What do you think?
Rate this book
Wisdom from Babylon: Leadership for the Church in a Secular Age
What does it mean to provide leadership for the church in an increasingly secular context? When religion is privatized and secularism reigns in the public square, Christians are often drawn toward either individualist escapism or constant cultural warfare. But might this context instead offer a fresh invitation for the church to adapt and thrive? Gordon Smith is passionate about the need for capable, mature leaders to navigate and respond to a changing society. In this book, he draws on his extensive experience as a university president, pastor, and international speaker to open a multidisciplinary conversation about the competencies and capacities essential for today's leaders. After analyzing the phenomenon of secularization in the West and charting common Christian responses, Smith introduces four sources of wisdom to help guide us through this new terrain: the people and prophets of Judah during the Babylonian exile, the early church in its pagan environment, contemporary churches across the Global South, and Christian thinkers in post-Christian Europe. From these resources he identifies practices and strategies―from liturgy and catechesis to mission and hospitality―that can give shape to faithful, alternative communities in such a time as this. In cultures fraught with fear and division, Smith calls for leaders who can effect change from the margins, promote unity and maturity among Christians, and provide a non-anxious presence grounded in the presence of Christ. Educators, church leaders, and those seeking to understand the times will find this book to be an indispensable resource for cultivating distinctively Christian leadership.
- GenresLeadershipNonfiction
200 pages, Paperback
Published October 13, 2020
18 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
About the author
Gordon T. Smith
30 books36 followersGordon T. Smith is the president of Ambrose University and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, where he also serves as professor of systematic and spiritual theology. He is an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and a teaching fellow at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the author of many books, including Courage and Calling, Called to Be Saints, Spiritual Direction, and Consider Your Calling.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 8, 2020
Summary: Considers what it means to live in a secular age, different ways of responding as churches, what may learned from sources ancient and modern, and the competencies of church leadership we need.
I grew up thinking that secular was the opposite of Christian and therefore must be bad. Gordon T. Smith, in this work offers a much more nuanced view. He begins by looking at the secular through historic, sociological and philosophical lenses. What he traces is a transition from Christianity as a “public square” faith to a public square that does not privilege any faith, where religious expression is privately allowed but must publicly tolerate all other ideas, and where in fact, we are all have become secular to some greater or lesser extent. How then is a vibrant Christianity which constructively engages its culture to survive? And what kind of leadership is needed within our churches in such a context. It is to this that Smith addresses himself in this work.
He begins with four responses that might be observed:
1. The “go along to get along” response.
2. The monastic response.
3. The culture wars response.
4. The response of “faithful presence.”
There are things to be said and critiques to be made for each and Smith will argue that each, for its problems, also has elements which might be drawn upon in living in a secular age as a disestablished churched. But first, he considers several sources from which the church may draw wisdom.
The first is the scriptures of exile, from which the book draws its title. Babylon teaches us to remember God’s glory, our identity as his people, and to hope amid lament. He invites us to learn from Ambrose and Augustine, two church fathers writing amid Rome’s decline. These teach us how to engage in the public square, how to form distinctive communities of Christians, and to embrace a trinitarian spirituality. Smith then turns to historic minority churches: how they related to other religions, affirming the uniqueness of Christianity in ways that speak to cultural aspirations. We learn about political witness without privilege, and the ever present reality of suffering for that witness. Then Smith turns to three recent European Christians who engaged European secularity: Bonhoeffer with religionless Christianity, Ellul, who was keenly aware of the discontinuities between the secular order and the kingdom, and Newbigin, who affirmed the church as a powerful sign of the kingdom. We may bemoan the loss of Christendom, but Smith sees fresh opportunity for the gospel in its true and powerful nature to be revealed through the church.
He contends that for this to take place, the church needs to be a liturgical, a catechetical, and missional body and considers what kind of leadership this requires. Liturgical leadership is marked by theological integrity; real encounter with the risen Christ through word, song, and sacrament; hope amid lament; and valuing liturgical art and space. Catechetical leadership embraces the importance of careful instruction of believers in the faith. Missional leadership calls for preaching that speaks to Monday mornings, to political and civic engagement, and peacemaking and conflict resolution. Smith addresses three further tasks of such leadership in the concluding chapters. They must be ecumenical in character, affirming the unity of the whole church rather than fostering divisions. They must be people who cultivate spiritual practices of interiority, leading from within, able to be present to others without distraction. And they must wrap all this in hospitality.
