Excerpts from "Christless Christianity"

Here are some excerpts from Michael Horton's new book, "Christless Christianity" (described in the previous post).


"I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being
practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups."

"…we are getting dangerously close to the place in everyday American
church life where the Bible is mined for ‘relevant’ quotes but is largely
irrelevant on its own terms…." (pp.16-17)


"…There need not be explicit abandonment of any key Christian teaching, just a series of subtle distortions and not-so-subtle distractions. Even good things can cause us to look away from Christ and to take the gospel for granted as something we needed for conversion but which now can be safely assumed and put in the background. Center stage, however, is something or someone else." (p. 20)

"…So much of what I am calling ‘Christless Christianity’ is not profound enough to constitute heresy. Like the easy-listening Muzak that plays ubiquitously in the background in other shopping venues, the message of American Christianity has become simply trivial, sentimental, affirming, and irrelevant."
(p. 21)