as science truly always points back to the Lord!
Lots of argument to help non believers understand what the gospel is in light of a culture that has “moved on”.
Lots of argument to help non believers understand what the gospel is in light of a culture that has “moved on”.
March 18, 2025
As I prepare for moving back to the U.S., out of my cozy Christian home into the wider world, I deeply appreciate the insights gained from this book. Once again, Veith offers a blunt, unflinching, but still optimistic look at the times, what the today's happenings and culture mean for the church, and how Christ is still Lord.
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