No Place for Truth: or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?

by David F. Wells

Has something indeed happened to evangelical theology and to evangelical churches? According to David Wells, the evidence indicates that evangelical pastors have abandoned their traditional role as ministers of the Word to become therapists and "managers of the small enterprises we call churches." Along with their parishioners, they have abandoned genuine Christianity and biblical truth in favor of the sort of inner-directed experiential religion that now pervades Western society.

Specifically, Wells explores the wholesale disappearance of theology in the church, the academy, and modern culture. Western culture as a whole, argues Wells, has been transformed by modernity, and the church has simply gone with the flow. The new environment in which we live, with its huge cities, triumphant capitalism, invasive technology, and pervasive amusements, has vanquished and homogenized the entire world. While the modern world has produced astonishing abundance, it has also taken a toll on the human spirit, emptying it of enduring meaning and morality.

Seeking respite from the acids of modernity, people today have increasingly turned to religions and therapies centered on the self. And, whether consciously or not, evangelicals have taken the same path, refashioning their faith into a religion of the self. They have been coopted by modernity, have sold their soul for a mess of pottage. According to Wells, they have lost the truth that God stands outside all human experience, that he still summons sinners to repentance and belief regardless of their self-image, and that he calls his church to stand fast in his truth against the blandishments of a godless world.

The first of three volumes meant to encourage renewal in evangelical theology (the other two to be written by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. and Mark Noll), No Place for Truth is a contemporary jeremiad, a clarion call to all evangelicals to note well what a pass they have come to in capitulating to modernity, what a risk they are running by abandoning historic orthodoxy. It is provocative reading for scholars, ministers, seminary students, and all theologically concerned individuals.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christianity, Cultural, Church History, Philosophy, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

David F. Wells (PhD, University of Manchester) is the Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

In addition to serving as academic dean of its Charlotte campus, Wells has also been a member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and is involved in ministry in Africa.

He is the author of numerous articles and books, including a series that was initiated by a Pew grant exploring the nature of Christian faith in the contemporary, modernized world.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. Dense, thoughtful, inspiring. Wells is a modern-day prophet in the best sense, refusing to mince words while thundering unpopular truth. Published in 1993—nearly three decades ago—the book laments the vacuousness of modern evangelical thought, the pragmatism of its practice, and the urgent need for theological reformation.

On several occasions I was moved to thank God for the resurgence of Reformed theology in the years since Wells wrote. The “young, Restless, Reformed” (YRR) movement, for all its foibles and fallen stars, is a direct answer to Wells’s prayer. Reading the book made me freshly grateful for God-centered pastors and theologians like Sproul, Piper, Carson, and Dever; for doctrinally serious seminaries; for Reformed hip-hop; for publishers like Crossway; for conferences like T4G; and for organizations like TGC. So much good has been accomplished and so much ground gained; reading “No Place For Truth” with the benefit of hindsight makes that plain.

We should be of good cheer. Let’s not take these gains for granted.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant analysis of modern culture and the church’s unfaithful response. A bracing and prescient book that is more relevant now over 25 years after its publication.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding.

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a separate lecture elsewhere, Wells reported to his wife that when this book is published, he will receive a lot of criticism from the EVANGELICAL flank of the church. As some of the reviews below have shown, he was excatcly right.



Wells's thesis can be summarized thus: "Since the church has adopted all the vestiges of modernity, it has become irrelevant to God, and as such can no longer deliver the demands of God to a dying people. This is so because the church views reality in light of a modernistic (and postmodernistic, although that thought is not developed thoroughly) framework. It cannot make itself better because any attempt at SELF-reform will only re-inforce modernity's grip on the church. The Church's only hope is for "prophets" to call the church back to its focal point: the Holiness of God, without which life is meaningless."



However, the book is not perfect for several reasons. 1)At times it was too technical; had it become more personal for pastors and theologians it would have fared better. 2)It did not deal adequately enough with postmodernism, although with all fairness to Wells, pomo did not have the cultural influence in the early 90's as it does now.



Another problem with the book is Wells' heavy dependence on Liberal gnostic Peter Berger. If sociology of religion is essentially a new paganism (ala John Milbank), then should we really be building off that construct?

