The point of a book like this, as I say, is to get both Christians and non-Christians to think again about the sort of world that we live in. And that is so important, because “we are all on a path either toward or away from the God who revealed himself in the Bible.” (p. 15) Christians should be growing more and more aware of the sort of God we claim to believe in, and non-Christians can be shown that the materialist creed is far too empty and reductionistic to explain what life is really all about.

Christians of all people should of course know that this world is NOT all there is. Indeed, this world is transitory and passing. Sure, it is an important and valuable world because God created it. But the entry of sin into the world meant that it is now radically marred and twisted. Thus the Christian looks forward to a new heaven and a new earth.

This is all basic Christianity. But as I have written elsewhere, too many believers live as if this world is all there is. They may speak about God and the supernatural and miracles and so on, but too often they are living lives indistinguishable from that of any non-believer.

We can be just like those in the world when we basically share their values and beliefs. We can be too much like them when we let the material world determining our frame of reference and how we look at things. We can be like the world when we effectively deny the power of God that is available to us. As I said in an earlier piece that discussed worldviews and the culture wars:

Simply consider the basis of the Christian life: the supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, helping us to live above-ordinary lives of holiness, boldness, power and grace. We have been equipped from above. We have been given all the spiritual tools we need to live a Christ-centred, God-pleasing and world-changing life. 

Yet so many are just floundering and getting nowhere. So many live like the devil because they have no means to resist the devil. They are carnal because they prefer carnality to godliness. They are powerless because they are not connected to the source of our power. Christians Living like Atheists: Where Are the Warriors?

Part of the reason we are living like the world is because we are thinking like the world. We go to church on Sundays and sing about glorious, heavenly things, but the rest of the week we live as if this world is the only reality. Sure, there can be some believers who are too heavenly minded to be any earthly good. But the bulk of Western Christians have the opposite problem: they are too earthly minded to be any heavenly good.

Part of the problem is we are overly dependent on our five senses. Only what we can see and hear and feel seem real. And given that we serve an invisible God, that can really make things even more difficult. It is far easier to see the immediate problem in front of us than the problem-solving God in the spiritual realm.

I have written about this as well, and mentioned some earlier books such as Philip Yancey’s Reaching for the Invisible God (Zondervan, 2000). As the West becomes increasingly secular, materialistic, and doubtful of metaphysical truths and spiritual realities, the Christian must more than ever affirm and represent the God that we actually serve.

With all this in mind I simply want to point out a new book that deals with all this, and offer a few quotes from its opening pages. I may yet do a proper review of the volume, but for now, alerting you to it will suffice. I refer to the most recent offering from Rod Dreher: Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age (Hodder & Stoughton, 2024).

I have of course discussed him before, be it looking at his The Benedict Option (2017), or his more recent volume, Live Not By Lies (2020). See these pieces for example:

Strangers in a Strange Land: Christianity and Contemporary Culture

A Review of Live Not By Lies. By Rod Dreher

His new book is suitable both for believers and non-believers. The former need to be reminded of the spiritual realities we claim to believe in, while the latter can learn about the shallowness and incompleteness of their naturalistic worldview.

Both groups need a good dose of enchantment. But I need to stop right here. As Dreher says, “Some Christians are suspicious of the word ‘enchantment’ because of its magical overtones.”

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