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Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael, Horton
Publisher: Baker Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 4495
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0801013186
Dewey Decimal Number: 277.3083
EAN: 9780801013188
ASIN: 0801013186
Publication Date: November 1, 2008
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Product Description
Is it possible that we have left Christ out of Christianity? Is the faith and practice of American Christians today more American than Christian? These are the provocative questions Michael Horton addresses in this thoughtful, insightful book. He argues that while we invoke the name of Christ, too often Christ and the Christ-centered gospel are pushed aside. The result is a message and a faith that are, in Horton's words, "trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant." This alternative "gospel" is a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion. It trivializes God, making him a means to our selfish ends. Horton skillfully diagnoses the problem and points to the solution: a return to the unadulterated gospel of salvation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 leaving "meianity" for Christianity January 1, 2009
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Others have already given fantastic reviews here, and I don't want to be redundant, so I will just add my own spin to this book that occurred to me as I read it. First, as self-help pop psychology and pop music come to dominate so much of American Protestantism, I couldn't help but wonder where the line will be drawn in the sand. Of course, as the author points out, there are many Christians who have the pop experience for their "worship" experience and still hear that Jesus died for their sins and that salvation is through him by faith in taking up the cross to follow him by his grace. But even so, with no real adherence to or understanding of the nature of the Church as found in scripture or tradition I wonder how long until a great divide occurs when the choice will be publicly stated by the mainline Protestants that "Christianity lite" is actually not Christianity at all. Secondly, I think the real solution to this crisis, which is not at all the author's position, is to return not to traditional Protestantism, but to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. Why? Because having the bible alone as our source of authority has not maintained any Christian unity around the fundamentals of the faith. Rather, everyone decides what the Spirit tells them the bible means. It ends up, as the author points out so devastatingly, with not sola scriptura, but sola mio! Jesus is just the life coach and prayer is to help me plug into the power of God to bring material blessings. Although this last point is certainly tied to the Calvinist teaching of predestination and proving you are part of the elect of God, overall Zwinglianism has one out. It ends up with a weak appreciation of what Hebrews says about imitating our forefathers and foremothers in the faith. And like any other case of historical amnesia, the outcome is a silly reinvention of one's self each year according to the spirit of the age, which is not that of God. Besides, MTV always does it better, so it always leaves the pop Christians playing catch up. It reminds me of a time when I was in Eastern Europe and the kids were wearing the Michael Jacksopn zipper jacket and gray acid washed jeans in 1996. They were playing "American" and it was outmoded. My point is, to really address the issue of the book, trying to be hip and current actually makes you less so. Just look at the Roman churches stripped down in the 1960s and refashioned according to the style of the age. Going there now leaves me feeling sorry for the congregation.
So if you are thinking of reading this book, please do! It is very good. But I would also recommend a few other books that may do a better job not in describing the crisis, but in giving a more sustainable and defendable and grace-filled alternative. Mere Christianity is not least common denominator denominationalism. It is the fullness of the faith once delivered unto the saints.
Please give these consideration:Evangelical Is Not Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy and Sacrament, Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants, Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future), Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future), The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death, Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion, Born Againism, Perspectives on a Movement, Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian, Against the Protestant Gnostics and A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future) and How Are We Saved?: The Understanding of Salvation in the Orthodox Tradition. It is a lot of books to suggest, but they are really good at helping you understand the various approaches to the same question of Christ, "What of you? Who do you say I am?" The answer is always more than just "Jesus and me", but whaere to go from there? These books can help.
Excellent December 28, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I won't rehash the content, but the last 150 pages really hits home the problems with the church, and it especially rang true for the traditional Baptist background I come from. This should be mandatory reading for every pastor and church goer.
Excellent exposition December 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Michael Horton has written a most necessary critique of the state of most Christian denominations and churches in America today. Having traded the message of human depravity and salvation alone through Christ for one of self-improvement and moralistic instruction, the majority of America's churches now preach a message that people's itching ears want to hear, that they really are good people who simply need to follow some simple rules to have happy, fulfilling lives.
Whether this book serves as a wake-up call to the masses remains to be seen; having full respect for the sinful state of man, I doubt it. But it does serve as an answer to all who have tried modern religion and found it wanting. The only answer is Jesus Christ, and Mr. Horton has made that abundantly clear in his perceptive, provoking book.
Just as much a hermeneutic... December 7, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The push for Horton in 'Christless Christianity' is one for the gospel. Chapter after chapter he systematically shows how secular thought has been adopted by Christianity. With the mixing of outside ideas, the gospel itself has lost the spotlight or disappeared altogether.
In many ways, I felt that Christless Christianity is a hermeneutic book in disguise. Horton sets up a proper lens by which to view and interpret the Bible through: God, and His kingdom, and His Son, and His plan (and not our kingdom or plan).
Personally, I found this book helpful in allowing me to once again return to the power of the cross of Christ; and to reflect upon His power in the world.
One of the other reviewers makes the case that Horton ignores the Holy Spirit and criticizes men like Jonathan Edwards. Horton does in this book criticize what he calls "revivalism", and is fairly clear he's criticizing the 2nd Great Awakening. In regards to Horton and the Holy Spirit, though the author is not explicit about it, I felt his heavy focus on the power of the gospel from the Word were a strong implication that the Spirit works through the preaching of the gospel.
This is a recommended book.
 Only Half an Answer November 17, 2008
26 out of 39 found this review helpful
I was quite disappointed in Horton's conclusions in this book. He nailed the problems of the American Church very eloquently and with lots of fervor. However, I disagreed with his bottom line on the answer. He is right about the Pelagianism that has infiltrated most American Christianity. He is right about Charles G. Finney and Joel Osteen and Robert Schuller and TBN. But he is wrong, in my opinion, in thinking that theological correctness is the ONLY answer. Academic orthodoxy is only half an answer. According to Scripture we also need the Holy Spirit.
Horton comes out very strongly against revival, which I found baffling. To Horton, spiritual revivals such as the Great Awakening (Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, David Brainerd) or the first and second Welsh revivals (which brought us G. Campbell Morgan, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Evan Roberts), are part of the problem rather than part of the answer. For him, the answer lies in a kind of academic neo-scholasticism. Horton believes that right doctrine will bring about the desired result, while revival will only bring wildfire.
I think he is dead wrong. I think you must have BOTH the Word and the Spirit in order to have a Christ-filled Christianity. Orthodoxy can be 100% correct and 100% dead at the same time (as the Pharisees and the Fundamentalists have proven over and over).
I'm going to disagree with Horton, but agree with Edwards and Roberts and Morgan and Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon and Habakkuk that we need a revival of the Word and Spirit of God. Horton is right about the problems. And he is right about the need for orthodox theology. But he only gives us half the solution. And we need a whole Gospel to revive a lifeless American Christianity.
"O Lord, Revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." (Hab. 3:2).
"I do not understand Christian people who are not thrilled by the whole idea of revival... If you want a perfect exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:25-31, read books on revival." (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones).
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