Abstract
Spiritual and Religious assesses the state of the twenty-first century Church, its past and present challenges, with Christianity of the beginning years functioning as the measuring stick. Like most major religions, Christianity has a purpose traceable to its origin. Therefore, the book’s unique feature rests in Wright’s clear assertion that Christianity aims to exist as a light in a world of paganism through means of evangelism and social action. The book’s purpose entails exposing how idolatry has permeated religious culture in broad and subtle ways such that the Church and society alike have become accustomed to the elevation of people and things to levels which belong to God. In fifteen short chapters, Wright exposes the concept of human claims of a spiritual way of life apart from the Gospel as essentially paganism.
The book addresses multiple theological themes such as ecclesiology and the Christian life for a lay audience, but nevertheless is useful for practical theologians and religious leaders. Wright argues that there exists a lingering problem within much of modern day evangelism and missions when such practices fail to build bridges such that the social arrangement between privileged and marginal groups remain in tact, on the dominant group’s terms. The author provides a critique of worship that solely focuses on the care for souls yet ignore the significance of life and its accompanying challenges. Throughout the book, the idea that ‘worship cannot be isolated from the totality of Christian living’ (p. 99) serves as the underlying message.
Wright claims that religion like other social institutions have become increasingly prone to a manifestation of paganism through embracing a sense of superiority through polarized factions. ‘Paganism thrives on competition, on hatred and anger, on spuriously inflated humanness which resents any rival, or any diminishing of its own standing’ (p. 68) The author sheds light on the context of John 2 as the historical Jesus confronted institutional idolatry by identifying with ‘common folk.’ Furthermore, the texts acknowledges that paganism extends beyond merely the literal worship of false gods but presents itself as a system that lures the masses through addictions of the insatiable quest for wealth, power, and self-gratification.