Confronting the Idols of Our Age

An idol is a good thing. It is good because God created it. Nothing exists that God did not create and God created all things good. So sex can be an idol, but before it was an idol it was a good creation of God. Materialism is an idol, but to have a material world was God's idea in the first place. Workaholism is an idol, but work is itself a good gift of God. What turns these good gifts of God into idols is what we have done with them. So we have common forms of idolatry expressed in consumerism, individualism, narcissism, careerism, and hedonism; while there are less familiar expressions found in omnism, fatalism, Gnosticism, relativism, positivism, and reductionism. We have put these and other things on a pedestal and made them into mini-gods. In the end they fail to deliver what they promise. These twelve mediations on a scriptural passage by faculty members of Wycliffe College, Toronto, emphasize that the good news is that God can redeem idols. Each one can be restored to its proper place in God's created order and placed under God's authority. ""In Confronting the Idols of Our Age, the 'isms' of our era are addressed from the perspectives of the whole range of a theological faculty, each in his or her own unique voice. It offers a clear, coherent, and evangelically informed critique, while the wit and personal address of the seminary sermon seems an especially appropriate medium for the subject. It would be well suited for a lay audience thinking about the Gospel and postmodern culture, and I commend it highly."" --George W. Sumner, Episcopal bishop of Dallas Thomas P. Power is Adjunct Professor of Church History and Theological Librarian, Wycliffe College, Toronto.