If you haven’t read Faith in a Secular Age by Andrew Root, then you missed out on one of my favorite books that I read in 2017. Never fear! It is not too late- the book can still be purchased here . Recently Volume Two of Root’s Ministry in a Secular Age series came out (The pastor in as secular age) and is an early contender for my book of the year for 2019. One does not need to read volume 1 to read this book, but both deserve to be read. I started my blog years back reviewing Root’s book, Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker, and am happy that years later his work continues to shape and challenge the way I do ministry.
Pastor in a secular age is divided into two parts; in part one Root explores six pastors that serve as representatives of their era and played a part whether reactionary or contributive towards leading to the secular age we find ourselves in. In part two, Root engages with theologian Robert W. Jenson to explore God who arrives in history, a God who challenges our flat dulled out secular understanding of the world.
Now as a quick aside- I can’t tell you how excited I was to see Root engage Jenson in this work. Jenson is one of my favorite thinkers as I testify to in this review . I can only hope that Root’s wonderful engagement with Jenson in part two will pique more people’s curiosity to who this great thinker was and get them to buy his books as well!
The subtitle of this great text is “Ministry to People Who No Longer Need a God”, A hopeful line that will likely disarm the reader from realizing that they too have likely been overly shaped by the secular age; or perhaps that is just me projecting. For you see, as I read this text I certainly felt better equipped as a pastor to understand and name the stories at play which make faithful ministry so difficult, but I also couldn’t help but note the “flat” areas in my own life. In order to better minister to people who no longer need God, we need to confess the places we no longer need God.
As life gains more depth for us the minister we can than in turn invite people into this God event- which is more than an epistemological assent, and this is good news!
There is so much more to be said, and perhaps on another day I will write a better summary of this work, but I wanted today to just say that this book is a gift and one I highly recommend.
I read too much 