[1] Chad Lakies’s argument in his book How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times challenges the church to take seriously the pluralistic secular age we live within and approaches theology and faith in a new way but does not encourage the church to lose its own identity in the process. This book comes from a Lutheran theological perspective and applies central Lutheran theological principles such as confession and forgiveness, vocation, and justification in a resonant way for the present. The merits of this book lie in its discussion of the state of society as well as the new opportunities for the church to respond. But what sets this book apart from others of its kind is that it is carefully researched with citation from sociological scholarship so that it does not fall into simply clichés about “the world,” but is a careful analysis. What’s more, its call to the church is not defensive nor is it as simple as simply naming what the church is already doing in nicer language. Rather, it is a call for the church to respond to the world around it with a completely new posture based upon the analysis of larger culture.
[2] The book begins by recognizing that the church has often struggled to speak to the late modern world, largely because it has taken the wrong posture toward the world. Lakies recognizes that something has changed for the Christian church which he calls a loss of “Christendom.” By this he means that the social and political power of the church that once gave it influence is now diminished—if not gone. Instead, the church is in the Secular Age. He helpfully does not make secularism into a caricature but carefully examines the complexity of what modern secularism looks like following the work of Charles Taylor. He reframes the Secular Age as a world of plausibility. In this world, Christianity, and specifically the transcendent, struggles to remain plausible to a postmodern sensibility. This does not mean people will not be religious, but that religiosity is a choice people make due to its plausibility and meaning for their own lives rather than a societal given that is handed on to them. Lakies recognizes the grief with the loss of Christendom, but then challenges the church not to fall into what James Davison Hunter calls ressentiment – the feeling of anger, rage, revenge, and envy. This feeling comes when the church feels something was taken from them. He diagnoses this sensibility leading to the church taking the posture of culture wars and becoming even more conflictual with the larger world and trying to “take back” Christendom.
[3] Lakies argues that the challenge with the conflict model is that in the Secular Age of plausibility the most important thing for the church to do is to build social trust – something a conflict model will only impede, and which Christendom never did in the first place. The church, he argues, has lost any inherent sense of social trust. He further charges that this was not “taken from” the church, but that the church has lost that trust for good reason. Its leveraging of power through Christendom only served to see the church as a structure of power and not as an organization built upon a loving community.
[4] Lakies’ main argument in the book is for the church to become a “winsome witness.” He looks to the model of the early church before there was any idea of any kind of Christendom. They lived in a pluralistic age and their witness to the world was not through conflict or hostility, but through productive engagement with the world around them. Even in the midst of the threat of martyrdom, the early church did not set up a conflictual model. What’s more, it was winsome in that the message was never about what the church was against, but what it was for. This, he sees, holds guidance for the church today.
[5] While the church is winsome through active relationship, it is still a witness. Much of the book is about what witness to the larger world looks like. This witness retains a distinctive Lutheran identity. Too frequently when modern Lutherans rightly consider distancing themselves from the power structures of Christendom, they can quickly lose any sense of Lutheran identity at all and become merely about community rather than theology. Lakies does not fall into this trap. Instead, he argues that part of being a winsome witness is to retain our witness. Lakies then carefully maps how a Lutheran theological identity is a witness to the larger world in a way that will earn social trust and speak with a helpful posture to larger society based largely upon the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
[6] First, he argues the church is not the only group facing divisiveness and societal fracture. Instead, he sees that as the norm for most of society. He looks to the church to be a winsome witness in that space because of the Christian theology of hospitality. Christians welcome others including those with whom they disagree. It allows a space of engagement across difference as a distinctly Christian value.
[7] Second, he recognizes the important movement toward societal equity and inclusion of all people, especially those who were previously marginalized. However, he notes in those inclusive efforts our differences are often highlighted as the focus on what has historically separated people – even as the effort to eclipse those differences is the main goal. He finds a new structure of separation. That separation is not found in historic divisions on race, sex, and gender, but in ideology. He sees new divisiveness in the general dismissiveness of those seen as ideological enemies.
