The Church in Dark Times

For many of us from my own generation, there's no more powerful example of the seduction of evil than the rising of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.

For most of us, whether survivors of childhood abuse or those who survived other significant traumas, we often expect evil to be obvious - the evil guy in the dark alley or the powerful dictator over an evil movement or nation or organization. However, as we head into Mike Cosper's "The Church in Dark Times: Understanding and Resisting the Evil That Seduced the Evangelical Movement," we are reminded that malevolence is often more subtle and kept alive by our best intentions and seemingly righteous ideas.

If you don't believe that evil has seduced much of the current evangelical movement, the odds are fairly strong you'll struggle with the very foundation of "The Church in Dark Times."

I, for one, do believe it.

Drawing on the work of twentieth-century political theorist Hannah Arendt, Cosper dives into her theory of the "banality of evil" - the thoughtlessness that allows ordinary people to become complicit in all kinds of manner of corruption. It's an idea not far removed from another book I'm reading right now by Jemar Tisby, ""The Spirit of Justice."

Cosby explores the growing crisis of abuse and other failures in modern evangelical churches, lifting the veil to expose underlying causes yet, like Tisby, also exploring reasons for hope and practices that foster healing and renewal.

Indeed, "The Church in Dark Times" is very committed to both understanding and resisting this evil, hence its title, yet also uncompromising in portraying it. This isn't a melodramatic work - instead, it's a powerfully researched look that largely avoids politicization and likely has more significant crossover appeal than other titles I've read on this particular subject.

Cosper is a cultural critic who produced and hosted The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast. He services as director of podcasts for Christianity Today and co-hosts the weekly podcast The Bulletin. "The Church in Dark Times" is an expansion, really, of Cosper's Mars Hill podcast as it looks at those very issues and applies them in a myriad of different ways. "The Church in Dark Times" is a well-researched, informative, engaging, and very necessary portrayal of the evil that has seduced the evangelical movement and how it can be resisted.

As humans, we like simple answers to explain complex things and thus we seek out ideologies to make sense of the world. In this book, Cosper explains how the Christian church has increasingly adopted ideologies to explain life when they will always fall short of theology. "The allure of an ideology is that it flattens the complexity of the real world and thus insulated and inoculates a person from the need to think."

Cosper was the host of the popular Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast and has seen first hand how those in the church who cling to mission statements can manipulate and hurt others when they are adopting an ideology that is more man-centered than God-centered. Writings from Hannah Arendt, who was a German Jew living during WWII, added a richness to the discussions as Cosper hearkened back to her work to show that not much has changed between now and 70 years ago.

I appreciated the philosophical discussions in this bookand how Cosper highlighted how we always want to fix problems in our culture and don't often recognize that things are complicated. Some of the writing could be a bit meandering and hard to follow at points.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. This book is one that will live long in my thinking and memory. It examines the aftermath of mega churches and fallen leaders in a way that is critical but ultimately hopeful, engaging with Hannah Arendt’s work. It’s also beautifully written. Definitely one to read.

Mike Cosper, perhaps best known for the podcast “The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill,” returns with another attempt to diagnose what has gone wrong with the evangelical church in America. Multiple scandals and abuse have caused some to call themselves “exvangelical” and say “no thank you” to what the institutional church is offering.

Cosper lays much of the blame on ideology, which often becomes a substitute for truth. This leads to a mindset where the mission is so critical that the sins of the leader are excused, whistleblowers are punished, victims are blamed, and reality must bend to serve the new narrative. He employs philosopher Hannah Arendt as a “conversation partner” as well as drawing illustrations from the Mars Hill debacle.

The author offers three practices for Christians -- and the larger church -- to embrace as they learn dependence on God instead of the tools of modernity. They are (1) solitude; (2) storytelling and culture making; and (3) worship. In this section, Cosper pulls from the wisdom of Eugene Peterson, Beth Moore, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Dallas Willard, and Peanuts.

My one quibble with the book is the number of film, TV, and pop song references. I grew up in the conservative wing of the evangelical church and was not allowed to attend movies or listen to rock music. Consequently, the point of these many examples was lost on me. Nevertheless, this is a worthwhile book, highly readable and relevant.

In The Church in Dark Times, cultural critic Mike Cosper unveils this dynamic in the growing crisis of abuse and other failures in modern evangelical churches. As a Christian leader, I really appreciate this work and I hope many Christian leaders in the world can engage with this topic too.

I have really mixed feelings about this book. On one hand i enjoyed the philosophical discussions based on the writings of Hannah Arendt who was a German Jew living during WWII.
The message of the book is clear - ideology is not the answer, always wanting to fix problems in culture and not recognising that things are more nuanced is not the answer, trying to find one 'bad guy' to blame is not the answer. However it also felt unfocused and meandering at times which took away from the punch
I was also hugely disappointed with the Afterword which seemed completely lacking in nuance, perspective when discussing the horrors occuring in Gaza. I expect more from an author who spent a book discussing the things he did.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book

Got an ARC of this from Netgalley. I enjoyed this follow up book to the rise and fall of mars hill about how Ideology can take route in a church and what could it look like to resist it. I’m glad it wasn’t just a rehash of Rise and fall of mars hill, but a thoughtful response. I have enjoyed that Mike Cosper is able to acknowledge some deep brokenness but use that opportunity to point towards a better way rooted in the hope of Jesus.