sic. And the music these young people prefer is over-whelmingly contemporary pop or rock music; far from be-ing musical omnivores, this generation speaks the languageo{ (general ly t r i re) pop music.

That said, surprisingly, this generation does not want con-temporary Christian or gospel music in their worship serv-ices. While Baby Boomers overwhelmingly prefer that kindof music for worship, the younger generation does not. Infact, only l2 percent of those in their twenties whom Wuth-now surveyed said "they would like to see their congrega-tion have a service featuring contemporary music" (224).However, young adults see culture as providing importantmeans for answering the deeper questions of life and desiretheir congregations to engage with contemporary music.movies, and the arts as important for spirituality.

In the end, the most important factor for invoiving youngpeople in congregations resides with young people thenrselves:marriage and children. Wuthnow's study shows that the leastrepresented age group within congregations are twenry-some-things; these young people come back to the church in theirthirties as they maffy and have children. Wuthnow pointsout, however, that what should give congregationai leaderspause is that this generation is either marrying later and hav-ing children later or not even marrying or reproducing at all.In additioq this generation is more committed than their par-ents to the tlpe of lifestyle that demands two incomes in thehousehold. As a result, churches must be creative in figur-ing out how to minister to single adults in their twenties whilepreparing to assist them as they marry and have children intheir thirties.

Often witty, always insightful, I found Wuthnow's bookto be a rich feast for thinking about the generation of studentsI teach. But I also {ound it interesting to read about rny owngeneration; as a Gen Xer (born 1970), it was fascinating tosee attitudes I shared as well as ways in which I differed. Therewere so many places that I said to myself, "yes, he's got thatright." As a result, those who care about this rising genera-tion of young people cannot afford to miss this book.

Sean Michael Lucas is associate professor of church history atCovenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

Looking Before and After:Testimony and theChrist ian Lifeby Alan JacobsEerdmans, 2008i24 pages (paperback), $r4.00

Alan Jacobs lifts the title of his book trom Hamlet,but itcould just as easily be a description of the Roman god Janus,whom Ovid invokes in his poem "Fasti": "TWo-formed Januswhat god shall I say you are,/ Since Greece has no divinity

to compare with you?/ Tell methe reason, too, why you aloneof all the gods/ Look both atwhat's behind you and what's infront." Unacquainted with hisneighbors to the east, Ovidthought a retrospective andprospective god was peculiar tothe Romans. Jacobs is intimate-ly acquainted with Yahweh, theGod of the Bible whom wemight regard as the Judeo-Chris-tian analogue of the pagan Janus.Like Ovid, Jacobs invokes his all-seeing God in a book that explores how Christians-avoid-ing the dangers of presumption and despair-can discern ashape and meaning in their lives to tell stories with bothcomeliness and counsel.

Looking Before and After is drawn from the Stob Lecturesthat Jacobs delivered in 2006 at Calvin Theological Seminary.Who better than a trained literary critic, in possession of astoried imagination, should exhort the church to think nar-ratively about individual lives? Indebted to the narrative turnin theology of the last twenty years, Jacobs worries that ,,in

serious Christian reflection, questions about the shape andfate of community have come to displace the language of per-sonal conversion, transformation. and development from thecentral place such language held in Christian discourse in thefirst two-thirds of the twentieth century" (3).

There is a disconnect between the academic trend of com-munalism-articulated by Lesslie Newbigin, Stanley Hauer-was, and Alasdair Maclntrye-and American Christian cul-ture, which remains fixated on personal spirituality, as thepopular movement of "joumaling" indicates. Undemeath ,,the

layers of narcissism and sentimentality," Jacobs excavates thesalutary technique of "writing as a means of spiritual self-mon-itoring" (4). From the early church (Augustine, Antony. andJohn Chrysostom) to the Puritans (John Beadle and RichardRogers), the spiritual journal framed the discrete events ofIife il order "to plot the graph o{ God's work in our lives,, (6).While Jacobs bemoans "the triviality, even fatuousness, ofmany current ways of talking about 'our stories,,,, he doesnot support an abandonment of "the traditions of personalnarrative or testimony as tokens of misbegotten 'individu-alism"' (8).Instead, he argues that "what we need is betterand more responsible and more coherent personal stories, notthe complete subsumption of all personal narratives into $oupnarratives" (8).

