Book Review: Radical by David Platt
Comments (4) Published September 12th, 2011 under Book Review
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A friend’s recommendation led me to pick up Radical by David Platt. The subtitle of the book–Taking back your faith from the American dream–captures Platt’s thesis and reason for writing the book. Platt, a pastor of a 4000 member congregation in Alabama, wrote the book as a reflection of his and his church’s journey to embrace a Christianity that is closer to what Jesus intended than the one formed by American culture. Platt had grown disenfranchised with how the church has evolved in the US. He writes, “I am convinced that we as Christ followers in American churches have embraced values and ideas that are not only unbiblical but that actually contradict the gospel we claim to believe.”
Much of Platt’s convictions have emerged as he has traveled to other cultures and interacted with people from those cultures. Whether it was a trip to Uganda or China or other areas of the world, his cross-cultural interactions have given him a perspective on how our American spirituality has strayed from the core of the gospel.
And while some of his stories of people who have abandoned (aspects) of the American dream so that they can truly follow Jesus are inspiring, his diagnosis of the failures of American spirituality and his solutions leave me wanting more.
I agree with Platt that our spirituality in the United States has turned away from relationships and discipleship and toward entertainment and programs. I agree that we are completely insulated and isolated, and we don’t recognize the global realities that affect the rest of the world–such as wars, disease, and hunger. And though most of Platt’s evidence is anecdotal, what he sees and feels about American Spirituality is fairly common. What I would add, though, is that the struggle of most believers and communities of faith throughout history is to either conform to the world and to abandon ourselves to Christ.
What he observes about American Spirituality is not a surprise. Scripture speaks of the young believers who struggle to live out their convictions, and perhaps what is unique about us American Christians is that we have defended our pursuit of the American Dream as being Biblical. And we have believed that the blessings of the American Dream is a result of God’s blessings showered on Americans.
It is that belief that Platt doesn’t challenge that concerns me. Platt has boiled the gospel down to: “God loves so that I might make him known among all nations” and its derivative–God has blessed me to be a blessing to all. His stories and exhortation flow out of this understanding of the gospel. I would argue that his understanding of the gospel is very much an American view of the gospel and very much fits with the American Dream. In other words, the American Dream has shaped his theology. All of his stories come out of this theological paradigm. God has loved and blessed people and the least they can do is to go do his work. So his applications and exhortations don’t do much to challenge the American Dream. Sure there were people who have given up a portion of their profits or downsized their lifestyles for the sake of the gospel, but the mission remains fixed on what we as Americans can do for ‘those people.’ Missions is not meant to be Christian charity.
The focus of the gospel and missions should be less about what we have to offer and more about what we need from God. Instead of going because we have been blessed, we should be going because we will be blessed. We have much to learn from the Church in the third world, and by going, we need to put ourselves in a place of weakness and humility to receive what God has for us in other contexts. God invites us into his mission not because we have been blessed but because he wants to extend a blessing to us. And it is within that framework that helps me understand Jesus when he teaches “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” (Matthew 5.3)
This radical discipleship would change how we do church, how we do discipleship and how we do missions. And while Platt criticizes how the American church has reduced our faith to numbers–bigger being better–he does little to move us beyond that criticism. His book is filled with stories of how his radical discipleship teaching is impacting numbers. (‘Thousands went to bless the churches here. Hundreds are showing up to a prayer gathering. Millions are being given to missions. etc…”)
Regardless of my critique of the book, I appreciate that Platt does raise a critique of the American church that is needed. I also appreciate his prescription to pursue transformation–to pray for the world, to read through the Bible, to give more, and to go overseas. I think those are helpful disciplines that focus our vision on what Jesus intended for us. Yet, they should not be the end goal of a radical Christianity.
For those who are looking for radical discipleship, I’d recommend The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman. For those who are looking for inspiration in Missions, I’d recommend The New Friars by Scott Bessenecker. And for those who are looking for a transformation in their finances, I’d recommend Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider.
Near the closing pages of the book, Platt writes, “So what happens when radical obedience to Christ becomes the new normal?” While Platt has moved us toward a more radical version of Christianity, I certainly hope that his picture of obedience is not the new normal.
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