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Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth (Today's Critical Concerns)

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Author: R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Publisher: Multnomah Books
Category: Book

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Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.5 x 0.7

ISBN: 159052974X
Dewey Decimal Number: 261.0973
EAN: 9781590529744
ASIN: 159052974X

Publication Date: January 15, 2008
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Condition: Hardcover edition in VG COND - Clean Pages NOTE: I HIGHLY Recommend that you select Expedited Shipping (Priority Mail) OTHERWISE standard shipping is the Postal Service's MEDIA MAIL and can be VERY slow (12 -21+ business days) on average

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Are you prepared to address the most challenging cultural issues of your time?brbrMass media and technology are exploding. Popular entertainment relentlessly pushes the envelope. Biomedicine stretches ethical boundaries. Political issues shift with the polls. brbrThe world in which you live is in the midst of a major cultural transformation#8211;one leading to a widespread lack of faith, an increase in moral relativism, and a rejection of absolute truth. How are we to remain faithful followers of Christ as we live in this ever-shifting culture? How should we think about#8211;and respond to#8211;the crucial moral questions of our day? How can we stand up for the truth?brbrIn iCulture Shift,/i Dr. R. Albert Mohler#8211;one of today#8217;s leading Christian thinkers and spokespersons#8211;addresses these tough topics clearly, biblically and passionately:brbr#8226;Christian faith and politicsbr#8226;The Supreme Court and religionbr#8226;The truth about terrorismbr#8226;Christian parents and public schoolsbr#8226;The abortion debatebr#8226;Christian response to global tragediesbr#8226;And many morebrbrHere is trustworthy help for developing a comprehensive Christian worldview. It#8217;s timely information powerfully connected to timeless truth that will equip you to stand strong and speak out.

Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Mohler's First Bookis a Guide to the Culture for Evangelicals January 5, 2009
Though his influence as one of the leading intellectual evangelicals is far-reaching, it was only this year that Albert Mohler wrote and published his first book, Culture Shift. The book is comprised of two major sections: the first part of the book where Mohler attempts to explain why it is important for Christians to be involved in the political arena and the second section which is a collection of essays dedicated to a variety of current issues and topics. br / br /Mohler begins the first half of Culture Shift, by engaging with Augustine's monumental work, City of God. For the past fifteen hundred years, Augustine's classic work has been the standard for explaining the two "cities" every Christian is confronted with: the eternal City of God, where all things are ruled by God's Word and its sole concern is the glory of God, and the City of Man, where rule is temporary and marked by moral autonomy and disobedience. In the opening chapter, Mohler argues that we cannot ignore the City of Man just because we are citizens of another place. Mohler writes:br / br /"Of course, we know that the City of God is eternal, even as the City of Man is passing. But this does not mean that the City of Man is ultimately unimportant, and it does not allow the church to forfeit its responsibility to love its citizens. Love of neighbor - grounded in our love for God - requires us to work for good in the City of Man, even as we set our first priority the preaching of the gospel - the only means of bringing citizens of the City of Man into citizenship in the City of God."br / br /Because of this, Christians bear important responsibilities in both cities. Even as we know that our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, and even as we set our sights on the glory of the City of God, we must work for good, justice, and righteousness in the City of Man. We do so, not merely because we are commanded to love its citizens, but because we know that they are loved by the very God we serve. br / br /Mohler states that, while we must be careful to never confuse our allegiances to God with allegiances to political parties or even our country, he believes our love for our neighbors should compel Christians into political involvement and action. br / br /After Mohler is done elucidating why Christians should engage the culture and enter the public square, he addresses and answers different arguments from popular secularists who argue that religious convictions should be kept out of the political arena where public policy is decided. He writes, "As Christians, we must face the fact that we enter a public square that many expect to be purely secular." To counter these secularist arguments, Mohler "offers five theses for understanding the relationship of Christian morality to public law:" br / br /1) A liberal democracy must allow all participants in the debate to speak and argue from whatever worldviews or convictions they possess. A liberal democracy should say yes to the entry of all citizens into the public conversation.br / br /2) Citizens participating in public debate over law and public policy should declare the convictional basis of their arguments. Mohler writes, "This is where intellectual honesty enters the national conversation." He believes this should apply to evangelicals as well as secularists and those of other religions. br / br /3) A liberal democracy must accept limits on secular discourse even as it recognizes limits on religious discourse. Mohler states that just as we cannot "take the church covenant of any particular church and make it municipal or national law" we must also "recognize that there are limits upon secular discourse. Most importantly, secular discourse does not have the right to eliminate religious discourse."br / br /4) A liberal democracy must acknowledge the commingling of religious and secular arguments, religious and secular motivations, and religious and secular outcomes. br / br /5) A liberal democracy must acknowledge and respect the rights of all citizens, including its self-consciously religious citizens. After engaging secular arguments earlier in the book, Mohler understands that some secularists believe the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only protects religious expression "insofar as it does not interfere with a purely secular political state." Mohler writes, "That idea, however, cannot possibly be reconciled with the founding vision of America or with the language of the Constitution or with how human beings actually think, act, and speak."br / br /In the second part of the book, Mohler moves quickly from subject to subject, as each chapter deals with a specific political issue or current event. Topics covered include standard conservative Christian fare like abortion, terrorism, public education and racism to more unique issues like torture, post-modernism, raising a coddled generation of boys and girls, the nuclear bomb and the human suffering caused by the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. In these chapters, Mohler usually begins each chapter by quoting from a paper or article on the subject and then engages the article and subject. For instance, in the chapter entitled "Are We Raising a Nation of Wimps?" Mohler interacts with an article in Psychology Today by Hara Marano in which Marano argues we are sheltering our kids way too much from physical harm and danger. br / br /It has been a long time since I've seen such a concise argument for Christian involvement in the public square. What used to be a commonly held belief among all Christians, social and political activism, has become marginalized in many Christian circles. It's refreshing to know that there are still intelligent evangelicals fighting for the right to engage in the social and political arenas as Christians with a Biblical worldview. br / br /I also enjoyed the variety of the topics Mohler covered in the second half of the book. Besides offering excellent takes on the subjects he tackled, he was not afraid to tackle subjects and topics unusual in the evangelical realm. An example of this is his chapter defending Truman's use of the nuclear bomb at the conclusion of World War II.

