Have you ever asked yourself one of
those deep, searching, questions like “what if”? What if some particular thing hadn’t
happened, or had happened differently. That’s the question that Jeremiah J.
Johnston asks us to consider in Unimaginable:
What our World Would Be Like without Christianity. (Bethany House, 2017)
As an associate professor, Dr
Johnston teaches at Houston Baptist University, and serves as the president of
the Christian Thinkers Society. There is definitely an academic slant to the
book. He breaks the book into three distinct parts. The World before
Christianity, the World without Christianity, and the world with Christianity. One overarching idea is that a world with Christianity
is definitely a better place to be.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of
overlap in the three categories. Why? Because even in a world where Christianity
exists, there are a lot of competing religions, and not all of them encourage
their adherents to follow Christ. We still
have slavery and human trafficking, there is still war, racism, and any number
of things that were happening BCE, and which in a perfect world would not
exist. Freud, Hitler, Ho Chi Minh and others, within the past 100 years prove
that even in our Christianized world, things are still not as Jesus intended.
As a professing Christian I agree
that Christianity has the potential to make things right, however a lot of that
depends on Christians to stand up and, on a regular basis, do the next right
thing. Johnston points out how humanity is being dehumanized, which tracks with
others who are writing about how attempts by ultra-liberal thinkers to redefine
‘person’ and ‘human’ are leading us down a slippery slope.
While I appreciated the careful thought
that went into this book, I found it to be a little one-sided. Obviously, as a
professor of Christianity, his position is definitely that the world is better
off with Christ followers in it, and the world would be much better if there
were more evidence of Christianity apparent for all to see.
If this had been slightly more
balanced I would be inclined to give it a more favorable review.
I received a copy of this book in
exchange for a review
3/5
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