Here is another criticism of the book: Wells critiques Evangelicals for abandoning the Bible in favor of pragmatism. The irony here is that Wells waits until literally the last chapter of the book to offer anything remotely resembling exegesis, and even then it comes off kind of "tagged on to the end." In fact, Wells' book is almost exclusively sociological yet at the same time he is accusing evangelicals of not being biblical enough.

[Jon Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve ever read

[John Dube · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd time. Still terrific.

Terrific! This book provides a detailed analysis of modernity's influence on the church. It's super helpful and a must read for pastors/leaders in the church.

[Philip Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really worth your time. Wells tracks cultural, societal, economic shifts over the last couple hundred years and has shown that we have moved into territory in which we are losing the essence of what the evangelical church is meant to be. Evangelicals can often be quick to point out how high culture and liberalism have infected 'high ecclesiology' but fail to notice that low culture and pop psychology have likewise infected those with a 'low ecclesiology.' The shift from understanding humanity as moral/immoral to humanity as healthy/unhealthy, the professionalisation of the pastorate, the dumbing down of literature (or the bypassing of it altogether with technology), the growing emphasis on the self and the subjective, and applying principles of capitalism/consumerism to the local church are factors that have led to a situation in which we need to adopt a certain way of being self conscious, beginning to ask some hard questions of ourselves. I think my main takeaway was to examine more carefully the oft repeated claim that culture is neutral. I'm still a huge fan of the a29 style "culturally liberal yet theologically conservative" approach, but will examine cultural phenomena more for elements that subtly erode the essence of being truly Christian. The book is a little dated, and it is interesting to see his critique of the impact of television on culture and community. But in a way, the 'datedness' serves as a nice a fortiori argument: if it was true when the book was written, it is profoundly more true now.

[Will Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The evangelical church has not only lost its understanding of theology but its capacity to understand theology. We’ve accepted modernity and its accompanying assumptions as neutral when they are anything but.

This book offers a sobering assessment of the church’s impotence in an increasingly modernized world, yet does much to call us back to faithfulness. The modern world needs a Church that stands firmly on the objective truths of God as revealed in His Word to man, not a Church peddling more of the subjective, private, experience-driven slop that now fills pews but tomorrow will leave them empty. Christ is Lord, whether you would believe Him or not. God has objectively revealed himself to men, whether they open their eyes to these truths or not.

This is the kind of book you would want in your church’s bookstore. Though a bit academic, it will richly reward all those who take the time to heed it.

[Nathan Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a difficult read. Wells doesn't spoon-feed his analysis of the modern church. However, though he doesn't put the cookies on the bottom shelf, he writes in a way that forces the reader to think deeply on the subject of his writing. Because of the subject material of this book, reading it without deep thinking and careful consideration would be a waste of time; so I think that his style does the book and the reader a necessary service.

[Patrick Poteet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic book that I have always wanted to read. Wish I would have read this long ago. Insightful on evangelical thinking. Wells was thinking ahead of his time. It provides a backdrop for where we are today along with a correction for pastors and leaders in the church. If you are a serious Christian I would add this to your “must read”list.

[Rebecca Dzikowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! It’s easily the best Christian book I’ve read in the past few years and maybe ever. Wells thoroughly explains how the precepts of modernity have replaced theology in the evangelical church with self-help psychology, and proposes that the solution lies not in revival, but in reformation. Theology matters, and unless we recover the truth of God’s holiness, the church will continue along its path of increasing shallowness until it only reflects the emptiness of the world around it. Morality matters, too, because God is perfect. Otherwise, the concepts of sin and grace mean absolutely nothing. I’m going to be praying for a recovery of truth in my personal theology, and for the ability to express it clearly to those around me.

[Phil Cotnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a major work by David Wells. Heavily footnoted, it takes a broad look at the history of not only evangelicalism but American culture in general. He deals in considerable depth with sociology, philosophy, history, and theology. The picture he paints of evangelicalism is certainly quite stark, although I think his context at Gordon-Conwell might have contributed to that, in the sense that some smaller schools that are more counter-cultural and theologically focused would not necessarily match the portrait. Nevertheless, I think he is on the whole entirely correct, and I found myself writing in the margin that, 20 years later, it is far worse than when he wrote this in 1993. I have heard quite a bit about Wells' books from people I respect so I decided to work through it as part of my self-education process. I am very glad I did. I feel that it deepened my understanding of the modern psyche, and made clear the connecting lines between that psyche and the theological state of the modern church.

