Guinness is strong in the history of ideas (you can tell he was influenced by Francis Schaeffer on this point) and he helpfully traces the inception of the therapeutic from Freud and Jung to our own day. I was exposed to these ideas first from David Powlison, then Al Mohler and David Wells. Here in 2019, it seems there has never been so much cultural incentive for taking the posture of a victim.Ĭhapters 5 and 6 tackle psychology and the therapeutic revolution. This was written in 1993 but sounds like it could have been written yesterday. God became a human being, and still remained God.' (p.48).Ĭhapter 4, 'More Victimized Than Thou,' warns against a victim mentality which breeds resentment and lack of forgiveness. 'The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the final blow to the dual-idolatry pattern. The faraway idol produces the illusion that people have some sort of meaning or coherence to their lives.' (p.46). The nearby idol gives the illusion that people really can have control over their destinies. 'The verdict of God is that idols misrepresent Him. The whole chapter is illuminating and thought-provoking. Keyes argues that idolatry characteristically takes the shape of this kind of pairing, since we are created in God's image to exercise dominion (immanence, control, nearby) and engage in worship (transcendance, worship, faraway).

The chapters by Guinness are good although some of them I had encountered before in his other book 'Dining with the Devil.' The chapter by Richard Keyes on Idolatry developed a fascinating framework of nearby idols and faraway idols, analogous to the need for immanence and transcendance, or the human desire for control (nearby) and meaning (faraway). All in all, I find it to be a compelling book of great insight and careful thinking, avoiding for the most part an excessive negativity which is perhaps the most common pitfall of any book-length critique. It was a happy surprise to find that many of the authors I was not familiar with made powerful and memorable contributions. The chapters come from a number of well-known and lesser-known evangelical names. I picked this up simply because of my great respect for the thinking of Os Guinness, who along with John Seel is listed as Editor. Specifically, the authors set their sights on the danger of excessive reliance and confidence in 'politics, psychology, marketing, and management.'

'No God But God' is a call to evangelicals to stay true to God alone in the midst of late modernity and the pantheon of modern idols beckoning the church.

No god but god book