As I read this book, I could not help but wonder when the contemporary church is going to come to its senses. While the church must encounter a certain amount of culture, it also should be more counter-cultural and avoid being so syncretistic with things of the world. This author’s helpful analysis of culture makes a clear case that the modern church has blended traditional Christianity with paganism. The church has casually adopted the ways of the world in both its worship and ministry. Is it any wonder why, though many churches are growing numerically, we are not seeing more Christian influence on the culture?

Hunt says, “New churches are springing up like mushrooms all over the American landscape.” But those new churches do not have solid doctrinal foundations. Consequently, they are driven by the pagan philosophy of pragmatism. In order to develop “user-friendly” churches, they promote themselves with a “come-as-you-are” dress code, open-mic service with slick PowerPoint presentations and the latest in rock bands. Hunt points out that very few, if any good Christian hymns have been written in the past 70 years. Prior to that, theologians wrote many of the hymns with some musical abilities whereas much to today’s “gospel songs” are written by musicians lacking a theological understanding. But the same thing tends to be true regarding Sunday school curriculum. With the popular notion, which is certainly true, that “it is a sin to bore a young person with the Gospel,” I would say that it is a sin in attempting not to bore a young person with the Gospel that we fail to communicate that Gospel to that teenager.

This book demonstrates what David Wells has said, that “new churches are springing up like mushrooms all over the American landscape.” But like mushrooms, those new churches are often lacking in solid doctrinal foundations, consequently are driven by the philosophy of pragmaticism in paganistic form. So in order to develop “user-friendly” churches, they advertise themselves as a “come as you are, no dress code, open-mic services with slick powerpoint presentations and the latest in rock bands.” Hunt points out that prior to that, theologians with musical abilities wrote many of the hymns, whereas much of to today’s “gospel songs” are written by musicians lacking a theological understanding. But the same thing tends to be true regarding Sunday school curriculum. Some publishers operate on the popular notion that “it is a sin to bore a young person with the Gospel;” but I would reply that it is a sin in attempting not to bore a young person with the Gospel to fail to communicate the Gospel to that teenager.

It is difficult to engage a culture, if we are so much like that culture that we have nothing unique or distinct to say. Biblical worship rightly involves both emotions and intellect; however, much modern worship has substituted emotions and entertainment for substance and the Christian mind. Hence, though we may have a good feeling at a contemporary pop culture like worship, it does not seem to make a lasting difference on our lives nor the world around us. We have to go from one experience to the next because we are not that good at keeping experience and substance balanced hence we are easily caught in a dumbing down spiral.

Arthur Hunt analyzes this situation and in vintage Neil Postman like fashion and challenges us to see how much paganism has been blended into Christianity, primarily through paganisms image orientation in contrast to Christianity’s word-oriented. From its earliest roots, Christianity has been a religion of the word, not just the spoken word, but the written word as well. That doesn’t surprise us because God not only became the incarnate word, he also gave his revelation in word form.

While there are many types of imagery and symbol in the written word (the Bible), those are given in the context of explanation and interpretation by the Word. Hunt develops the idea that while the Renaissance was image-oriented, with much superstition, speculation, and irrational phenomena, the Reformation was a word-oriented movement. And while the Renaissance attempted to rekindle pagan Rome idolatry, the Reformation attempted to revive first century Christianity before its syncretization with paganism.

Hunt demonstrates how our history has been word-oriented, from the first century AD, to the Reformation, to the American experiment. He states, “America was born out of the print-oriented culture. Newspapers, pamphlets, and books played a major role in our independence and in the ratification of our founding documents…. Books flourished in early American culture.”

Hunt also develops the idea that the modern media, which is primarily entertainment oriented, plays to the themes of sex, violence, and celebrity which he contends conforms to the pagan ideal vs. a Christian message. The important thing for Christians to realize, says Hunt, is that technology is not neutral. It has the potential to change our beliefs and behavior and the more the American culture shifts from a print-word-orientation to an image-oriented one, the more technology manipulates and controls our lifestyle.

Hunt not only does a first-class job of describing and diagnosing the culture from a solidly biblical base, he has some helpful suggestions as to what Christians can do to be in the world but not of the world. For example: imagery, which can easily lead to idolatry, is an appeal to the eye-gate thus we need to be careful and discerning as to what we see. Hunt reminds the reader that the pagan walks by sight while the Christian walks by faith that should serve as filter to what we see. We also ought to examine our lifestyle and without going to the extremes of “moving the family to the woods,” we need to realize that having the latest and greatest, and more of it, may contribute to paganism more than we realize. Even at home, he says, we must control what we watch and how much of it.

 He asks legitimate questions about church, such: why use so much of the “7-11”, seven words sung eleven times, vs. the older hymnals? Why a contemporary service and a traditional one?

Then at school, he underscores the importance of helping students not to believe that information, knowledge, and wisdom are necessarily synonymous. He makes a challenging concluding statement in reminding the reader that to understand some of the things going on and thinking about them can actually help lessen their power and persuasion over us.

If you have read and benefited from the writings of Neil Postman, especially books like: Amusing Ourselves to Death, Technopoly, and The Disappearance of Childhood, you will appreciate Hunt’s good work. We have also reviewed and encouraged reading books such as Life the Movie, Neil Gabler, and Shows About Nothing,

The Vanishing Word would be a good book for personal reading, for a group or class study. Pastors will find rich materials from history, as well as contemporary material to enhance their preaching and teaching. I will say that you will benefit greatly, even if you have knChown and read some of this content in other books, Hunt is a good writer and brings things together in a helpful and challenging way.

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