Flirting With the World: A Challenge to Loyalty

by John White

Flirting With the A Challenge to Loyalty

Genres: Christian, Christian Living

135 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

John White was an Evangelical Christian author, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and a pastor of Church of the Way.

Reviews

[Desley White Jr.]

I read this book 23 years ago and it totally transform my life in that it opened my eyes as to how I can live victoriously in a godless world by keeping myself from flirting with the world and its worldly system, Looking forward in reading it over before the end of next year.

[Hugh Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me consider what a ‘Christianised’ worldliness looks like. We strain our gnats and swallow camels. Some good lessons. Possibly covers too much in a short book, so some parts feel rushed.

[David Campton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went back to read this 30 years after first doing so, as it was one of the formative books I had read as a young Christian regarding how we should engage with the world at large and the different standards/worldviews that Christians should have. The intervening years have made the somewhat separatist mindset of the author and the world from which he was writing seem very distant from the world we now live in, although some of what he has to say re sexuality etc still echoes in the attitudes of many in the evangelical camp, not least his casual dismisal of more inclusive attitudes within the church as "the church's soft underbelly". However he does make important points that should not be written off as anachronistic, or worse unthinking prejudice, because this whole book is underpinned with a genuine compassion for all people and a desire to wrestle with God's will for people seeking to engage with the wider world without compromising on key, eternal principles. However, we may disagree on the nature of those principles. What was more interesting and indeed hepful from my perspective, 30 years on was a lot of material he swept into a single chapter touching on such diverse areas as patriotism, financial investments and "entertainment evangelism". He also gets particularly animated and has some challenging and pertinent things to say, as a Christian psychiatrist, about the influence of pop-psychology on the contemporary church, which has probably become more invidious since the time this book was originally written. One final, pedantic point is that whilst the book is subtitled "A challenge to loyalty" on the inside title page, this particular edition is subtitled "a challenge to disloyalty" on the cover. Whilst this may be a typo, it does speak of the tensions into which this book was written and continues to speak. I will probably return to this book again soon, but not for the hot button issues of sexuality, gambling, alcohol etc, which are dealt with in greater depth in other more recent books, but to look in greater detail at some of the subjects covered in that "catch-all" chapter.

[Sam Boychuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was ok. Was fascinated to read a good christian book by someone from my hometown. That said the information has been presented better by other authors like Edwin Louis Cole and Ray Comfort, etc. Still a stimulating read and definitaly readable, but i probably would not recommend the book. I do no agree with a few of the points. White's book on sexual problems, the title escapes me, is more interesting, but again i do not entire agree with it. I would recommend White's books (of the two i've read) as ancillary books on a topic as i would not align enough with what they say to make them authourative on thier topics - but again still decent reads.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lost? Experimenting? Addicted? Flying through the world holding onto the blue sky, falling up, counting up all the possessions your own and thinking that is your wealth? Then you're a work-in-progress flirting with the world. Materialism, the worldly in the world and society is not going to save the socialite, the prince or the pauper. It is going to take something else.

[Sara Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

second time June 2000