Rules for Reformers - a review

Rules for Reformers by Douglas Wilson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An outstanding book. A MUST read for anyone engaged as a Christian in cultural and political engagement as a vocation.

Christians fall into one of two ditches in the culture wars. They either opt out altogether, believing we are exiles in this world and shouldn’t get involved, especially not as the church. Or they are revolutionary firebrands, left or right, that seek to burn things down instead of build deliberately. The group I grew up in teetered on the brink of the ditch of the first group, and thus were completely ineffective – they could talk a good game about abortion and same sex marriage in church, but nothing much ever happened beyond that.

Wilson is a different breed, driving right down the healthy middle. Don’t be apathetic. And don’t be an impatient revolutionary. Think tactically about how to advance the kingdom in the public domain, and play it as it lies. Don’t be afraid to defeat Christ’s enemies politically, even as you seek to evangelize and love them personally. And above all, root any cultural or political engagement deeply in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Who talks this way, today?

As always, I have my quibbles with Wilson. His “I told you so” preface is a bit of a turn off, as is the chapter composed wholly of his tweets. (“Here’s how it’s done, folks.”)

But in the main, this book is well worth the read. Here are some samples.

“As you go to hear the Word preached… be sure to disconnect your inner lawyer (203).”

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so also a sermon without application is dead (200).”

“For us, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ is a Christian school slogan for our track teams’ T-shirts. Paul was talking there (Phil. 4:13) about this profound death and resurrection cycle in his own life, while we tend to think it is about jumping higher, running faster, hanging with cuter girls afterward, and all with whiter teeth (266).”

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