In a time where many seem to be trying to hang on to what they once securely held that seems to be slipping from their grasp, Smith invites us to accept our status as exiles in a secular age. He reminds us of the rich heritage from biblical forebears to recent contemporaries who have recognized the opportunities of exiles. His summaries of their teaching invite us to delve more deeply and listen at their feet and he offers an essential reading list. His prescriptions for leadership have an ancient-future character, mixing liturgy and catechesis with preaching for Monday and for civic engagement–very different from the strategist-celebrity model that has dominated church leadership discussions. What I most appreciated here was the combination of urgency and hope calling upon us both to glimpse the dangers, and to see the possibilities of our secular age.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
I grew up thinking that secular was the opposite of Christian and therefore must be bad. Gordon T. Smith, in this work offers a much more nuanced view. He begins by looking at the secular through historic, sociological and philosophical lenses. What he traces is a transition from Christianity as a “public square” faith to a public square that does not privilege any faith, where religious expression is privately allowed but must publicly tolerate all other ideas, and where in fact, we are all have become secular to some greater or lesser extent. How then is a vibrant Christianity which constructively engages its culture to survive? And what kind of leadership is needed within our churches in such a context. It is to this that Smith addresses himself in this work.
He begins with four responses that might be observed:
1. The “go along to get along” response.
2. The monastic response.
3. The culture wars response.
4. The response of “faithful presence.”
There are things to be said and critiques to be made for each and Smith will argue that each, for its problems, also has elements which might be drawn upon in living in a secular age as a disestablished churched. But first, he considers several sources from which the church may draw wisdom.
The first is the scriptures of exile, from which the book draws its title. Babylon teaches us to remember God’s glory, our identity as his people, and to hope amid lament. He invites us to learn from Ambrose and Augustine, two church fathers writing amid Rome’s decline. These teach us how to engage in the public square, how to form distinctive communities of Christians, and to embrace a trinitarian spirituality. Smith then turns to historic minority churches: how they related to other religions, affirming the uniqueness of Christianity in ways that speak to cultural aspirations. We learn about political witness without privilege, and the ever present reality of suffering for that witness. Then Smith turns to three recent European Christians who engaged European secularity: Bonhoeffer with religionless Christianity, Ellul, who was keenly aware of the discontinuities between the secular order and the kingdom, and Newbigin, who affirmed the church as a powerful sign of the kingdom. We may bemoan the loss of Christendom, but Smith sees fresh opportunity for the gospel in its true and powerful nature to be revealed through the church.
He contends that for this to take place, the church needs to be a liturgical, a catechetical, and missional body and considers what kind of leadership this requires. Liturgical leadership is marked by theological integrity; real encounter with the risen Christ through word, song, and sacrament; hope amid lament; and valuing liturgical art and space. Catechetical leadership embraces the importance of careful instruction of believers in the faith. Missional leadership calls for preaching that speaks to Monday mornings, to political and civic engagement, and peacemaking and conflict resolution. Smith addresses three further tasks of such leadership in the concluding chapters. They must be ecumenical in character, affirming the unity of the whole church rather than fostering divisions. They must be people who cultivate spiritual practices of interiority, leading from within, able to be present to others without distraction. And they must wrap all this in hospitality.
In a time where many seem to be trying to hang on to what they once securely held that seems to be slipping from their grasp, Smith invites us to accept our status as exiles in a secular age. He reminds us of the rich heritage from biblical forebears to recent contemporaries who have recognized the opportunities of exiles. His summaries of their teaching invite us to delve more deeply and listen at their feet and he offers an essential reading list. His prescriptions for leadership have an ancient-future character, mixing liturgy and catechesis with preaching for Monday and for civic engagement–very different from the strategist-celebrity model that has dominated church leadership discussions. What I most appreciated here was the combination of urgency and hope calling upon us both to glimpse the dangers, and to see the possibilities of our secular age.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
December 9, 2021
As postmodernity roils on and Christianity moves out of the cultural limelight, Christians are left with a horrifying reality: they are no longer the “default.” Particularly in America, white Christianity has been the default culture ever since Jamestown and Plymouth. But losing that cultural power can be a good thing, shaking believers from cultural complacency and into an understanding of what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus. Wisdom from Babylon seeks to look back into church history when the church was located within a similarly secular age to ask what leadership lessons from then still hold value for now.
It’s important to recognize that Wisdom from Babylon is really about wisdom from within Babylon. Gordon Smith isn’t writing about how secular practices can benefit the church, but about reflecting on times the church was within Babylon—when they were the minority culture. In the first part of the book, Smith outlines four responses to secularity:
1. Go along to get along. This option allows people to live within the tension, fully a part of the secular world six days a week outside the home, entering into the religious portion within the home and for communal worship. Here, religion is seen as private and personal.
2. The monastic response. This option calls for retreat, movement away from the public sphere and into isolated communities that try to engage with the secular world the least amount possible.
