In Pursuit of the Self

David Wells, in his new book, "The Courage to Be Protestant," writes about the gradual, growing pre-occupation with the Self (self-centeredness versus God-centeredness) that has infected evangelicalism, and the impact that this radical shift is having on churches:

"In 1983 James Hunter discovered that of evangelical books published in that year, almost nine out of ten dealt with matters of the self....

"...When evangelical churches entered this new universe of the self, they left the moral world behind. The evangelical church, which takes seriously its responsibility to steward the gospel, should have been the first to see this because the gospel makes sense only in a moral world.

"Sin, after all, is not simply feeling bad about ourselves. It is violating what is right in God's law and character. Those who inhabit this self-world look only for therapy, not for forgiveness and regeneration.

"Recovery, in fact, is their way of speaking about regeneration. It is all about human technique and not about miraculous intervention. All of this was apparently lost on evangelicals who stumbled after one another in the earnest pursuit to recast their faith in this new language from the culture."

-- p.138 ("The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers and Emergents in the Postmodern World" [Eerdmans 2008])