4 out of 5 stars

A "Best-Of" Collection of Mohler Essays October 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It may be hard to believe that Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth is Albert Mohler's first book. After all, few evangelical thinkers are as prolific as Mohler, both through his daily blog and weekday radio show.br /br /Culture Shift gives the reader 20 of Mohler's best essays, covering a wide variety of topics. Mohler speaks of the relationship between American politics and Christian faith. He spends several chapters on the relationship between Christianity and public law, exposing the myth that our nation's laws could ever be completely "secular." He covers many of the hot-button issues of our day, including the nation's shifting opinions regarding abortion.br /br /Don't read this book without a pencil or highlighter in hand. Mohler has a way with words, and you will want to come back to some of his hard-hitting statements.br /br /Though Culture Shift is a commendable book, I was disappointed to discover that it is little more than a "Best Of" collection of Mohler's blog posts and essays. I expected a weighty work that transcends the immediate/urgent nature of his daily writings. It serves its purpose as a current commentary on some of today's important issues, which means that much of the book might be out-of-date within a few years.br /br /That said, I'm glad this book exists. I realize that not everyone follows Dr. Mohler's blog and radio show, so these essays will be new to most people. Nowhere else can you find some of Mohler's best work in book form. I look forward to passing this book along to some of my family members who will enjoy Mohler's perspective on current events.

