A Religion Against Itself

Western religion today is as phony as an aluminum Christmas tree or a celluloid carnation. Our culture in its customs, laws, and creative arts no longer reckons seriously with supernatural realities—although it pretends to. According to Robert W. Jenson, the present epoch of phony religion gives the church the task and opportunity of making explicit the antireligious nature of the gospel. Indeed, Christian faith is antireligious religion. Dr. Jenson takes up the theme of religionless Christianity and works it out in relation to theology, worship, ethics, parish structure, missionary motivation, and faith. The final chapter consists of sermonic attempts to do what A Religion against Itself says must be done. Three excursuses show how the author's thought differs from that of Thomas J. J. Altizer, William Hamilton, and Harvey Cox. For Christians repelled by their own religion, here is a book that comes to grips with the "logic and music of our condition," in the hope of helping the church make sense of the gospel to itself and perhaps also to others.