Graham Buxton, Celebrating Life: Beyond the Sacred-Secular Divide (London: Paternoster, 2007), xi + 219 Pps., $12.95.
Graham Buxton is director of Postgraduate Studies in Ministry and Theology, Tabor College, Adelaide, Australia. This book is the sixth installment to the Faith In An Emerging Culture series, which seeks to recontextualize the ‘old’ story of the gospel in the ‘new’ world of postmodernity. In this volume, Buxton seeks a more holistic and Christian approach to culture, surpassing the unbiblical dualisms that often are present in Christian thinking, leading us towards the celebration of life in all its dimensions. As such, this book is one that wants to discover the fullness of our humanity (ix). Other than the central theme of celebration, readers also encounter the themes of the danger of assimilation, and the recognition of suffering and oppression in human society.
The opening two chapters of Celebrating Life comprise the first part of the book, and they collectively examine the roots of our dualistic thinking and its implications for culture. Therein Buxton notes that the affirmation of the goodness of God’s creation involves a genuine engagement with the other – in this case, culture – which means that Christians have a great deal to learn from non-Christians. In asserting such a thesis, he explicitly denies the sacred-secular divide that so often inhibits such dialogue. In contrast, he exhorts Christians to actively reconnect with culture and creation.
The second part of the book fleshes out the reconnection proposed in part one of the text, moving us from dualism to holism by considering our engagement with literature (chapter three), the creative arts (chapter four), science (chapter five), politics (chapter six), and business (chapter seven). In chapter three, Buxton notes that the more good books we read, the better (51). He implores his readers to break out of their ‘captivity to fear’ and embrace the arts as an affirmation of life in chapter four (68). In chapter five, he notes that to be made in ‘God’s image’ both the desire and capacity to investigate God’s world, as well as the act of living within the created order (121). He depicts politics as the reality of power, compromise, and influence in chapter six. He argues for the recapture of work from cold capitalism in chapter seven, redeeming it for the glory and kingdom of God.
The third portion of the book draws the preceding threads together by setting out a theology of the church’s engagement with, and participation in, contemporary society that will lead us beyond the sacred-secular divide. More pointedly, Buxton lays out nine modest theses: 1) that God is loving, dynamic, and relational triune being; 2) the triune God is intimately immanently involved with creation; 3) the kingdom of God is a present reality; 4) the incarnation of Jesus expresses the fundamental truth that culture matters to God; 5) humans are invited to participate with God in the world; 6) Christians are called to contextualize the gospel message; 7) the Godhead is inclusive, not exclusive 8) the church is called to be relevant and prophetic; and 9) Christians live in an already-not yet condition today in that the kingdom is already onset, but not yet consummated (178).
All in all, I appreciate Buxton’s attempt to dismantle the sacred-secular divide within contemporary Christianity. While this book is not able to do that in the fullest extent, nevertheless, Buxton provides the roadmap for the completion of such a task going forward with this text. It will be appreciated by all who seek an incarnational model of ministry in the twenty-first century.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.