Living Faithfully in a Fragmented World: Lessons for the Church from Macintyre's After Virtue (Christian Mission and Modern Culture)

Rating:
Summary: Great Intro to MacIntyre and More
Review: In this brief work, Jonathan Wilson explores five central lessons that Alasdair MacIntyre's famous work, "After Virtue" has to teach the contemporary church. Wilson esplores these through a theological appropriation of MacIntyre's important concepts, such as the historical character of human agency, the current state of fragmentation in the Western world, the failure of the Enlightenment project, the importance of tradition, and finally the possibility of the church instantiating a "New Monasticism."

There is a lot of good stuff packed into a small volume here. In particular, Wilson's conept of a "New Monasticism" merits much attention. I also quite appreciated how he centered his discussion on worship at key points.

All in all, this is a great book because it makes a philospher as important as Alasdair MacIntyre accesible to most educated Christians rather than just academics. Likewise, it intentionally focuses on the practices of the church and is oriented toward stimulating faithful witness in the body of Christ in our daily lives. These reasons are more than enough to commend this book. Highly recommended.