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Review: The Church in Dark Times

The Church in Dark Times book cover on blue background

It's unfortunate that in the world we live in, one of places that is meant to offer sanctuary can become the same place that disrupts it and steals it away from its members. The Church in Dark Times: Understanding and Resisting the Evil That Seduced the Evangelical Movement by Mike Cosper immediately caught my attention and kept it as it extols the need to critically evaluate what is happening in our churches today.

Many thanks to Brazos Press and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Book Synopsis

We expect evil to appear in obvious forms: malice, cruelty, and contempt. We also expect to find villains at the helm of evil movements and organizations, leaders with dark impulses and motivations. But all too often, malevolence is more subtle, hiding behind our own best intentions.

In The Church in Dark Times, cultural critic Mike Cosper unveils this dynamic in the growing crisis of abuse and other failures in modern evangelical churches. Drawing on the work of twentieth-century political theorist Hannah Arendt, Cosper explores what we can learn from her theory of the "banality of evil"--the thoughtlessness that allows ordinary people to become complicit in all manner of corruption. He uncovers the underlying causes of the breakdowns of the church and offers practices that foster healing and renewal.

This book will engage Christian leaders and all followers who want to better understand how church crises keep happening--and how we can resist them and move forward.

Source: Amazon

Book Thoughts

The subject of church abuse greatly interests me on both personal and professional levels, so I'm always keen to learn more about how Christians are addressing this necessary topic. This book starts off with a bang as the author produced a podcast series on the Mars Hill Church scandal and does not shy away from naming the events that have caused great harm to parishioners and staff member alike. That being said, the book doesn't dwell on these specific awful incidents and instead shifts to the power that ideologies can hold over people, providing a fascinating analysis of the contemporary evangelical scene where the word ideologies could practically be added to the subtitle of the book. By examining philosopher Hannah Arendt's thoughts on what causes evil to be accepted—even actively promoted—it is clear that such beliefs and actions are wrong yet widely undertaken, which is the framework that this book uses to attempt to answer the question behind the abuses that Christians face in spiritual settings.

With more and more churches and pastors making the headlines for all of the wrong reasons, abuse and evil in the name of spirituality is ripe for research and understanding. The first half of The Church in Dark Times is more of a philosophical treatise, with the second half of the book shifting to a few practical suggestions meant to resist evil. Those who enjoy studying history and applying the lessons learnt will appreciate the lines of inquiry that this book raises, making the first half of the book an intellectual mine of thought-provoking questions meant to get us analyzing current events, politics, and the dynamics we can see playing out in our own contexts. What happens in society at large can also extend to churches and Christian organizations and vice versa, which this book deftly argues. Where I might have wanted to see more content is how churches can corporately break free from the prevailing narratives that are causing the abuse in the first place beyond what felt like individual actions of resistance. Unfortunately, there exists systems that are in place to protect perpetrators, which can be one of the worst evils to fight. Thankfully, this means that this book can have even more material to expand on should there ever be a second book following it.

Book Summary

  • Format of book: 📱
  • Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
  • Recommendation: 👍
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