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Book review: Mission and Evangelism in a Secularizing World: Academy, Agency, and Assembly Perspectives From Canada

Secularization in the West has presented a formidable challenge to missiologists, practical theologians, and practitioners for a number of decades. How can the Church engage in mission and evangelism in an increasingly secular, post-Christian world? Any reader who lives and works in a secular context will be enriched with fresh insights and benefit from the breadth of topics addressed in Mission and Evangelism in a Secularizing World: Academy, Agency, and Assembly Perspectives From Canada. In this volume, edited by Narry F. Santos and Mark Naylor, 12 essays narrow their focus on the specific context in Canada. In essence, they try to engage with the question of how the Church can remain relevant in society without losing the integrity of the Gospel message and its call to mission. Although the obstacles are many, and serious difficulties challenge the Church, the authors provide keen insights into possible strategies to overcome the barriers emerging from secularization. First, the reader will notice a strong grasp of understanding what is actually meant by secularism. Although this worldview claims moral superiority and proudly declares its indiscriminate tolerance, the authors expose a different reality. They define secularization as “the movement of an anthropocentric ideology toward dominance that contrasts or opposes theocentric or religious worldviews” (p. xix). By no means is secularism viewed as the greatest threat to the mission of the Church, but due to the fact that it is a global phenomenon, picking up steam in Canada in particular, the Church needs to be properly prepared and thoughtfully enabled to respond with wisdom and love. This self-reflection, however, also exposes inherent weaknesses, where there is “a deterioration of confidence that the twenty-first-century Church has in its own institutions” (p. 17). As always, it is best to set one’s own house in order before criticizing others. Denbok gives the following sobering warning to the Church, “We will be either converted more wholly to Christ or converted to the spirit of this age. The Church in Canada will serve one or the other” (p. 25). Among the effects of secularism, this volume especially highlights one important and quite helpful distinction. The fight is not merely between secular ideology and Christian faith but also between secular power (as it relates to cultural, societal, and civil agendas) and its mission to deconstruct Christianity’s role and influence on these issues. This fundamental power struggle is glaringly dangerous, for it has the potential to destroy “the very threads of the tapestry called Western civilization” (p. 27). Nevertheless, the secular actors continue on their path of deconstructing the very foundation from which they also draw strength. This “reduction” in influence and inherent delegitimization, this volume rightly understands, is not limited to one religious group but to religion in general (p. 47). 907645 TRN0010.1177/0265378820907645TransformationBook Review book-review2020