The Church in Dark Times
Understanding and Resisting the Evil That Seduced the Evangelical Movement
Where to Purchase
About
We expect evil to appear in obvious forms: malice, cruelty, and contempt. We also expect to find villains at the helm of evil movements and organizations, leaders with dark impulses and motivations. But all too often, malevolence is more subtle, hiding behind our own best intentions.
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. Drawing on the work of twentieth-century political theorist Hannah Arendt, Cosper explores what we can learn from her theory of the "banality of evil"--the thoughtlessness that allows ordinary people to become complicit in all manner of corruption. He uncovers the underlying causes of the breakdowns of the church and offers practices that foster healing and renewal.
This book will engage Christian leaders and all followers who want to better understand how church crises keep happening--and how we can resist them and move forward.
Contents
Introduction
Author's Note: Dark Times and Godwin's Law
Part 1: Understanding Dark Times
1. Exchanging the Truth for a Lie
2. The Birth of Ideology and the Comprehensible World
3. Ideology, the Fall, and the Limits of Our Knowing
4. Authority, Violence, and the Erosion of Meaning
5. Discovering the Banality of Evil
Part 2: Resisting Dark Times
6. Eugene Peterson, Charlie Brown, and Resistance in Dark Times
7. Solitude and Thinking
8. Storytelling and Culture Making
9. Worship, or Light in Dark Times
Afterword
Endorsements
"Mike Cosper has written a parable for our dark times. Through the example of Mars Hill Church under a corrupt and authoritarian pastor, Cosper aims to make manifest the broader corruption in twenty-first-century America that allows a pastor to run a church like a criminal organization--and to have the religiously motivated staff and leadership of the church participate in his narcissistic power grabs. In seeking to understand how Mars Hill created a distorted reality and ethical framework, Cosper turns to the political thinker Hannah Arendt. Exploring Arendt's thinking about the power of ideology and the banality of evil, Cosper turns the story of Mars Hill Church into a window to our dark times."
Roger Berkowitz, academic director, Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, and professor of politics, philosophy, and human rights, Bard College
"If I were still a twenty-year-old wannabe Beat poet with a knapsack full of books, The Church in Dark Times would be among them, dog-eared with hundreds of underlined paragraphs. Those books were all about freedom, searching for home, forming unique language, and rediscovering an inescapable connection to the Creator and the creation. Now I'm an old musician, and this book will be stacked on a nightstand--one of my go to wisdom books (like in the old days). I will read from it and pray to receive, as Mike has so beautifully written, a spirit of repentance, patience, and tolerance of mystery. For grandiosity, urgency, and certainty have not served people and planet well."
Charlie Peacock, Grammy Award-winning music producer; host of Music & Meaning podcast; author of Roots & Rhythm and coauthor of Why Everything That Doesn't Matter, Matters So Much
"Mike Cosper has his finger on the pulse of the challenges facing the evangelical church. He combines his journalistic curiosity, historical knowledge, and pastoral wisdom in a book that is simultaneously descriptive and redemptive. This is a great read for anyone willing to lean into the past to change the future."
Nicole Massie Martin, chief impact officer, Christianity Today
"The church is indeed in dark times. Understanding the factors that have grown this shadow over a long period of time, recognizing that these factors are not new to the church or the human condition, and seeing viable and compelling ways forward will illuminate even this much darkness. This is what Mike Cosper offers in these pages, bringing to bear his extensive work uncovering some of the most troubling moments in the American church, his deep and wide knowledge of art and culture, and, most important, his love of stories, Scripture, and the church."
Karen Swallow Prior, author of The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
"Mike Cosper has stared into the abyss of the darkest horrors of American Christianity. He also has gazed into the light of the glory of Christ. This book shows us how to tell the difference between the two while yielding to neither complicity nor cynicism. Listeners to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast will find that this book shows a way forward without wish-casting or spin, but with honest, repentant, cross-shaped hope."
Russell Moore, editor in chief, Christianity Today
The Author
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Michael Winters Mike Cosper
Mike Cosper has been creating music, radio shows, and podcasts for more than twenty years. He produced and hosted The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast and is director of podcasts at Christianity Today. He now cohosts a weekly podcast called...
Continue reading about Mike Cosper