3. The culture wars response. The darling of the evangelical church, this option calls for war against secularism and restoration of Christian values as national values.
4. The faithful presence. In this final option, Smith suggests that believers should simply continue to live public and faithful lives devoted to Christ, engaging with the secular, working within it, but not developing its telos.
From here, Smith considers various points at which believers were in proverbial—and literal—Babylon. One chapter each is devoted to the exilic and post-exilic prophets, the early church, historic minority churches, and modern churches within secular Europe. I appreciate how Smith brings the conversation into modern history, showing American readers how their current situation isn’t new, or even just reflected in the early church, but is reflected by various thriving groups of the church throughout history. The chapter on the voices of the historic minority church, in particular, gives voice to whole people groups whose voices have been dismissed or ignored.
The second part of the book is a blueprint for building a community as a faithful presence amid a secular culture. It is important to note that this is not a parallel community, with all the same goals and values—the same telos—as the secular community, but an alternative one with countercultural goals and values. Smith provides three chapters for developing liturgical, catechetical, and missional leadership. These values of worshipping, teaching, and witnessing form the core foundation for this alternate community and gives it the ability to exist within Babylon.
Wisdom from Babylon concludes with an exhortation to hospitality. Not to fight, ignore, or embrace secularism, but to be kind to those snared in that system, witnessing to them through our actions of an alternative community and kingdom. I came to Wisdom from Babylon because I thought it would be about leadership. In truth, Gordon Smith only uses leadership as a paradigm through which to discuss how we, as the church, should navigate these massive cultural shifts. Smith’s message is clear: we should be concerned, but we should not fear. We don’t need to hide, fight, or assimilate. Instead, we must boldly and compassionately stand as a faithful alternative to secularism’s systems. It’s a magnificent book that goes beyond just leadership and offers a hopeful future for the church in the West.
It’s important to recognize that Wisdom from Babylon is really about wisdom from within Babylon. Gordon Smith isn’t writing about how secular practices can benefit the church, but about reflecting on times the church was within Babylon—when they were the minority culture. In the first part of the book, Smith outlines four responses to secularity:
1. Go along to get along. This option allows people to live within the tension, fully a part of the secular world six days a week outside the home, entering into the religious portion within the home and for communal worship. Here, religion is seen as private and personal.
2. The monastic response. This option calls for retreat, movement away from the public sphere and into isolated communities that try to engage with the secular world the least amount possible.
3. The culture wars response. The darling of the evangelical church, this option calls for war against secularism and restoration of Christian values as national values.
4. The faithful presence. In this final option, Smith suggests that believers should simply continue to live public and faithful lives devoted to Christ, engaging with the secular, working within it, but not developing its telos.
From here, Smith considers various points at which believers were in proverbial—and literal—Babylon. One chapter each is devoted to the exilic and post-exilic prophets, the early church, historic minority churches, and modern churches within secular Europe. I appreciate how Smith brings the conversation into modern history, showing American readers how their current situation isn’t new, or even just reflected in the early church, but is reflected by various thriving groups of the church throughout history. The chapter on the voices of the historic minority church, in particular, gives voice to whole people groups whose voices have been dismissed or ignored.
The second part of the book is a blueprint for building a community as a faithful presence amid a secular culture. It is important to note that this is not a parallel community, with all the same goals and values—the same telos—as the secular community, but an alternative one with countercultural goals and values. Smith provides three chapters for developing liturgical, catechetical, and missional leadership. These values of worshipping, teaching, and witnessing form the core foundation for this alternate community and gives it the ability to exist within Babylon.
Wisdom from Babylon concludes with an exhortation to hospitality. Not to fight, ignore, or embrace secularism, but to be kind to those snared in that system, witnessing to them through our actions of an alternative community and kingdom. I came to Wisdom from Babylon because I thought it would be about leadership. In truth, Gordon Smith only uses leadership as a paradigm through which to discuss how we, as the church, should navigate these massive cultural shifts. Smith’s message is clear: we should be concerned, but we should not fear. We don’t need to hide, fight, or assimilate. Instead, we must boldly and compassionately stand as a faithful alternative to secularism’s systems. It’s a magnificent book that goes beyond just leadership and offers a hopeful future for the church in the West.
March 12, 2022
Very interesting and thought-provoking book about what it means to live in the world and not of the world. I like what the author said about how sometimes Christians choose the wrong mountain to die on.
One of my favorite quotes from the book was:
“What if the test of our faith is not how active we are in the church, but how Christian we are in our engagement in the world the rest of the week?”
One of my favorite quotes from the book was:
“What if the test of our faith is not how active we are in the church, but how Christian we are in our engagement in the world the rest of the week?”