[8] He argues that Christians are called to look to a level of sameness rather than difference in considering others. He looks to the Spiritual oneness of humanity as all created in the image of God. What’s more, all have fallen from grace. This creates a true oneness to humanity beyond mere societal mores one way or the other. It further provides the true platform for why engagement beyond difference is not only possible but part of a Christian conviction. It is instead a Christian value and a major part of a Christian winsome witness in the world.
[9] Third, he delves deeply into the theology of confession and forgiveness and how that speaks to contemporary society as a witness. He notes the fear and anxiety of being dismissed and “canceled” in contemporary culture for past wrongs. He finds the witness of the church is that the church is structured around forgiveness. He finds from there real acceptance in community and spiritually before God.
[10] Fourth, he sees anxiety – especially from youth coming of age – who are seeking to “find themselves” and discover their own identity. He sees a new burden placed upon newer generations who are struggling to “authentically” find where they belong. That search is often very difficult and hard to grasp which leaves many feeling lost. He draws upon the Lutheran doctrine of vocation to shift the emphasis dramatically and find peace for that community. In the doctrine of vocation, the goal is not to look inward to “find oneself,” but to respond to the external call from God. What’s more, this call is not monothetic so that one is not seeking to hear the singular purpose for one’s life – instead, it is as varied as our roles in society are. Secondarily, the Lutheran doctrine of vocation is remarkably ordinary – the work Christians do in serving one another is through ordinary means in the world such as roles in family, church, occupations, and community. He finds this remarkably countercultural in a world where people are seeking dramatic purpose that is “interesting.” Rather, Christians are called to the ordinary in the world. But the witness of that call is that Christians find deep meaning and purpose – exactly what those who seek to “find themselves” are seeking – but it is found in the ordinary that does not need to be sought out but is always available.
[11] Finally, he argues that the church must adopt values that will make for a winsome witness. It must hold tolerance, humility, and patience as its posture – values he gets from John Inazu’s approach to modern pluralism. However, he does not suggest that those values preclude holding a confident Christian identity. In engaging with others, Christians need to come with the posture that they very well might be wrong, and the other person might be right. However, that does not mean that Christians cannot hold their own identity – but only that they have the posture of real dialogue where both can actually speak to one another.
[12] The benefit of this book is that it is a careful articulation of the world Christians live within based upon real research. After that articulation, Lakies provides a helpful response of the role of Christianity in that world. This is a welcome conversation that gets beyond clichés. One possible critique of the book is in the response provided by Lakies. He emphasis the fallenness of humans and the way confession and forgiveness create unity and provide a winsome witness. There are other reasonable applications for the church to be a winsome witness into the very world he describes that are not fully explored – for example by enacting the kingdom of God through work for justice and peace in the world.
[13] This and other responses not discussed in the book are not precluded from Lakies’ analysis. He states at the conclusion his primary goal was to understand where the church is and only from that space respond:
My purpose in this book was to help us better understand the world we live in as Christians. For some time, many of us have felt that things have changed. Our articulation of what has changed has been lacking, as have our responses to it. That lack has produced a vacuum in which alarmism, fear, resentment, anger, and reactionariness have become primary responses. I pray that this book has helped fill that void and thus equips the church to embody a more hopeful, faithful, fearless, and resilient response. (272)
In this task, Lakies’ work is both convincing and timely.
[14] In all, this book deserves to be read in personal and congregational reflection. It can serve as a heuristic platform for good conversation about the state of society that can provide some real data and careful platforms rather than generalized opinions too frequently thrown about in conversations of this kind.
Rev. Dr. Benjamin J. Nickodemus serves as Associate Pastor at Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, OR (ELCA). He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies - New Testament emphasis from Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis (2023). His dissertation was entitled, The Apocalyptic Character of the Ethnic Identity Argument in Galatians. He is particularly interested in using new interpretive models to understand the Pauline epistles and traditional Lutheran Theology.