Wisdom from Babylon, Gordon T. Smith
Wisdom from Babylon, Gordon T. Smith
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Wisdom from Babylon
Leadership for the Church in a Secular Age

Author: Gordon T. Smith

Narrator: Bob Souer

Unabridged: 6 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2020


Synopsis

What does it mean to provide leadership for the church in an increasingly secular context?

When religion is privatized and secularism reigns in the public square, Christians are often drawn toward either individualist escapism or constant cultural warfare. But might this context instead offer a fresh invitation for the church to adapt and thrive?

Gordon Smith is passionate about the need for capable, mature leaders to navigate and respond to a changing society. In this book, he draws on his extensive experience as a university president, pastor, and international speaker to open a multidisciplinary conversation about the competencies and capacities essential for today's leaders.

After analyzing the phenomenon of secularization in the West and charting common Christian responses, Smith introduces four sources of wisdom to help guide us through this new terrain: the people and prophets of Judah during the Babylonian exile, the early church in its pagan environment, contemporary churches across the Global South, and Christian thinkers in post-Christian Europe. From these resources he identifies practices and strategies that can give shape to faithful, alternate communities in such a time as this.

About Gordon T. Smith

Gordon T. Smith is the president of Ambrose University and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, where he also serves as professor of systematic and spiritual theology. He is also an ordained minister with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and a teaching fellow at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia. His many books include Institutional Intelligence, Called to Be Saints, and Evangelical, Sacramental, and Pentecostal.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Bob on December 07, 2020

Summary: Considers what it means to live in a secular age, different ways of responding as churches, what may learned from sources ancient and modern, and the competencies of church leadership we need. I grew up thinking that secular was the opposite of Christian and therefore must be bad. Gordon T.......more

Goodreads review by Josh on December 09, 2021

As postmodernity roils on and Christianity moves out of the cultural limelight, Christians are left with a horrifying reality: they are no longer the “default.” Particularly in America, white Christianity has been the default culture ever since Jamestown and Plymouth. But losing that cultural power......more

Goodreads review by Adam on March 12, 2022

Very interesting and thought-provoking book about what it means to live in the world and not of the world. I like what the author said about how sometimes Christians choose the wrong mountain to die on. One of my favorite quotes from the book was: “What if the test of our faith is not how active we......more

Goodreads review by Joshua on August 26, 2024

This is a really important book for 21st century church leaders in the western world. Written by the President of Ambrose University and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, Wisdom from Babylon provides a detailed description of western secularity, and a prescription for the kind of leadership the church n......more

Goodreads review by Tim on November 30, 2023

This may be the best book I have found on this topic. The question of how the church should relate to its surrounding culture is an old one. People endlessly quote the "Christ and Culture" paradigm offered by H. Richard Niebuhr, which can be a good starting point, but I'm glad Smith moves beyond tha......more