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Books

Tony Campolo


Tony Campolo is probably the most influential Christian
communicator to Baby Boomers and young people in the English language.
He writes a book a year, travels widely, is a professor of sociology,
and has Italian-American parents.


He’s also very funny. For example: ‘I become dangerous
on elevators (‘lifts’ in Oz). Society has trained us to behave
in certain ways when we get on elevators, particularly crowded
elevators. If you get on a crowded elevator you are supposed to
turn and face the door. However I have discovered that there is
a great deal of fun in getting on a crowded elevator and not turning.
Face to face with the other people I like to say, ‘You are probably
wondering why I called this meeting, aren’t you?’ That usually
blows them away.’


That’s on page 12 of ‘You Can Make A Difference’
(Word 1984), a book aimed at young people, urging them to choose
to be a radical disciple of Jesus. Other themes: vocation and
dating.


I’ve been in a couple of conferences with Tony, and
I would categorise him theologically as a ‘radical conservative
evangelical’. Radical because he challenges American cultural
contaminations of the Christian faith, and takes students to Haiti
and the Dominican Republic to serve the poor. Conservative because
he has this unfortunate throwaway self-descriptive label about
believing in the inerrancy of the Bible (which he probably has
to do to assuage the evangelical sensitivities of many American
audiences). To be fair to him, however, he chooses rather to refer
to his belief in the Bible as the ‘infallible Word of God’ in
‘A Reasonable Faith’ (Word, 1983)… So much for his evangelicalism:
he’s a better sociologist than theologian.


The first of these two earlier books by Campolo aims
for the gut/will; the second to the mind. They’re both racy –
indeed they read like verbatims of his youth speaking assignments.
And they’re both worth reading – by Christian communicators of
any age.


Each of us, he says in YCMAD, is called to do something
heroic for Jesus. Indeed, if they aren’t specifically ‘called’
to serve Jesus in America, they should assume they’re meant for
more strategic mission situations. Challenge the materialistic
assumptions of your culture (why buy people gifts for Christmas
if they already have everything?)


Another important reminder: you can’t live a radical
Christian life alone. Belong to a support group (‘without such…
you are not likely to spiritually survive’ p.106). Give this book
to any/every young new Christian…


‘A Reasonable Faith’ is a (slightly heavier and less
humorous) summary of Campolo’s evangelising spiel in sociology
classes, specifically attacking presuppositions of secular humanists.
Read it before Sociology or Philosophy 101. There are potted (sometimes
simplistic) summaries of the key thoughts of Marx, Freud, Weber,
Durkheim, Sartre – all the greats are there somewhere, plus some
theologians like Barth, Niebuhr and Tillich. His basic argument
is that Christians should take more seriously the questions non-Christians
are asking. So he has paragraphs on ‘the good life’ (being ‘fully
human’), sexism, sexuality and homosexuality, why he believes
the Bible (‘because I choose to!’), why Jesus is God, time, ‘good
faith’ vs. ‘bad faith’, radicalising institutions, and so on.


Some quotes to conclude: ‘Sigmund Freud once commented
that the Church socialises its youth to ask only those questions
the Church is able to answer’ (p.155). (Has your church had a
seminar/service addressing the homosexuality issue yet?) Trappist
monk Thomas Merton’s opinion of modern philosophers: ‘Having nothing
to say they concentrate on the art of saying nothing with exactness’
(p.157). [When I was young] ‘I was made to believe that God is
out to get anybody who does not agree with the Apostles’ Creed’
(p.170). And Nietzsche: ‘Be careful when you fight the dragon
lest you become a dragon’ (p.188).


Read these, then get Campolo’s ‘7 Deadly Sins’, ’20
Hot Potatoes’, ‘Carpe Diem’ and ‘How to Rescue the Earth Without
Worshipping Nature’. If you preach regularly to young people you’re
allowed to be interesting and Campolo will help you there : –
)

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