Crump (retired, New Testament, Calvin Coll.;
Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture) calls on evangelicals to consider the idea that Christians are both strangers and sojourners in this world. He advocates Christians to be a prophetic voice that holds society to account on issues of justice and human dignity, and maintains that a Christian community cannot be replicated as a secular society. He notes that attempts to create a Christian nation often result in the Church taking on the values of the state, and the Christian community becoming more concerned with protecting its secular privilege than living out the Gospel. After examining the more radical teachings of Jesus and the example of the early church as found in the Book of Acts, Crump traces the evolution of the church from Constantine's Edict of Toleration through the Reconstructionist strains of Calvinism in America. The author then explores issues such as Christian Pacifism and God's preferential option for the poor.
VERDICT While the relationship between the church as prophetic witness and its radical distinction from the larger society could have been fleshed out more thoroughly, Crump succeeds in challenging his fellow evangelicals with this theological account.
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