The Church in Dark Times
Understanding and Resisting the Evil That Seduced the Evangelical Movement
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About
When calling out evil, we often look for the obvious: malice, cruelty, and wickedness. We try to uncover the impulses and motivations. But all too often, malevolence masks itself behind the best of intentions.
In The Church in Dark Times, Mike Cosper unveils this dynamic in the growing crisis of abuse and other failures in modern evangelical churches.
Cosper, a cultural critic and church leader, examines how the workings of evil have shifted in the modern world. Drawing on the work of twentieth-century writer and political philosopher Hannah Arendt, Cosper explores what we can learn from her theory of the "banality of evil," or ordinary people going along with corrupt principles and practices that have been normalized over time.
Through this fascinating study, Cosper uncovers the underlying causes of the breakdowns of the church and then 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
The Author
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Mike Cosper
Mike Cosper has been creating music, radio shows, and podcasts for more than 20 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 The...
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