The Culturally Savvy Christian - by Dick Staub (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In The Culturally Savvy Christian--his incisive critique of contemporary culture and religion--Dick Staub concludes that though it is influential, American popular culture is generally superficial (diversionary, mindless, and celebrity-driven) spiritually delusional (moralistic, therapeutic, and deistic) and soulless (sustained not by art, craft, and ideas, but by the mad pursuit of profit--propped up by marketing and technology). Similarly American Christianity has devolved into its own mindless, diversionary, and celebrity-driven superficiality.

Because humans are created in God's image with spiritual, intellectual, creative, moral, and relational capacities, we long for more, yet the true seeker faces the lose-lose alternatives of a soul-numbing culture and a vacuous Christianity-lite. The renaissance we need in both faith and culture will originate in a deep spiritual renewal that restores God's image in us and creates a new breed of culturally savvy, thoughtful creatives who rekindle the spiritual, intellectual, and creative legacy of Christians as enrichers of culture.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Culturally Savory Christian

"A provocative indictment of and suggestions for revitalizing both popular culture and the fallow state of Christianity in this country . . . "
--Kirkus Reviews

"Some Christians bemoan culture's vulgarities and believe that deepening ?faith requires us to withdraw into cocoons of Christian isolation and churn out happy-feely Christian art, but Staub warns us that this is not the way of Christ. Instead, he explains that like C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Dostoevsky, 'Christian artists are not bound to create religious art, but they understand that their exploration of everyday human occurrences is guided by their walk in faith.' The Culturally Savvy Christian encourages us to peer through the pop culture fog, dismiss the fluff, and reach for the life-changing, the thoughtful, and the meaningful."
--Image, A Journal of the Arts and Religion

"Dick Staub has watched from a unique vantage point as our culture--not least our Christian culture--has been sliding into more and more of a muddle and a mess. Now he offers a sharp, many-sided analysis of where we've allowed ourselves to get to--and a bracing, fresh prescription for how Christians can and should be leading the way through and out into a wiser, richer mode of being human. This is an urgent book for our times--and for our health."
--N. T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, author of Surprised by Hope

Review Quotes

"Dick Staub has written an engaging and provocative book needed in our times...His insightful critique of popular Christianity and his numerous quotes make it a good source for sermon material or a book discussion group. He provides us with 'slow food' for thought."
- The Rev. Canon Jonathon Jensen, The Living Church magazine (May 2009)

About the Author

Dick Staub is an award-winning broadcaster, writer, and speaker, whose work focuses on understanding faith and culture and interpreting each to the other. He is the radio personality behind The Dick Staub Show, a nationally syndicated daily broadcast he hosted for fifteen years, and The Kindlings Muse podcast at www.thekindlings.com. His commentaries can be read regularly at www.dickstaub.com.