Jacobs is a skilled diagnostician of irony, observing that in-creased storytelling has coincided with decreased commu-nicability of experience: "We tell our stories, all right, but wedon't think of them as offering counsei in wisdom., (9). Why?His answer is surprising, especially because it comes from aliterary critic. In the past, the locus of storytelling was thehome, neighborhood, and church. Now the locus o{ story-telling is the theater, cinema, and novel. Moreover, "technicaladvice has superseded counsel" (9 ). "Formulaic'testimonies,

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2OO9 I MODERN REFORMATION 37

J

of evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity" survivefrom a bygone culture (10). Jacobs calls for an expansion be-yond "testimonies of conversion" to "testimonies of imita-tion and vocation" (10). Agnostic on the question ofwhether human beings are "natural" storytellers, he does be-lieve that Christian discipleship obligates prlper storytelling,marked by honesty and humility for the purpose of edify-ing the church and evangelizing the unchurched.

By sharing his own testimony, Jacobs points to the diffi-culties of communicating experience and offering counsel.Like many of his students at Wheaton College, he lacks thedecisive moment that typifies the conversions of Saul on theroad to Damascus, Augustine in the Milanese garden. andDwight Moody in the Boston shoe store. Drawing on the workof Mikhail Bakhtin, a twentieth-century Russian thhker, Ja-cobs finds relief in knowing that all Christian testimonies,however divergent, belong to the same "speech genre" thatthe apostle Paul describes as a movement from the life ofAdam to the life of Christ. Testimony differs from the gen-res of autobiography, biography, and memoir because it doesmore than detail "one damned thing after another"; it alone"commits its user to makjng a full account of her life's courseand direction, of its shape astdform" (24).

Skeptics of "narrative wholeness" assume that "life as itis lived is not storylike" (25). English novelist Martin Amissighs: "The trouble with life...is its amorphousness, itsridiculous fluidity. Look at it: thinly plotted, largely theme-less, sentimental and ineluctably trite. The dialogue is poor,or at least violently uneven. The twists are either predictableor sensationalist. And it's always the same beginning; and thesame ending" (25t More alarmingly, British theologian PaulHelm despairs: "The Bible does not, it seems, promise thata person's life will form a discernible pattern with a begin-ning, a middle, and an end. Many lives are completely pat-temless or marked by tragedy....It would be completely falseto Scripture to suppose that in order for people to be assuredthat the events of their lives are ordered by providence fora good end, they should be able to discern some overall pat-tern or 'story' in their lives" (64).

With the skeptics, Jacobs admits that "lived experience"should not be confused with "composed narratives" (26).Against the skeptics, he argues: "The inner logic of the tes-timony contains not only the claim that we cqnnarrale ourIives but also the claim that we shouldbe able to do so....'Al-ways [be] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asksyou for a reason for the hope that is in you' (l Peter 3:I5b)"(28). Jacobs brilliantly employs the Pauline metaphor of thebody to assure the Christian of narrative wholeness: just asthere are different members that belong to one body, so toothere are different Christian stories that belong to the "OneStory" of Christ himself. ff the disciple has trouble recognizingthe pattern in her life, she should look to the One who givesthe supreme pattem of crucifixion and resurrection. The dis-ciple is invited to become what C. S. Lewis calls a "littleChrist"-dying and living with Jesus.

While Jacobs assures the reader of narrative integrity, healso disabuses the reader of narrative uniformity. Continu-

ing the body metaphor, the arm is not the same as the leg.We should expect "an extensive repertoire of Christian lifegenres," otherwise our testimonies are "inadequate" to themanifold workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives (29). Withinrpassioned rhetoric, Jacobs says, "If the church cannot cul-tivate the 'fundamental and dynamic' discipline of analog-ical discernment-the discovery of how different lives in dif-ferent times and places belong nonetheless to the samegenre-it has no hope of making disciples of Christ and there-fore no hope of survival" (35). His example of the analogi-cal imagination is worth citing: "The ability to see that whenMother Teresa of Calcutta speaks to the graduating studentsat Harvard she is doing something very like what Paul didwhen he spoke in the Areopagus of Athens, and that, whenshe retums to Calcutta to resume her ministry among the dy-ing, she is doing something very like what St. Francis of As-sisi did among the lepers of northem Italy" Qa). When imag-ination is in short supply, Christians testify with vapid uni-formity instead of vigorous heterogeneity, thereby diminishing"the roster of saints" (30).

Much of this review has focused on the first half of Jacobs'book, which lays the foundation for the second half wherethe author explores the role of memory in testifying, distin-guishing between false and true forms of hindsight; the strongbelief in providential care, avoiding the finalizing interpreta-tions of despair and presumption; and how the One Story ofChrist confers meaning and dignity upon all human stories.

Like other w.ritings from Jacobs, Living Before and After elic-its admiration for its creative inqurry, winning prose, and pru-dential wisdom. The library of his mind is wide open, mak-ing use of literary narratives from Augustine, Livy, GeorgeEliot, Soren ICerkegaard, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, W. H. Auden,William Cowper, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and HenriNouwen. In a work of practical theology, he justifies the useof literary narratives because the post-Reformation "belief inthe possibility of the formal integrity of human lives, thoughoften expressed in novels, is largely a product of Christian an-thropology that finds its origin in Scripture, its full flower-ing in Augustine, and its rediscovery in the Protestant au-tobiographical genres....It is only appropriate that this modeof narration be reconnected to its moral and intellectualsource: Christian theology" ( l0-l I ).

If I may hazardsome constructive criticism in an otherwisepraiseworthy book, the reader will likely accept Jacobs' chargeto develop "a stronger, deeper consciousness of the many lifegenres of the Christian faith." but feel ill-equipped becausehe does not provide any instruction on how to develop thisconsciousness. Familiarity with literary and historical narra-tives would help, but they are not sufficient. Presumably, Ja-cobs would exhort us to create an ethos in church where tes-timonies of conversion, imitation, and vocation are told. Guid-ance here would be appreciated. Additiona\ the reader maywish that Jacobs would go even further to explain the pur-pose of thinking narratively about individual lives. He claimsthe purpose relates to "the health of the church" but seldomelaborates (39). Readers will forgive the author for these short-comings because, substantively, he has given us much to pon-

der and, stylistically, he chose a "terse and suggestive" treat-ment instead of "expansive and detailed" (ixl.

Chrtstupher Benson is a freelance writer in Dent'cr. Colorado.

The Gospel According to Jesus:What is Authentic Faith?by John MacArthurZondervan, 2008300 pages (hardback), $I9.99

This book was originally writ-ten during the late 1980s whenthe "Lordship Salvation" con-troversy was brewing. The con-troversy was no mere kerfuffle,but centered upon the questionof whether a professing Christiancould live in sinful conduct un-abated. Prominent dispensation-al leaders such as Zane Hodgesand Charles Ryrie claimed that aperson could be a "carnal Chris-tian." A carnai Christian, ac-cording to MacArthur, is onewho has accepted Christ's o{fer of eternal life but has beentotally unchanged in his heart and lifestyle (l l). On the oth-er hand, MacAr-thur explains that when a person is saved hecannot merely receive the offer of eternal life, but must alsosurrender to Christ's lordship, which becomes evident in thehis obedient conduct (15,43\.

Overall. there are many positive qualities to the book.MacArthur covers a wide number of passages largely fromthe Gospel of Matthew. He surveys key texts that show howJesus evangelized. Jesus did not approach his auditors in theways of many contemporary evangelists, but confrontedthem with their sinfulness and need for repentance (91).MacArthur's coverage of the many Gospei passages cer-tainlygives the reader much to consider. The weight of the call ofthe gospel is evident in a number of chapters such asMacArthur's treatment of Matthew l0 and the cost of dis-cipleship (219-251 , or his chapter on the parable of the rreas-ure hidden in a field (Man. 13.44-46; 143-50). For manywho have sat in the church but have never heard the gospel,such detailed treatment of Christ's teaching undoubtedlycomes as a shock. Those who imbibe from the evangelisticcup of the health-and-wealth gospel, or the gospel of easybelievism, will quickly discover that it is impossible to putsugar on the lip of the bitter cup of salvation. Christ bids theworld to come and die to itself. MacArthur captures this im-pofiant element of the gospel.

However, there are a number of weaknesses in the bookthat likeiy pester the reader who is tooking for a thorough

treatment of this imponant subject. At many points, it seentsthat MacArthur has sin'rph'sprinkled his sermons with a fewfootnotes and placed rherl irr his book. As helpful and im-portant as sermons can be, ihey are no substitute for thor-ough research and engagente nt \vith an opposing view. Thereis little exploration of the "camal Christian" position. Im-portant unanswered questions lie below the surface such as,What theological commitments lead proponents of this heresyto their conclusions? Why does NlacArthur not treat importantissues such as the human narure? Are human beings di-chotomous (i.e., body and soull or rrichotomous (i.e., body.soul, and spirit)? This is a crucial driving presupposition thatgoes untreated. Historically, a trichotomous view of man hasled to all sorts of gnostic heresy, such as saying that a man,ssoul can be saved but not his body. Similarly, it is trouble-some that the author originally did not have a chapter on thedoctrine of justification or the atonement until the secondedition (14). Along these lines, the book does address the im-portance of the doctrine of sanctification in places (e.g., 3g-39, 196), but there is no separate chapter on this subject.

Beyond these weaknesses, there are two others that mer-it attention. First, antinomianism is not new; it has plaguedthe church since its inception when Cain slew Abel. yet,MacArthur makes little effort to show how the church hashistorically rejected antinomianism. There is an appendix inthe back of the book called, "The Gospel According to His-toric Christianity" (253-7 f ). bur by definition, an appendixis nonessential. How many people actually read appendices?There is little space devoted to the historic protestant con-fessions and creeds in the body of his book to show howMacArthur's own case has precedence. Doctrine must standon Scripture alone, but the church must always stand on theshoulders of giants when they are faithful to God's Word.

Second, MacArthur pays little attention to the doctrine ofunion with Christ. In places, he emphasizes the importanceof the inseparability of justification and sanctification (196-97,210), but only inferentially mentions that both are con-nected with union with Christ (200). When he does refer tothe doctrine, it is only partially stated: "Believers are unitedby faith to the beloved Son of God" (169). Faith not onlyunites believers to Chdst, but so does the indwelling pres-ence of the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9). MacArthur devoresa whole chapter to John 15, the vine and the branches, butdoes not develop the implications of union with Christ ( 165-74, wir}r greater rigor. Like a teasure seeker who finds a golddoubloon on the sand, picks it up, and walks away, he failsto dig a little deeper and discover a teasure chest of gold. per-haps if the author had done in-depth research he would havediscovered Walter Marshall's book The Gospel Mystery ofSandification. Marshall (1628-30) expounds the source of thebeliever's holiness-union with Christ. Marshall wrote in thecontext of his or,rrn lordship salvation controversy but, un-like MacArthur, plumbed the depths of union with Christ,

Given these aforementioned weaknesses, MacArthur,sbook is a helpful but a wanting response to present dispen-sational antinomianism. MacArthur scratches the surface bydrawing attention to points the contemporary church des-

ACARTH

CORDING

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2OO9 I MODERN REFORMATION 39