Wells has been criticized for being overly negative, and I can see their point. He lays it on pretty thick in some parts. I got the sense that his personality is not exactly the very emotional and creative type. And so I could see the book being a turn-off for some people in that sense. I'm not sure what he would respond to that, but frankly there was so much good information in this book, so carefully condensed and synthesized, that it is easy to overlook the cranky curmudgeon tone he sometimes takes.

I hope to go on and read some of his other major works that followed this one, hoping that I will glean as much from them as I did from this.

[Jon Pentecost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. If you have any kind of aspiration to be involved in full-time ministry at all, read this book. If you have wondered, or felt dissatisfied with the status-quo of the modern evangelical world, read this book. If you are tempted to feel discouraged from standing firm in the truth of Scripture because of pressures around you, read this book.

I read this in 2018, the 25th anniversary of the book's publication; but the years that have passed have not decreased its relevancy--as a cultural analysis, it feels prescient.

Reading No Place for Truth was akin to a fish understanding what it means to be wet. It helped me see more clearly the atmosphere of modern evangelical Protestantism. It helped strengthen me in my convictions that it *shouldn't* be strange for a pastor to be deeply invested in theology. It helped clarify the ways that cultural values have shifted values within the church to value practical moral lists and self-improvement, and away from theology driven mainly by a love and awe of God.

Wells' analysis of the effects of modernization is helpful and clear-eyed. While I appreciate the idea of a micro- and macro-analysis of modernization, I'm not sure that those two chapters were both worth the time it took to labor through them--though collectively they are crucial for the critiques making up the latter half of the book.

Highly useful.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional. David Wells traces the development and effects of modernism and its threat to Christian theology. He pays special attention to the role of pastors today as managers and psychologists instead of "brokers of truth." Well's treatment of the professionalization of the clergy was most helpful. The conclusion was unexpected but poignant—we need once again to be overawed at the holiness of God. Those most irrelevant to the modern world are those who have the most to say to it. Recommended especially for pastors and elders.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The New Testament comes to us with definite positive teaching. It claims to be the truth. It bases religion on knowledge. A religion based on mere feeling is the vaguest most unreliable most unstable of all things. A strong stable religious life can be built on no other ground than that of intelligent conviction... this requires for its underpinning and indeed its explanation a truth that is objectively true...”

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Determined to read Wells (finally) as my reading project for 2023. It was a slog, but very worth reading. It was slow going because it’s very deep engagement with the evangelicalism in the USA since the Foundjng. However, I greatly benefited from reading it and thinking about my own life and ministry in a few of the streams of American Christianity.

[Nicolas Pratt · Rating 1 out of 5]

An interesting perspective, but Wells is very pessimistic about the world as a whole. His statements would fit in almost any point in history that "the world is bad". Stating that TV, modernization, English-translations of the Bible, and basically anything new is taking away from theology is broad and quite unhelpful. I do realize that there is a second book, that assumedly Wells explains what can be done, but I thought that this book, while well written, was very negative and unhelpful.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“God has never been managed and tamed, either by unbelievers or by believers. God is always angular and will never be made smooth.”

[Daniel Sell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for pastors, elders, and deacons. This is a book you will want to re-read.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wells offers a very good overview of the decline of Evangelicalism as it has gradually absorbed the thought and ethos of modernism. We often assume that our own era is normative or that things have always been, more or less, as they are, and yet as one reads the history of the Church major shifts over time become apparent. One often wonders how these enormous shifts happen, seemingly with no one noticing. Wells first looks at the way in which the old Liberalism began, in the 19th Century, deliberately to adapt itself to modernism. He then goes on to show how, despite intending to maintain orthodoxy, Evangelicalism—particularly the non-confessional variety embodied in the Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal traditions—has uncritically and unknowingly absorbed the self-centred, anti-intellecual, and subjective foci of modernism, giving up the pursuit of theology, downplaying the place of objective truth in favour of personal experience, and has transformed its clergy into career-climbing managers, salesmen, and pollsters rather than brokers of biblical truth. The problems Wells describes are now ubiquitous in the Evangelical word, but being aware of this shift and what brought it about serves to put on on guard and to do what one can to at least compensate for it in one's own church and ministry.