August 26, 2024
This is a really important book for 21st century church leaders in the western world. Written by the President of Ambrose University and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, Wisdom from Babylon provides a detailed description of western secularity, and a prescription for the kind of leadership the church needs in this context.
There are several points in the book that I disagree with the author. He's more sympathetic to some mainline and progressive approaches than I am. And he comes from a different theological tradition (Christian Missionary Alliance, while I am Presbyterian). That said, his descriptions of the lay of the land are invaluable. And even where we differ in solution, his diagnoses of the challenges are spot on.
I especially loved the chapters in the book learning from other church leaders who have influence culture from the margins. There are chapters on:
- the exilic and post exilic prophets
- the early church (especially Ambrose and Augustine)
- historic minority churches (especially in Asia)
- theologians in secular Europe (Bonhoeffer, Ellul,. Newbigen)
I also appreciated the author's emphasis on liturgy to help form a countercultural community, as well as the emphasis on teaching the faith in a biblically illiterate age. Adopting monastic practices without retreat from the world as a means of spiritual formation is also a helpful framework for spiritual formation.
This is an important book. Even when disagreeing with the author, I benefited from engaging the challenges he poses. Highly recommended.
There are several points in the book that I disagree with the author. He's more sympathetic to some mainline and progressive approaches than I am. And he comes from a different theological tradition (Christian Missionary Alliance, while I am Presbyterian). That said, his descriptions of the lay of the land are invaluable. And even where we differ in solution, his diagnoses of the challenges are spot on.
I especially loved the chapters in the book learning from other church leaders who have influence culture from the margins. There are chapters on:
- the exilic and post exilic prophets
- the early church (especially Ambrose and Augustine)
- historic minority churches (especially in Asia)
- theologians in secular Europe (Bonhoeffer, Ellul,. Newbigen)
I also appreciated the author's emphasis on liturgy to help form a countercultural community, as well as the emphasis on teaching the faith in a biblically illiterate age. Adopting monastic practices without retreat from the world as a means of spiritual formation is also a helpful framework for spiritual formation.
This is an important book. Even when disagreeing with the author, I benefited from engaging the challenges he poses. Highly recommended.
November 30, 2023
This may be the best book I have found on this topic.
The question of how the church should relate to its surrounding culture is an old one. People endlessly quote the "Christ and Culture" paradigm offered by H. Richard Niebuhr, which can be a good starting point, but I'm glad Smith moves beyond that. Stackhouse's book "Making the Best of it" offers a great treatment of Niebuhr in addition to examples of from the lives of Bonhoeffer & Lewis. But here, Smith focuses much more sharply on the current issues that we face in secular Western Society.
Drawing from examples in the scriptures and church history, Smith offers examples for us to learn from as we consider how to live as Christians in this world.
He also offers a helpful paradigm, depicting four different ways that Christianity tends to relate to its surrounding culture - which actually correspond with four categories I wrote about!
http://www.eremos.xyz/2023/03/10/call...
Thankfully, Smith points his readers in the right direction, calling them to missionally engage their culture while remaining distinct. We also offers excellent examples of how to live in the world but not of the world in many practical ways. Highly recommend this book!
The question of how the church should relate to its surrounding culture is an old one. People endlessly quote the "Christ and Culture" paradigm offered by H. Richard Niebuhr, which can be a good starting point, but I'm glad Smith moves beyond that. Stackhouse's book "Making the Best of it" offers a great treatment of Niebuhr in addition to examples of from the lives of Bonhoeffer & Lewis. But here, Smith focuses much more sharply on the current issues that we face in secular Western Society.
Drawing from examples in the scriptures and church history, Smith offers examples for us to learn from as we consider how to live as Christians in this world.
He also offers a helpful paradigm, depicting four different ways that Christianity tends to relate to its surrounding culture - which actually correspond with four categories I wrote about!
http://www.eremos.xyz/2023/03/10/call...
Thankfully, Smith points his readers in the right direction, calling them to missionally engage their culture while remaining distinct. We also offers excellent examples of how to live in the world but not of the world in many practical ways. Highly recommend this book!
October 17, 2022
good book in terms of understanding the church and culture relationships. mostly about the Canadian culture so not sure it’ll be relevant to everyone, yet there’re a couple of good principles there that can be applied to all cultures.
still learning the context I’m currently living in, so was helpful to read this book!
still learning the context I’m currently living in, so was helpful to read this book!
December 11, 2024
I mean nothing in here is wrong, it's just that nothing in here is particularly interesting or thought-provoking either. If someone has never given thought to leading a church amid secularism this could be a good intro. There's probably better out there.
November 7, 2021
A survey of arguments of how to live in a post-Christendom and post-Christian world.
October 19, 2025
Excellent. This is a must for every Church leader in this secular age.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews