DISCIPLES AND CITIZENS
A vision for distinctive living
By Graham Cray. IVP. 190 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-157-1
I am genuinely sorry not to be able to be more positive about this book — for a number of reasons.
Graham Cray is always interesting and stimulating. He is aware that the church is floundering in relation to contemporary society and it matters to him enough to read widely and think carefully. So the first quarter of the book surveys the main changes in our consumer-based society which make it hard for non-Christians to believe and for Christians to articulate their belief. All this is useful. Chapter 4 is entitled ‘citizenship undermined’ in which he introduces two striking images — the ‘corrosion of character’ and ‘a ‘liquid society’. ‘Character is formed through committed relationships, so the erosion of the one (committed relationships) leads to the corrosion of the other’: dead right on both counts. With respect to a liquid society: ‘the speed of social and technological change is now so fast that there is no time for re-embedding’. If everything’s fluid in society where is terra firma? — in short, two lethal influences upon Christian and non-Christian alike.
