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The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Alberta is writing from within evangelicalism, seeking to heal the divisions that are mounting. While he exposes faults, the goal is to fix them, and that tempers his approach. The audience is therefore insiders who also want to heal by acknowledging wrongs, repenting, and moving on. Now there are some explanations that go beyond that, explanations of Christianity that the audience I’ve cited would already know. I can see two reasons for that. Authors write also for a secondary audience, who may pick up a book. Can’t let a chance to explain the gospel go by. Also those explanations of the gospel would give Alberta credentials among the insider audience, showing he is one of them, after all.

Of the three sections of the book, the first, “The Kingdom” is the best articulated and differentiated. Alberta points out the difference between Christ’s kingdom, “not of this world” and current politics, saying that the latter have no place in the church. He points out the idolatry of substituting America for the spiritual kingdom. The next two sections (“The Power” and “The Glory”) are not so well differentiated. They seem to be more about power, though in the latter there are occasional brief references to self glory or glory for a church vs. God’s glory. The problem with the pursuit of power is that it prompts an ends-justify-the-means mentality.

Early in the book, each chapter is a case study of a particular church. Later the chapters start in a place, but become more thematically arranged with a lot of comparison made of groups mentioned earlier along with new ones, each chapter not always about one place, but a movement. Two images stick with me. One from an early vignette where a parishioner complains to their pastor that he isn’t interpreting the Bible through the lens of the constitution. The other is Alberta’s reminder that God isn’t up there biting God’s fingernails.

However, 400 pages of examples of churches missing the mark makes for tiresome reading beyond the middle. While there is some need for cumulative example to clinch a point, it seems excessive. There is some relief in that each section also has examples of churches and ministers trying to counter the trend.

Of course Alberta’s version of solution works only for those with a view of a goal-driven history. To historians who see no end as inevitable, who see choice at each step, there is no comfort here.



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