Bad Religion in a nutshell is a book about the interplay between Christian Orthodoxy and heresy, where heresy is defined as going against Christian doctrine as laid out in the Bible. The author did a fantastic job at explaining how there has always been this interplay in the church between orthodoxy and heresy which kept things in the center. Lean too much to the orthodox side as and cause the Church to be legalistic. This has been balanced with individuals who might push the boundaries of Christian teachings but whom have been brought back and/or constrained by the orthodox teachings. However, in this post modern era, there has been a movement to lean all the way to the heretical side with a complete rejection of Christian orthodoxy. This rejection has led to moral failings in society which were usually addressed by the power of Christian belief. This power is best seen in the Civil Rights Movement where Christians regardless of political party or denomination came together to address a moral issue. The heresy that is embraced in this post modern era however, is shown to be as smooth talking as the snake in the Garden of Eden. The preaching of prosperity preacher Joel Osteen or feel good guru Oprah Winfrey are shown as heretical examples who regularly quote scripture but either provide a heretical form of Christian teachings or provide the end user with a religion that is less about asking what can you do for the church/ spiritual group but more about what that entity can do for you. Oprah's views as expressed through Eckhart Tolle and other authors are obviously more about spirituality and definitely not Christian but at it's core is about letting man define right or wrong based on how they feel that day, instead of following anything absolute.
I felt that Mr. Douthat did an excellent job of portraying the issues at stake and adequately showing the true power of Christian orthodoxy. I assume (forgive me for assuming) that Mr. Douthat is Catholic but he did a good job of not advocating for a particular brand of Christianity but remained in the "halls" of Christian teachings as C.S. Lewis put it in Mere Christianity. His history of orthodoxy and heresy in the church, especially the Catholic church was fascinating and really puts a new perspective on the Catholic child abuse scandal. A broad range of topics are addressed but Mr. Douthat's writing on politics and religion really gave me something to think about. Christianity should transcend party politics. He made the correct point that our theology should inform our political opinions and not the other way around. I have not done this book justice in my ramblings. I highly recommend Christians and non-believers alike to grab this book. Also, since this is a review and I have only said positive things I guess I should say some negative points. When you begin to read this book, make sure you have a dictionary or dictionary app ready because you can get lost in a few of the technical terms. Don't fret if you have read ten pages and feel like it took you and abnormally long amount of time to get through. I had the same feeling.