[Justin Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year, I read a book by David Wells called, “The Courage to be Protestant.” That book was a culmination of years of research to define why the Evangelical movement has been weakening for the great part of a century, exacerbated by the moral revolutions in the 1960’s onward. “No Place for Truth” is the first book in the series, and is the first of the four books I will try to read this year.

Wells begins with a type of analogy of Wenham, Massachusetts and demonstrates how this little town turned from a small community unaffected by modernity to describe the process in which the Evangelical movement has shifted focus. For example, communities of this nature in the late 18th century were bound together by tradition, the church, and public accountability.

Next, Wells focuses on how the Western World took this shift from the old world to the new. He cites examples that are reminiscent of a book I read last year by Nancy Pearcey, “Total Truth“: He talks about how in these small communities, religion, and more specifically Christian faith, was an intrinsic part of their world. It was not taboo to talk openly about your faith and it most cases, it was encouraged. With the moral revolution however, the movement into modernity caused things like personal religious beliefs to be just that: personal. Notice how today our attitude towards religion is “you can practice your religion, but don’t you dare force it upon me.” This includes the morality that comes from Christianity as well. This privatization of religion in general and Christianity specifically would cast upon Western Culture the transformation from enlightenment to postmodernism (and as a side note, there is much more to this argument but for the sake of being brief, you will just have to get the book to understand how Western Civilization has made this shift).

Well’s ultimate end is to show how theology has become absent from Evangelicalism, but needed to show how Western Culture has made this shift as the exposition for his argument. One of the most brilliant points Well’s makes is about the clergy. In the most interesting chapter, Well’s describes how Pastors used to sign a binding contract to be the Pastor of a church for 25+ years. He says that today, that number has dropped to 3-5 years. The reason for this, he claims, is the professionalization of the clergy. In times past, the knowledge of a pastor used to be qualification enough to be in the ministry. Today, Pastors are hired not for their intellectual achievements or how well they teach, but what kind of leader they are and how they deal with finances etc. The primary role of the Pastor in days past was to teach: today, it emcompasses a wide variety of tasks. Well’s continues to talk about how Evangelical Pastors have ceased to preach a Christian message from the Bible that convicts to more appeasing sermons (that hardly resemble Christianity but rather some kind of “self help” seminar) that barely resemble Christian beliefs about sin and the Gospel. Pastors today are trying to get people in the doors and make them stay there through a message that appeals to the self rather than a righteous and holy God. It would only make sense that one gets people in the doors through any sort of method other than teaching the difficult portions of scripture for fear that it will drive people away. Therefore, theology takes a backseat to the self in modernity for fear of offending anyones personal beliefs.

In the last chapter, Well’s talks about the thought process of modernity. In a very scathing review, he begins the discussion with an overview of the pagan mind from ancient times. They were pluralists, had no moral absolutes, were driven not by history but by nature etc. He makes the point that the modern mind believes itself to be superior to these ancient pagans because we’ve progressed into a degree of maturity with our “politically correct” ways and higher sense of morality and being; we’ve rid our civilization of all the blights that the ancients dealt with such as slavery, bigotry, warfare, etc. But the real irony that Well’s points out is that when you take into consideration that the ancient Hebrews saw their religious beliefs about God as rooted in history, that God acted objectively and that we see this progression through that lens, then we come to an objective truth: the Bible. The pagans on the other hand, see the world and specifically religion, as a privatized experience through nature. What is so interesting then, is that the pagans of old define what the postmodernists believe today, coming full circle. How can one reason that we have reached a “higher civilization” when the last century was most likely the most bloody time period of human existence? We see today the environmentalists worship nature/the world and cover it up with a disguise of conservation.

Dr. Well’s articulates this much better than I can, so I encourage you to get the book. But his review on modern Evangelicalism is scathing and in some ways, quite frightening. Since I became a believer, I have often thought that theology has always been downplayed. Reading this book is all the more reason to continue to develop a mind that loves theology and to continue to study the queen of all sciences (as it was once called).

