The strength of Garber’s book is its storytelling, which pulls you in so that you want to become part of the way of life he illustrates. He draws from art and history and gives a compelling vision of the world . You want to see the world with him, know the world as he does, and make the world better as part of the story that he tells and the threads that he draws together.
In this way, his writing does what he thinks we should all do. He is not only outlining propositions for how to live so that we can check the boxes. He is illustrating what a life of flourishing looks like. His writing aims to promote our flourishing so that we can care for others and promote the world’s flourishing.
While his prose is lovely and compelling, the illustrations went on far too long. The book could have been half as long, made all his points, and still have plenty of illustrations to sweep the reader up in the feeling he has inspired.
Starting on page 120, he takes an interesting turn and plays on the words from John 1, “And the word became flesh.” He intends to illustrate that ideas need to become reality, but the play on words makes me a bit uncomfortable. In a phrase intending to refer to the incarnation of the Son of God, he uses it to explain that we should step into belief and really experience faith. He’s not wrong, but it would have been better to make his point in another way.
In other words, Christians can present Christ to the world through our embodied presence, but we are not the Word that became flesh. This means showing the love of Christ to our neighbors through our actions and our words. If we accompany these actions by proclaiming the gospel, we can make the world a better place in countless ways. Without proclamation of the gospel, these actions cannot lead people to true flourishing.
He also gives examples of many people from different faith backgrounds who live this good life for the common good and live out their vocations. What is interesting to me is that while he includes Christians, he does not necessarily ground the good life in Christ. Those outside of Christ can have this life as well, and therefore, his vision seems insufficiently Christian. It is not that Christians can’t live this way, but it is not distinctly Christian if those outside of Christ could also live this way.
As Christians, the way we think of our vocations should be changed because of our relationship with Christ. We have something to offer in service to the world because we have been made new, made alive in Christ. We get to offer light and life to the world because Christ lives in us.
For Christians, our vocations offer us an opportunity to serve the world because Christ served us and to love the world because Christ loved us. We need not be surprised or ashamed of the darkness in the world because we’ve seen the sin in our own hearts and know the remedy is only found in Jesus. From this position in Christ, the Christian can then offer something distinct to the world.
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