Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology—Implications for the Church and Society
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
World Magazine 2023 Book of the Year
Where Are Critical Theory and the Social Justice Movement Taking Us?
Critical theory and its expression in fields such as critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and queer theory are having a profound impact on our culture. Contemporary critical theory’s ideas about race, class, gender, identity, and justice have dramatically shaped how people think, act, and view one another—in Christian and secular spheres alike.
In Critical Dilemma, authors Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer illuminate the origins and influences of contemporary critical theory, considering it in the light of clear reason and biblical orthodoxy. While acknowledging that it can provide some legitimate insights regarding race, class, and gender, Critical Dilemma exposes the false assumptions at the heart of critical theory, arguing that it poses a serious threat to both the church and society at large.
Drawing on exhaustive research and careful analysis, Shenvi and Sawyer condemn racism, urge Christians to seek justice, and offer a path forward for racial healing and unity while also opposing critical theory’s manifold errors.
- Illuminates the origins and influences of contemporary critical theory.
- Exposes the false assumptions at the heart of critical theory.
- Offers a path forward for racial healing and unity.
- Part 1: Understanding
- Part 2: Critiquing
- Part 3: Engaging
Whether you are a Christian, an atheist, or something else entirely, Critical Dilemma is an invaluable analysis of the extraordinary (and some would say, religious) transformations rippling across our culture and society. An extremely clear and illustrative contemporary guide for the perplexed, this book is ultimately a wholehearted defense of genuine empathy, unity, and justice for all.
—Thomas Chatterton Williams, contributing writer to The Atlantic
We are living through an epoch shift in which the ‘anything goes’ relativism of the 1990s and 2000s have given way to a highly moralistic, quick-to-judge, all-encompassing narrative that has now broken mainstream in corporations, schools, politics, entertainment, and even churches. Exhaustively researched and evenhanded, Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer offer a probing and timely study of the critical theories that have captured the popular imagination. Not only are they rigorous and fair, they also chart a course toward more biblical, and, therefore, more hopeful and Christ-exalting answers to the injustices that haunt society. For anyone seeking to understand our cultural moment and bring the good news of Jesus to bear in our ideologically charged and divided age, Critical Dilemma is essential reading.
—Thaddeus Williams, author of Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice, professor of systematic theology at Biola University
For the past five years, Neil Shenvi’s website has been enormously helpful to me as I have tried to better understand the ‘contemporary critical theory’ cultural revolution. Most of us don’t have the patience and expertise to engage so many technical primary sources that are incompatible with Christianity. In this book, Shenvi and Sawyer update their years of research to give us a resource that is clear, meticulous, responsible, reasonable, penetrating, loving, and discerning. Their work is especially helpful for pastors and teachers, for God calls us not only to give instruction in sound doctrine, but also to rebuke those who contradict it (Titus 1:9).
—Andy Naselli, professor of systematic theology and New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary, one of the pastors at The North Church