The Disappearance of God // Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Openness

Here’s a quick review of Albert Mohler Jr.’s recent book “The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Openness.”

Mohler is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY and writes consistently challenging works on contemporary thought and its effects on the church. I always enjoy reading books where theology and philosophy collide and force us to think and rethink what we’re really saying and what we’re really living out, and this book did just that.

Mohler takes the reader through some of the most dangerous new ideas that Christianity has recently opened itself to, revealing how these new philosophies wil affect foundational principles and undermine our faith. The four main questions that he explores are “Why is Hell off limits?” “What’s good or bad about the ‘dangerous’ emergent movement?” “Have Christians stopped seeing God as God?” and “Are churches pandering to their members to survive?” And while I see the importance of the first three questions and the weight they carry, I’m most intrigued by the last question. It seems here that the enemy has the most opportunity to destroy the Church as she slowly retreats from Biblical guidelines on discipline as well as compromises in what we’re willing to tolerate as opposed to declaring sin as what it is and dealing with it.

I did find myself dog-earing more pages in this book than I normally do and appreciated the discussion/well argued attack against the emergent movement that is quietly sweeping the scene. The difficulty here is that most involved in the movement have not spent the time to really hear and understand what the movement really believes. Mohler wastes no time dissecting it inaccuracy’s and questioning the true belief’s of McLaren the figurative if not literal leader of the emergent movement.

Sidebar, any time I’m allowed to read or listen in to a conversation on the affect of postmodern thinking and its affect on the contemporary church, I’m there.

You can pick up Mohler’s book, “The Disappearance of God: Dangerous Beliefs in the New Spiritual Openness,” here.