A couple of thoughts about the book itself: this is deep. I think I will have to read it again much slower. Perhaps next year ! You just need a little time to see Well’s develop the argument. Other than that, this is a really essential book to anyone considering going into the ministry. Also this is just the first book in the series, so it does not give many answers to how to fix these problems. So just anticipate that when you’re reading.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Wells' brilliant analysis of contemporary evangelicalism is one of the most important books I have read. Indeed, his entire four volume series is necessary reading for any pastor or layman who desires to understand why evangelicalism is the way it is, where it is going, and how to chart a path forward must read this book and its sequels. Wells sounds the dangers of modernity and observes through research how it has come to shape the church. This is a clear call to the church away from cultural accomodation and back to historic orthodoxy.

[Maranatha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the most important books I have read that opens my eyes to see the problems of Evangelicalism. It is only later that I learned that Dr. Wells is approaching this from a Reformed perspective. The book definitely piques my interest in the relationship between faith and culture, the meaning of culture mandate, and the Reformed view of Scriptures and the world.

[Eric Rankin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be the most depressing book I've read this year. It ended up spot on in its predictions of the modern/postmodern world.

[Drew Norwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are looking for a thorough evaluation of modernity’s impact on evangelicalism, this is the book for you. Though the book is dated, the main emphases all continue to be relevant. One point that Wells brings home most effectively is his emphasis on the importance of church leadership for assessing and critiquing culture. He urges church leaders to take seriously their duty to understand the cultural moment and to warn/speak against worldly conformity. “[G]enuine leadership is a matter of teaching and explaining what has not been so well grasped, where the demands of God's truth and the habits of the culture pull in the opposite directions. . . Without this costly caring, there is no leadership. Without leadership, there is no articulated vision. And in the absence of public vision, it is easy to equate the norms of culture with the truths of God."

The other main points from this book that I hope to remember six months from now:

(1) Theology must “take root” in the church and cannot be left as a province of the academy alone. "The question, therefore, is whether the Church has a mind for theology. Without this mind, theology cannot take root where by nature and purpose it must take root. There can be no theology worthy of that name that is not a theology for the Church, a theology in which the Church actively participates, in which it understands itself to be theology's primary auditor. The Church is the place where theology must be learned, developed, and applied. The Church is the context in which God and his Word should receive their most serious thought.”

(2) American evangelicalism has suffered from over-democratization--that is, the democratic impulse exceeding its proper boundaries and spilling over into all areas of life. This reaction against hierarchy and authority has been detrimental to theology. Training, discipline, and giftedness have been replaced by every believer's right to form his own opinions on matter of doctrine. "Deference towards learned opinion" has been replaced by the notion that common instincts are sufficient. "In a democracy, every person's vote has the same weight, regardless of how well or badly informed it is. And in a democratized faith, such as we see in the evangelical world, every person's intuitions are likewise granted equal value."

(3) American evangelicalism has largely followed modernity's lead in pursuing the self: "The sort of Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of the self is quite different from the historic Christian faith. It is a smaller thing, shrunken in its ability to understand the world and to stand up in it. The self is canvas too narrow, too cramped, to contain the largeness of Christian truth. Where the self circumscribed the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are reduced a sense of well-being or its absence, God's place in the world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts of redemption are trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his providence in the world dismissed to whatever is necessary to ensure one's having a good day, his Word becomes intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion. Theology becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of faith begin to surface. This biblical interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness by wholeness, truth by feeling, ethics by feeling good about one's self. The world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends. The past recedes. The chruch recess. The world recedes. All that remains is the self."

(4) Biblical truth is public truth. It is true not only for our personal lives, but also for our corporate lives. It is truth that is applicable to all people at all times. “In order to think biblically about our world, we have to put ourselves in the minds of Jeremiah, Isaiah, Paul, and Peter and accept for ourselves the norms and habits by which they functioned. And the starting place was this category of truth. Truth to them was not privatized. It was not synonyms with personal insight, with private intuition. It was not sought in the self at all, as a matter of fact, but in history--the history that God wrote and interpreted--and it was therefore objective, public, and authoritative…It was truth for the open market, truth for the nation, truth for other nations.”

(5) The unity of public and private life, secular and religious life, which the Puritans (and all pre-modern societies) had in spades, has been completely severed. The effects of this division can be seen not only in the realm of politics, but also in our loss of a sense of place and community, our devaluing of personality in work and in goods and services, and other areas.

