Way of the (Modern) World / Edition 1

by Craig M. Gay, Kathlyn Gay

Overview

Does God really matter for today's Christians? Craig Gay addresses this issue in his The Way of the (Modern) World: Or, Why It's Tempting to Live As If God Doesn't Exist. Gay takes a critical look at the modern world and exposes the foundational worldview of contemporary secular society and the ideas that undergird modern culture. Gay shows how, for Christians, one of the most seductive temptations fostered by these ideas is the temptation toward practical atheism-living as if God does not matter. Practical atheism has become so attractive that even some Christian churches have embraced it. In The Way of the (Modern) World Gay describes in detail the far-reaching consequences of practical atheism and what it will eventually mean for Christians. Yet Gay is not without hope for today's Christians. Arguing for the eviction of certain modern ideas from our churches, he shows that there is a biblically sound way to live in but not of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802843623
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	08/02/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	743,613
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword, by J. I. Packer
Introduction

1. The Worldliness of Modern Political Aspirations
2. The Irrelevance of God in the Technological Society
3. The Intrinsic Secularity of Modern Economic Life
4. The Worldly Self at the Heart of Modern Culture
5. Taking Stock of "The Huge Modern Heresy"
6. Toward a Theology of Personhood

Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Richard John Neuhaus

Gay joins erudition to lucidity in exploring the soullessness of a modernity blind to the ultimately personal character of all that is. This is cultural and intellectual criticism of a high order, an invitation to the clear thinking that opens a way for faith.

David F. Wells

This book was waiting to be written, and Craig Gay has brought his considerable expertise to bear in writing it. He has given us a thorough, far-reaching analysis of the modern world that raises an awkward question Christians may not wish to ask: How should we think and live in such a world? If we do not know how to answer that question, however, we do not know what it means to be Christian.

David Walsh

Gay's survey of the many dimensions of the modern secular ethos is a tour de force. It masterfully dissects the components of the modern secular worldview in its political, technological, economic, cultural, and theological expressions. Yet this remains a profoundly hopeful book as its Christian viewpoint inescapably indicates.

Editorial Reviews

Here is an evangelical theologian who honours the social tradition. This is a book worth reading.

Ecumenist

The Way of the (Modern) World addresses a topic that is of paramount concern to those who believe in a transcendent reality. Even those who are not predisposed to evangelical Christianity or trinitarian orthodoxy will appreciate Gay's characterization of the modern secular ethos.... Gay's study will prove invaluable to those perplexed by the phenomenon of modern secularism.

University Bookman

"Well-informed and theologically-thoughful analysis of our situation... A most serious and thoughtful study."

Theology Today