5 out of 5 stars

Educational, Awakening, Convincing and Urgent September 19, 2008
"Culture Shift" is one of those books that when I read it, I had a hard time putting it down. I heard Dr. Mohler spoke the first time at Desiring God Conference in 2004, but not until I read his address in Together for the Gospel (T4G) in 2006 did I start to be stunned by the acuteness of his views on culture. Now what he talked about there at T4G is a subset of other challenges covered in "Culture Shift". Here he not only shows the reality and ugliness of what he calls "cultural seismic events" but he also lays out plan of actions; legitimate and urgent. br /br /Mohler begins with the importance of Christian engagement in culture, by learning from Augustine's "City of God" with a caveat in mind, that is, Christians are to love the people of the City of Man with the gospel, not for the sake of city and culture themselves, but the sole concern ought to be for the greater glory of God. This is important because there is indeed a tendency to subordinate the gospel to personal agenda that may come in the forms of ethnicity, family, prosperity and country unless we are reminded that the City of Man is passing away, while the City of God is eternal. Nevertheless, "even as we know that our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, and even as we set our sights on the glory of the City of God, we must work for good, justice and righteousness in the City of Man" (p.3). br /br /Then the discussions take on different themes, beginning with the idea of purely secular principles in driving public law; reasoning, motivation and religious neutrality, all of which Mohler defies as impossibilities and establishes a counter proposal, the reason being public law involves matters that go beyond individuals . But in addition to Mohler's refutation, any reasonable individuals would also ask, to challenge the purely secular manifesto, that first, whatever happens to the freedom of speech? And second, one only needs to look at the communist and other tyrannical states to understand the intention behind the drive toward a purely secular state.br /br /Next, secular humanism leads to decay, not only in morality, but also inevitably in education. The popular talk these days in both camps, coming out of the perennial battle about abortion, centers around reducing the number of abortions. This is excellent because it exposes the true agenda behind many pro-choicers, to the point that even General Electric was accused of promoting pro-life agenda by selling 4D ultra-sound imaging systems because this technology "isn't a matter of providing more knowledge, but an attempt to manipulate women" (p.117, 119). In the education world, while students in Asia get busy learning calculus, physics and chemistry to prepare them for college, students in most American public schools are getting choked and brainwashed by the sexually-loaded indoctrination of the normalcy of homosexuality, promiscuity and cults. No wonder Mohler said exit strategy is needed (p.65-72) from this pathetic system, which actually doesn't have to be this way if managed properly. Sometimes I even wonder if American K-12 students need to start studying overseas, unless the domestic system undergoes a major reform, to keep up with the rest of the world, particularly to prepare them in science, as I think of Japan, Korea, India, Singapore or Europe, though I have to admit that some American universities are still among the best in the world. In research and development, a God-less pre-supposition leads to a discovery of the so-called "God-gene," that is, "a genetic explaination for belief in God that provides evolutionary explaination for faith" that Mohler hilariously but correctly describes as "Bad Theology Meets Bad Science." Here is how absurd science with false presuppositions and worldviews has become, where "humans are [soul-less] collections of atoms and molecules, and all consciousness, belief, emotion, and moral judgment must be explained by nothing more than biochemical processes within the brain" (p. 74).br /br /Other interesting reflections and call to actions are in foreign policy dealing with terrorism and an attempt to explain the problem of evil, the case studies of which are the 2004 Tsunami and the 2005 Katrina.br /br /Words can not describe the urgency of the matters that Dr. Mohler covers in "Culture Shift" in which he provides true and fair analysis as well as valuable recommendations. Upon learning the cultural landscapes we are in today, I can not help but observe that rational apologetics is not likely to do much good to answer post-modern issues. One needs to start getting into pre-suppositional apologetics; of which at least two books come to mind, "Always Ready" by Greg Bahnsen, and "Defense of the Faith" by Cornelius Van Til. br /br /

4 out of 5 stars

Answers for Christians on current issues September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Albert Mohler gives the Christian reader - reasons and answers for our faith on pressing issues of the day. The thinking Christian will benefit from the book as Mohler defines and languages what is happening in our culture, and addresses the trends that are sweeping through America society, he gives biblical and theological answers, addressing the issues from a Christian worldview and articulates his points with precision. br /br /For the busy Christian that wants to make an educated assessment of what is happening on the key issues, this book will definitely get you thinking about where you stand. Albert Mohler is President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He contributes articles in major newspapers, and has his own radio program. This book was interesting, informative and helpful.

4 out of 5 stars

Concise Presentation of Current Issues With a Thoughtful, Biblical Approach July 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a quality collection of essays which presents a thoughtful, Biblical approach to current issues. Dr. Al Mohler is intellectually rigorous but also clear and simple in his discussion of a Christian view of current culture. This is a short book and an easy read. It is definitely worth your time, especially in an election season which requires Christians to Biblically examine candidates' positions. If you are a fan of this book, I'd also recommend the Al Mohler Radio Show which you can find online.

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