[Terrence D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realize "sociology" is a near expletive in many Christian circles today, despite the works of such an outstanding man like Max Weber — a Protestant and a Calvinist most known for his Sociological and Economic works (and who is likewise cited by Wells) — but it would be wrong not to consider Wells' book a sociological work as well. It is undoubtedly a socio-theological analysis of American Evangelicalism at large.

It is an indictment on the professing institutions today that still carry the label "Evangelical" or even "Christian," where commercialism and materialism have essentially replaced actual evangelism and proper stewardship.

Wells said everything I've ever wanted to say regarding my own limited observations of American Evangelicalism; from the abandonment of deep theology (that is, the love of God by the study of Him and His Word), to superficial religiosity; from the mortification of sin against God, to the mollification of bad feelings against self; from the love of truth, to its hatred. And though he doesn't quite give a specific definition for "Evangelicalism" as a monolithic movement, he does give a brief history of its etymology, and the subsequent diachronic adjectives to follow (e.g. Protestant Evangelical, Liberal Evangelical, etc.) — mere descriptors to lessen the fundamentalist connotations of the word "Evangelical."

It might be a stretch to say this, considering my limited reading of Wells, but I consider him to be a cultural critic of American Evangelicalism as likened to the great H.L. Mencken, who was, without a doubt, the most incisive critic of American culture in general. Wells fearlessly attacks the sacred cows of American Evangelicalism without naming names which adds to the class of this work, on top of its accessibility.

My only disagreement with Wells is the magnitude of blame he places upon the advent of Capitalism; as though the mere uninhibited exchange of goods and services by individuals and corporations should be to blame for man's innate covetousness and idolatry. To quote Ludwig von Mises from Human Action, "The concept of capitalism is as an economic concept immutable; if it means anything, it means the market economy." Mises likewise states that, "Economics is a value-free, theoretical science and as such avoids any judgment of value. It is not its task to tell people what ends they should aim at. It is a science of the means to be applied for the attainment of ends chosen, not a science of the choosing of ends. Ultimate decisions, the valuations and the choosing of ends, are beyond the scope of any science. Science never tells a man how he should act; it merely shows how a man must act if he wants to attain definite ends."

So you see, I think Wells fails to criticize capitalism by the same definition given to it by its own proponents, but he does get right the subsequent materialism — the idolatrous striving for worldly goods at the expense of truth and justice — which has become easily accomplished due to the once burgeoning freedom of the economy.

[Jared Beebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. It is extensively researched and extremely practical even thirty years after it was written. This is a profound book that I sincerely wish every church member would take the time to read and reflect upon thoughtfully. Its insights and teachings deserve to be savored slowly, allowing for deeper understanding and contemplation of its messages. If I could change one thing about this book, it would be that I wish it had been written twenty years earlier than its 1993 release. Just imagine how different the landscape of ideas and perspectives might have been! By the early 1990s, many churches had become increasingly influenced by the seeker-friendly movement, which emphasized creating an inviting atmosphere for newcomers and prioritizing accessibility over traditional doctrine. This shift led to a notable decline in emphasis on rigorous theological education within church communities. Instead, churches began to redirect their resources and efforts toward developing programming agendas designed to attract and retain attendees. As a result, the focus transformed from deep theological inquiry and spiritual formation to entertaining and engaging services that appealed to a broader audience. This change not only altered the church's approach to worship but also impacted the depth of biblical teaching and discipleship within congregations.

The continued relevance of this book in 2025 highlights the thorough analysis that Wells conducted. This enduring applicability underscores the depth of his insights and the importance of the issues he addressed. The current state of the Evangelical church in America is a significant cause for concern. Many congregants are leaving mega-churches in droves, seeking alternatives that often lead them toward various forms of Deconstructionism. This movement frequently involves a critical reassessment and, in many cases, a complete abandonment of core Christian truth claims. As a result, individuals are increasingly drawn into a worldview shaped by the emotional tides of contemporary culture, where prevailing social narratives take precedence over traditional teachings. This shift highlights a troubling trend within the Church, as many find themselves grappling with a faith that feels disconnected from the deep truths of Christianity, navigating their spirituality in an environment where emotionalism often overshadows doctrinal integrity.

