Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs

Clapp's latest book is another prophetic offering from an anomalous Christian evangelical. The author of Families at the Crossroads and The Consuming Passion, Clapp knows the subculture well, having worked at Christianity Today, InterVarsity Press, and now Baker Books. But he has cast his lot liturgically with the Episcopalians, and he runs with the radicals from ESA (Evangelicals for Social Action). He also enjoys jazz and country music, films and TV, children's literature and epistemology. All these interests and more merge in this collection of essays. What unifies them is Clapp's contention that Christians have ""disembodied the faith and dismembered (that is, individualized) the Church."" Postmodernist, postfoundationalist and ecclesiocentric, he argues that the language of the church ought to be the most basic language Christians speak, and that their forays into other areas of public culture (across ""borders"") should be undertaken first and foremost as Christians. With these essays, he not only argues that this is so, but shows how it can be done. Clapp writes with wit and verve--and with a little nerve, too. He's not given to academic ""flank-guarding,"" though he writes for an educated audience. His style is winsome and accessible, generously citing other authors, pointing to good thinking and writing when he sees it. Others will point to this book in the same way. (Sept.)