Book Review: Above All Earthly Pow’rs by David F. Wells

Though all of this book is engaging and profitable, and even a joy to read, I have chosen to comment on Chapter 6, “Christ in a Decentered World.” Wells comments on a book by William Donnelly, where the Autonomy Generation is described: “By this he meant that those who belonged in this outlook saw themselves as being at the center of life, as being responsible only to themselves, as having the sole hand in deciding what beliefs to hold and what behaviors to follow” (234). These are people who will live for themselves.

Wells believes this is an accurate representation of what has happened in our culture. People live without reference to the past or future, but merely for the moment. Free from all hindrances (they think), they live as they please, think as they please, living the life of the autonomous self. This generation is known as the “Confetti Generation” (by Donnelly), or better known as the postmodern mind.

“What is striking about the media images themselves is that although they have produced a quantum leap in information and entertainment, they are often little more than a blizzard of rootless, context-free thoughts and pictures” (234). In other words, it is like confetti. The only constant that connects the unconnected stream of tastes and passions are ourselves. “[E]verything is in flux and everything is unstable,” and this is the mentality of the world in which we live (235).

“In a decentered culture, eclecticism is the coin of the realm. This is what excessive choice has done to us” (235). There are so many choices available now, that our decisions are rendered meaningless—they simply become a vain expression of our fleeting and constantly changing desires. Everything becomes just as valid/valuable as anything else, be it religions, products, or services.

In his next section, he begins: “If God did not exist, Dostoevsky ventured, all things would be possible” (238). If we are free to do what we like and believe whatever we want (regardless of whether such beliefs have any ground in reality), we transition into a very frightening and dangerous world. In a society without any external constraints or social custom, without the past or values, what prevents people from living out their darkest and most wicked dreams?

There is a great amount of anxiety, striving, and restlessness today. “This is no small anomaly because Western cultures all sustain large, flourishing industries whose sole purpose is to produce leisure and recreation. The more anxiously we seek ways to relax, the less we seem to be able to do so” (240). Our decenteredness, then, is resulting not only in a world that will not tolerate truth, but a world of meaningless and boring enjoyments that never satisfy.

What does this lead us to? In theology, it has given us open theism, as espoused in the books of Clark Pinnock (and others). “[I]n the work of Pinnock one finds set forth with candor and forthrightness a way of looking at the world which is strikingly unconventional in historical Christian terms though Pinnock seems to be in no doubt that what he believes has widespread support in the evangelical world” (242).

In other words, evangelical Christianity is succumbing to the decenteredness—the “low culture” of consumerism, marketing, and the popular philosophies that represent the minds of those who frequent shopping malls. Put more strikingly: evangelicalism is doing the same thing liberalism did a century ago. Liberalism embraced the “high culture” of biblical criticism and other scholarly philosophies; evangelicalism is doing the same today, only it is embracing (even swallowing hook and sinker) the popular culture that we live in. Whether evangelicals will realize this downward trend remains to be seen.