Review: Life in the Negative World
In Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture (2024) Aaron Renn helpfully divides recent history into three periods with regard to the relationship between Christianity and the broader culture: the positive world (1964-1994), the neutral world (1994-2014), and the negative world (2014-present). In the positive world Christianity was viewed positively by the culture in general. It was economically advantageous for your community to know you attended church. For politicians, some church affiliation was basically required to get elected. In the neutral world Christianity became just one of many options. You could be a Christian, a Buddhist, or an atheist—it really made no difference to the culture at large. In the negative world in which we now find ourselves, the broader culture is actually skeptical of Christians. For the first time in the history of the United States, being a Christian may actually be economically disadvantageous. All of our elite cultural institutions, from higher education to government to the largest corporations, are increasingly anti-Christian.
Renn helps us to think through a number of implications for life in this new world. He helpfully balances a clear-eyed realism of the increasing hostility we will face with a missional focus that avoids packing up and heading for the hills. Renn is creative and wide-ranging with his suggestions, which include adopting a minority-culture mindset, engaging in counter-catechesis with our children, emphasizing financial health to mitigate our risk of loss due to cultural pressures, and creating medium-sized Christian-owned businesses that can provide financial support for churches and white-collar management positions for Christians canceled by secular corporations.
I rated this book 4 stars instead of 5 because it just doesn't quite have that "wow" factor that I require for 5 star ratings. Still, this is an important book that I would recommend all American Christians read and discuss.
Quotables
Finding a path in this fundamentally unknown world will require a different approach from the strategies of the past... a business strategy approach is most useful when there's a well-defined problem, a known market to address, or a space adjacent to something that's already understood. When journeying into the more fundamentally unknown, a different set of skills is required, one based on an older model of exploration. (44)
The pursuit of intellectual excellence [among evangelicals] is necessary for the purposes of counter-catechesis... the church today not only has to teach its members and next generations what it believes, but explain why it doesn't believe certain doctrines accepted in the world. (71)
Recognizing this reality [that we live in the negative world] necessitates making a psychological shift. Majorities naturally think about how to transform, influence, and shape the key organizations and institutions of society because they're used to being in charge of them or identifying with them at some level. But minorities, who almost by definition aren't in charge and who may not identify strongly with those institutions, must think differently. (121)
People are hungry for the truth today, and evangelicals must be able and willing to be that source of truth in a negative world, even when their traditional, historic beliefs accord them lower social status. (164)
The key in all this is not to withdraw and isolate, whether an intentional withdrawal or the result of a culture war approach in which we are isolated and marginalized. To survive and thrive in the negative world, evangelicals must remain engaged in the world politically, socially, and culturally. There's no future in building a backwoods bubble or creating a community that's isolated. (199)Purchase the book →
