Book Review: Plugged In
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Plugged In
Book Author: Daniel Strange
Review Author: Rita
Albany Free Reformed Church
Pro Ecclesia Bookshop
PLUGGED IN
By Daniel Strange
2019/190 pages
The sub-title of this book reads as follows: Connecting your faith with what you watch, read, and play. So, when I began to read this book, I was expecting guidelines on how to deal with all the information and entertainment we are confronted with, through our technological devices. However, it was more than just that! The author is College Director at Oak Hill Theological College in London, where he lectures on Culture, Religion and Public Theology. Thus, his book is also centred around these issues but is especially about culture and how we should engage with it.
At first, it didn’t seem the easiest to read, with some complicated language, but as I kept reading, I found it to be very thought-provoking and interesting. At times it was relatively blunt and honest, but it could also be quite entertaining. It was quite modern and up-to-date in its writing and descriptions (as can be expected from a lecturer), but was also filled with practical examples and ideas, with many Biblical texts to illustrate them.
Throughout the book, Daniel Strange repeatedly quotes 1 John 5:21: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” He explains that culture is all around us. God gives us many good things, but people turn them into “god-things”, and thus they become idols to them. We live in this world, but are not of this world, and yet we need to engage with the culture around us. He says on page 54: 'In Christ, culture is our calling. Our new identity of being “in Christ” encompasses everything: “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). The gospel of Jesus Christ confronts, reclaims and builds culture in a wonderful variety of ways, but which all conform to God’s norms and for His glory.'
Culture isn’t just the books we read, or the movies we watch, or the music we listen to. It includes everything around us, such as the food we eat, the things we wear, the hobbies we have etc. He says that we need to confront everything we do and experience with the gospel, but we also need to connect the power and hope of the gospel to all things.
He then suggests an approach which gives four steps to cultural engagement, namely: 1. Entering, 2. Exploring, 3. Exposing and 4. Evangelizing. Briefly, this means to listen to information about what you are confronted with and to find out its background … to do research. Next is to determine what is right and/or wrong, and to expose idolatry. Most importantly, you need to reveal what the Bible says about it. We need to do this for everything in our lives, but also when we engage with others, both in the church and in the world. This will help us start 'to interpret the world through sharper and more focused biblical lenses.' (page 142) To illustrate this, he goes through some examples, such as bird-watching and adult colouring books, to show how to apply the above four steps.
Daniel Strange also includes a chapter headed 'Can I watch …?' and remarkably, he encourages the use of the Five Solas of the Reformation as tools for discernment. He calls them theological football chants: Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, God’s glory alone. He writes: 'These precious truths, which are the heartbeat of our faith, can act as foundations, fences and flags for us.' (page 83)
Towards the end of the book, the author writes: 'I hope that you’re persuaded that you – yes, you – can engage with culture; and indeed, that you have to engage with culture as part of your task to fill and subdue the earth and to keep yourself from idols. These things aren’t “nice to haves” or “optional extras” in the Christian life – these are biblical commands to obey.' (page 141)
This book really makes you think about and analyse what you do and what you possess. At times it requires discernment while reading, such as with the references to ‘common grace’. However, it is very helpful for what the Bible warns us about in 1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God …” As we interact with the many aspects of culture around us, may God’s great name be honoured and glorified.
Rita Vermeulen, Albany.
This book review was organised by Pro Ecclesia Bookshop in conjunction with the Women’s League. This book is available from Pro Ecclesia bookshop, Armadale; Providence Christian books, Albany; (and Rockingham on request).