Quotes from James Davison Hunter

We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the emotional burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without particular moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil; we want decency without the authority to insist upon it; we want more community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms that we want it.

To be Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God's restorative purposes over all of life,

But the consequences of the whole-hearted and uncritical embrace of politics by Christians has been, IN EFFECT, to reduce Christian faith to a political ideology and various Christian denominations and para-church organizations as special interest groups. The political engagement of the various Christian groups is certainly legal, but in ways that are undoubtedly unintended, it has also been counterproductive of the ends to which they aspire.

Ideas do have consequences in history, yet not because those ideas are inherently truthful or obviously correct but rather because of the way they are embedded in very powerful institutions, networks, interests, and symbols.

idealism misconstrues agency, implying the capacity to bring about influence where that capacity may not exist or where it may only be weak.

the dominant ways of thinking about culture and cultural change are flawed, for they are based on both specious social science and problematic theology.

ideas are not free-floating in consciousness but are grounded in the social world in the most concrete ways.

culture is as much an infrastructure as it is ideas.

faithfulness works itself out in the context of complex social, political, economic, and cultural forces that prevail at a particular time and place.

the character of American civilization is a bundle of contradictions,

THE MANDATE OF CREATION is a source both of glory and of shame for the Christian community.

there is not one single challenge to Christianity that eclipses all others in importance.

Indeed, redemption through Christ represents a reaffirmation of the creation mandate, not its annulment. When people are saved by God through faith in Christ they are not only being saved from their sins, they are saved in order to resume the tasks mandated at creation, the task of caring for and cultivating a world that honors God and reflects his character and glory.

pluralism today—at least in America—exists without a dominant culture,

There is little taste for 'high culture' especially in Evangelicalism, where the tendency has long been toward translation - making things accessible to the largest number of people.

the legal and political debate surrounding the just management of plurality will continue well into the future.

In the seeker-church movement the emphasis away from the use and explication of creedal confession is obvious, since the whole point is to focus on the 'felt-needs' of the person in the pew - especially the felt-needs of nonbelievers. The rationale is that the church and its main service are evangelistic in nature. Because nonbelievers simply cannot penetrate the arcana of historic Christianity, the felt-needs of people become the point of entry into conversation with them.

One cannot help but recognize already that there is something about the historical unfolding of our moral culture that resists all of those efforts to change it or finesse it or oppose it.

idealism ignores the way culture is generated,

idealism mistakenly imputes a logic and rationality to culture

IN A MILIEU WHERE the church and its people are so quickly and roundly criticized for their shortcomings, it is easy to overlook a central theological truth; that is, that however inadequate or pitiful the church may seem at times (and may, in fact, be), where the scripture is proclaimed, the sacraments administered, and the people of God continue to seek to follow God in word and deed, God is at work; the Holy Spirit is still very much active.

culture is not neutral in relation to power but a form of power.

overall, the populist orientation of Evangelical cultural production reflects the most kitschy expressions of consumerism

The cultural capital American Christianity has amassed simply cannot be leveraged where it matters most.