Between Two Worlds

David Wells' Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World--the fourth and final volume of the series that began with No Place for Truth--has just been published by Eerdmans. Here are the endorsements for it:

Mark A. Noll
This last of David Wells’s penetrating four-volume investigation of the Zeitgeist envisions a duel between the plague of postmodernism (by which he means hyper-consumerism, functional nihilism, and meandering egotism) and the power of the Christian gospel understood in the classic formulations of the Reformation. Readers will be challenged as they grasp why Wells wonders if evangelical churches can survive the test. They should be heartened to discover why he believes that the risen Christ will prevail.

D. A. Carson
David Wells’s singular examination of where America is going is grounded simultaneously in intellectual developments and sociological analysis. This merging of information from different disciplines provides many fresh insights, which become the focal points that prompt Wells to articulate the historic Christian gospel once again, with fidelity to the “givens” of revelation and with relevance to the declining splendor of Enlightenment gods. . . . Those who are serious both about the gospel and about thoughtful cultural engagement will not want to miss this book.

J. I. Packer
With masterful breadth and penetrating insight, David Wells here rounds off his four-volume demonstration of the inauthenticity of much professedly evangelical church life. Hard thought and humility are required to appreciate the critique, though the light Wells throws on our secular culture and on key Bible doctrines makes the effort well worthwhile. There is prophetic perception here that needs to be taken to heart.

Cal Thomas
The finest critique of culture I have read since the late philosopher-theologian Francis Schaeffer. David Wells brilliantly outlines the lay of the cultural land and offers a type of GPS system for navigating it if we are to arrive safely at our final destination. Every Christian should read and internalize what Wells says in this powerful book.

Timothy George
Over the past generation David Wells has offered a piercing analysis of the evangelical church, its seduction by consumerist, postmodern (read ultramodern) culture, and its temptation to negotiate the gospel in the interest of an ephemeral relevance. In this volume Wells is at his theological best as he extends his analysis to the central fact of Christian faith — the person and work of Jesus Christ. . . . An important book for everyone who cares about the integrity of the gospel and the missional future of the church.