Good Reads: "The Church In Dark Times"

Occasionally, I will share about what I've been reading. For November 27 to December 10, 2024, I read this book. If you're so moved, read on.

The Church In Dark Times: Understanding And Resisting The Evil That Seduced The Evangelical Movement by Mike Cosper

Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Religion

Thoughts: In college, I took a class on political philosophy (I ended up minoring in political science and religious studies). It was, bar none, the most challenging class I had in my five years at Middle Tennessee State University. I never felt like I truly understood what was being discussed and I, more or less, hung on for dear life and squeaked out an average grade (more than likely it was a C, though I don't recall exactly what I made). One of the authors we read in the class was German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt — who survived Naziism and, ultimately, became an American citizen.

In The Church In Dark Times, author Mike Cosper (most well known for hosting the Christianity Today podcast The Rise And Fall of Mars Hill) examines Arendt's writings and thoughts to study how people, and more specifically the American evangelical church, keeps falling prey to scandal and evil within its walls. He delves into the story of Seattle's Mars Hill Church a bit, but it doesn't dominate the book either. Mostly, Cosper focuses on ideology and how "the banality of evil," as Arendt describes it, gets unthinking people (read: many of us, if we're being honest) to follow along with evil — whether that be the Holocaust or corrupt church leaders who (spiritually) destroy lives.

Rather than placing the blame for darkness in our churches solely on the leaders, Cosper lays the blame on them — and us. Much like out current political moment, Cosper says we lay the groundwork for ideologically-driven and abusive leadership "To borrow a phrase from a classic horror movie, the killer is inside the house. Or perhaps even better: "We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us." Our problem isn't simply our leaders and our institutions— though they certainly bear a share of the blame. No, the problem is us, more specifically our desires, which are revealed by and reflected in the kinds of churches we're building and not the other way around." (p. 184)

Cosper ultimately points us toward the real thing — coming home to God — as the antidote to all of our schemes and plans. He is not a fan of "change the world" language in churches (full disclosure, our church uses that exact phrase — and I helped come up with our motto when I was a much younger man — and I can see his point even if I believe there is room for a nuanced discussion around the terminology), but instead argues for a simpler faith — one rooted in solitude, reflection, and worship. On page 192, he writes "Ideology will always shrink our world in order to make it manageable, comprehensible, and achievable. In doing so, it produces results — energy, crowds, movements — but it does not bring us home."

I really enjoyed this book, but I will be honest with you, it is a challenging read. Its subject matter is dense and philosophy, in general, requires concentration to truly make the connections. Perhaps, this is my own failing. Sometimes, I feel like I'm just not smart enough to truly understand it — I feel like there are several loose connections in mind and I just can't seem to find the right words to make it all fit cohesively. However, what I found in reading the book is that, as I went through most of each chapter trying to understand, Cosper would deftly weave it all together in the last page or two of each section.

The Church In Dark Times is probably my last or next-to-last book to read in 2024 (outside of finishing my Bible reading plan for the year at the end of the month). It was challenging, it was convicting, it was agitating (at times), and it stretched my ability to think on a deeper level. With those thoughts in mind, I'd recommend this to anyone interested.