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Put it this way: If you don't "get" the title, you may as well not read the book.
Though you might suppose it at first to be the latest Skeptic's Rant of the Month, what Leithart means by "Christianity" -- as he reveals clearly late on the book, but only subtly prior to that -- is "the privatized, spiritualized, intellectualized, depoliticized form of religion" now called by that name; in short, the watered-down faith. As a social indictment, Against Christanity has many virtues, addressing in William F. Buckley form the shortcomings of modern Christianity in the areas of ethics and practice. It makes for reading that sears (well, in most cases perhaps, pokes) the conscience, but is probably above the head of the persons who most desperately need its message.
Leithart is a scholar who knows his stuff and uses scholarly sources (N. T. Wright's works make appearances in the notes). However, I had serious reservations about his polemics against intellectualism; his challenge to readers to compare the work of a theologian, and look for the words he uses in a Bible concordance, is a misplaced complaint that fits better in the mouth of a Jehovah's Witness. Peter found Paul's letters hard to understand; Leithart's screeds aganst intellectualism (especially from one with a Ph. D. like Leithart) are best left ignored. On the other hand, Leithart's commentary on the curse of individualism -- that which makes our sacraments lifeless hulks, and our churches into floating communities of one that pass like ships in the night -- are of great relevance and deserve our attention.
This short book will leave many readers wishing for a more direct approach, one that does not wind its way through a forest of words to reach the stream in the clearing. But then again, anything worth having is not usually free.
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