[Mwansa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is exceptional. I walked into it thinking I could properly describe what was wrong with the evangelical world and David Wells met me at the front door. Like a good doctor he showed me what tests we needed to do in order to figure out what the problem is. Then he walks you through the symptoms to explain what is going on but especially the underlying illness that has caused it all, and he ends the book with a brief overview to bring everything together in readiness of a follow-up book that will address the medication to the illness.

Three things that stood out for me was the initial diagnosis. The church has imbibed so much of modern culture as it has naively bought into the idea that culture is neutral. Wells shows how so many of the Evangelical world, like the fish, is unable to tell it is wet because they have been swimming in it for so long. We have lost the comprehension of how our lives should be different from the world in the way we go about every day life. There is no real difference that we would be able to point out between the Christian and a good secular family. None. This is a problem.

Theology has been lost. I loved the description of how theology has been lost in that it has been ignored into oblivion. The church goes about like theology does not matter. It has been left to the seminaries without realizing that theology that is left alone in the seminaries and is not in the custodianship of the church dies because theology must bleed out. The individual members should no longer view theology as something the pastor only should know but everyone should take it seriously because therein lies the foundation of our faith.

A faith based on truth and not experience. We have turned our faith into something that is so subjective as though we believe in God as we do primarily because of what he has done for us. Wells takes us through the Bible and shows that believers who had more reason to believe based on experience did not do so. They believed it because it is true! Praise be to God our faith is true! How can we expect our faith to hold in trying times when it is not built on the truth of its nature, instead we build it on our experiences and like castles in the sand they inevitably crash under their own weight while we stand around pretending it was not coming

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pluralism is seen as the greatest threat to religion. Modernity and globalism have degraded our appreciation of “truth” (supposedly a universally valid concept) and replaced it with “fact” (varying among cultures and societies). This is the theme of David Wells’ arguments. At best these arguments are misleading and at worst they are appalling.

As much as I disagree with nearly every conclusion made in this book, there is still much to appreciate here. Wells is a deep thinker and however inaccurate the book is, his meditation is clear, calculated and internally consistent (for the most part). In other words, he is wrong but his desires are in harmony with his world view. In a way that makes this this work very interesting; it’s important to understand these perspectives even if you reject them entirely.

Wells states that we now seek an experience of God over the truth of God, due to our self absorbed materialist culture, and he see television as expediting this process. “Television is a populist medium that transforms cultural values from a desire to understand into a desire to experience”

This is probably true though unfortunately the author fights against the idea that culture creates religion, and always has. He envisions going back to “traditional ways” yet there is very little in this book that would have been considered normal a few hundred years ago, not to mention 2000 years ago.

There are quite a few glaring problems with this text that, the one that stands out most to me is how Wells perceives objective truth. His “truth” is subjective belief, based on a narrow perception of history as opposed to the “facts” of modern culture which he sees as subjective beliefs based on experience.

[Christian Shelves · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the reasons I love reading Christian books from decades ago is that a lot of the noise feels stripped away. Back in the early 90s, Christian authors weren't necessarily writing about social media, overscheduled activities, and being on call for work outside of certain professions. While issues like television and the economy were still present in the milieu that existed, the benefit is that we get to evaluate the message of the book against what was happening three decades ago up until the present day. What was true then remains true today: despite the rapid technological and societal changes that we have encountered, declining biblical and theological interest and training in evangelical churches has an effect on society and in our personal lives. Its trends can be lasting and ultimately, destructive.

While this book can be a sad indictment of where we are today where there are instances of the Gospel being peddled for profitability instead of pointing to Jesus, Wells offers an incisive look into how our culture has impacted and changed our theology over the years, allowing us to heed the lessons from history. In fact, some of the issues that Christians and churches currently face can be traced back to a weakening of theological understanding among the evangelical community as a whole over time. Written before the seeker-sensitive movement, the proliferation of megachurches, and the increasing influence of modern-day celebrity pastors, there are so many indicators of the shifts in theological education that have led us to where we are. This eye-opening book not only emphasizes my need for Christian truth grounded in God's Word, it also propels me to examine what in my life is built on cultural traditions instead of on theology. Though I found this book to be quite relevant when it addressed seminary graduates and vocational ministers, there is much to learn in No Place for Truth that will benefits churchgoers who care about the spiritual trajectory of their churches.

Review link: https://christianshelves.blogspot.com...