Who Will Narrate the World?

I just read the last book written by Robert Webber who died of pancreatic cancer last year. I am a huge fan of Webber’s writings, especially the “Ancient-Future” series of books. His last book, “Who Gets to Narrate the World?—Contending for the Christian Story in an age of Rivals” is in my opinion a “must” read. It is only 138 pages so it does not take long to read. It is what he calls a “Wake up Call” to American Christianity’s accommodation to secular culture. Webber is direct and challenging. Listen to this:

“One of the major reasons why the church has fallen prey to a cultural accommodation is that is has become disconnected from its roots in Scripture, the ancient church and in its heritage through the centuries. This failure of the church to keep faith with its own origins and history is in and of itself a matter of cultural accommodation. For we live in a society that has lost its own heritage. We now drift in a sea of pluralism and relativism with little sense of our past. If it is true that the road to the future lies in the past, it is also true that when the past has been lost or neglected there is no certain future. We are at that point now in Western culture, not only in the broad cultural sense but also in the church which has increasingly followed the lead of culture and lost its connection to the Christian past.

When the past is lost, as it is now in our Western world, there is nothing left focus on except the self. We live in a culture of disbelief regarding our Christian heritage. However, when it comes to our personal well-being and future, we live in the culture of belief in the self.”

Chapter 3—“God’s Narrative Influences the Foundations of Western Civilzation” and Chapter 4—How the West Lost God’s Narrative…alone are worth you obtaining this book. Please consider the following:

“The historic understanding of the incarnation as the assumption of the entire created order has been replaced by a view that in the incarnation God stepped into history to save souls. The focus is no longer on the cosmic work of God in history but on personal salvation. The language often used to describe salvation through Christ expresses this shift. We speak of God ‘saving souls’. We focus then not so much on God who redeems the world but on Christ who saved me.”

A few years ago while browsing around Barnes and Noble I found the book “From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life” by Jacques Barzun. This is an 877 page history book where a 94 year old Barzun tells the story of the rise and fall of Western Civilization. It shows are connections to the past and provides excellent insight into the secularization that has overtaken the culture. It took me 6 months to read, but it has provided me an excellent back-drop and refresher course on Western Civilization and provides context for books like Webber’s. One of my favorite courses I had at Harding University was a freshman course, Western Civilization that was taught by Raymond Muncy. However, I did not realize how important that course was at the time.

Webber talks a lot in his book about narcissism. It is not easy to listen to…but I’m afraid he’s right.

“American narcissism also makes claim to domination—domination of our spiritual world. I am the center of my own universe. I am the creator and sustainer of my own private reality; everything revolves around my happiness, my well-being, my personal satisfaction. Even Christians reduce Jesus and the Christian faith to a means of our own happiness, instead of rightly recognizing and living our lives in joyful obedience to the One who made us in his image and sustains us for his purpose in the world….it is not only the inner chamber of the heart that should glow with the presence of God, but our culture too—our cities, our civilization, the whole of life.”

This is some heavy stuff….but I believe he left a prophetic message. In addition he deals with the added threat of Radical Islam to our decaying culture.

Happy Friday!