I agree that our grounding will have to be in concrete communities, not only as a substantive apologetic, but for our personal survival and faithfulness under the eves of Empire. But I am also realizing these days that most of my community.. in the sense of the place where I stand that provides the “text” I read from which allows me to critique other texts… is difficult to pin down. There are a few pilgrims locally, a few more nationally and internationally, and a whole lot of them who are witnessing this show from heaven. In other words, so much of my own perspective and stance is determined by a virtual community. That seems to go against the grain of “place,” but perhaps it also witnesses to a trans-rational and sacramental perspective. Then again, if the text of Scripture is our ultimate grounding (as a living text by the Spirit and through the community of faith).. shoudl it be surprising?

Good review Dave. It only makes me more eager to get into the book. I don’t really have any profound insigts or comments to add, but I find myself in general agreement with what you’ve said here, particularly your comments about the need for engaging culture out of an ecclesial cultural/communal identity.

I also very much agree with your observation about how dull so much of evangelical culture is. This is especially obvious to me in the fact that so much of our evangelical cultural product is banal mimicry of secular trends that has little genuine beauty or originality. I think especially of the kind of books, music, and art that fill the shelves of your average Christian bookstore. The effect of this has been to produce a people who, in the words of Ken Myers, are “of the world but not in the world.” One of the serious dangers of this is that people start to think that because they show a superficial difference from the wider culture that therefore they are somehow not of the world, while in more profound ways they are totally falling victim to many of the most anti-gospel assumptions of our culture.