This book by David Smith is not a book on healing per se, unless we broaden the scope of healing to mean healing the world and its problems; problems that stem from their philosophies and policies. But it is nonetheless a remarkable book that is of interest to any Christian; and there is much in it that Quakers specifically will find useful, useful, enabling, and most of all, challenging. And it is worth mentioning also that the circumstances of the book’s composition seem to be under conditions very familiar to Quaker healers: namely, the frailties of old age and the loss of a loved and supportive partner. It is a triumph of spirit that David Smith has written so well, fluently, and persuasively about the global zeitgeist and the failure of Western (and Northern) Christianity, given his personal situation.

David Smith, then, makes a number of central points about Christianity today. First, that the Western churches have conspicuously failed to represent and embody the message of true Christianity to the world. Second, that Christianity in the southern hemisphere has come to understand the meaning of Christianity at a deeper level than we do. Third, that instead of trying to continue our complacent and hegemonic domination of what Christianity means, we need to practice ‘deep listening’ to what the South has to teach us. Fourth, that part of our problem is our inability to understand what Jesus really wants from us; we have turned salvation into our own private access to God and ignored the larger communal dimensions. On this issue, Smith is very clear: so many modern Christians in the West are really trying to have their cake and eat it too. While Jesus explicitly states that man cannot serve God and mammon, here we do just that. And fifth, David Smith is concerned with establishing what Christianity ‘really’ is like, and to me this is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole book.

Because what Smith does is examine the latest gospel discoveries in their original context and then ask how that context relates to today’s society. Where are the similarities and where are the differences? Where can the Gospel speak clearly and unequivocally of our condition, and where are we inappropriately manipulating the texts to suit our own ends, which are often ends that compromise the original message? As Smith says: “Western churches have generally read Paul’s letters to the urban churches through distorted lenses that have obscured the true character of the emerging first-century Jesus movement.”

A vital aspect of this distortion that I find fascinating is, as he says, the fact that Western churches seem to have a picture of Jesus that starts at the Incarnation, moves quickly, and then focuses on the Crucifixion/Resurrection part. But as Smith observes, these two extremes are connected by the middle part: life, as Christ lived it! As I write this review after having returned from a short break in the South of France, it strikes me how many churches are almost totally concerned with Mary and baby Jesus. In fact, outside Avignon Cathedral we see Christ on the Cross, but above, Mary looking at him from above, yes, below, not above! So I remember that as Protestants we did away with all of that, and yes, Protestants became obsessed with the one sufficient sacrifice at the other end! But the connection is life lived: because we can’t choose how we’re born, and most of us can’t choose how we die, but it’s in the example of how Christ lived his life – the middle part – that we can draw strength, courage. and inspiration that is truly transformative. Quakers, of course, will particularly enjoy this aspect of the book precisely because they are more interested in life lived than in what can sometimes seem like ‘abstract’ theology.

But Smith goes further, deeper. Throughout his book is a piercing critique of modern society, indeed, of the modern world. In his opinion, and I share it, we have lost our way. Two points here are truly trenchant: first, that there are ominous parallels between our current society and the Roman Empire that began and was established shortly before the birth of Christ and flourished in the West for another 400 years or so after Christ’s death. Just as the Roman Empire benefited the lucky few at the expense of the downtrodden many, we now have a similar situation in the West with globalization. I love his description of the beneficiaries of this process as ‘tourists’, who eat and travel but add nothing of substance to the world, while the losers of the process he calls ‘vagrants’, having to move where they can and do change where they can, usually in desperate situations. Then, he takes aim directly at perhaps the greatest idol in Western philosophy. Quoting Zygmunt Bauman: “Indirectly… science cleared the way for genocide by undermining authority and questioning the binding force of all normative authority, particularly that of religion and ethics… Science wanted to be free of values ​​and he prided himself on being By institutional pressure and ridicule, he silenced the preachers of morality, in the process becoming morally blind and dumb, breaking down all the barriers that could prevent him from cooperating, with enthusiasm and abandon, in the design of the more effective and rapid methods of mass sterilization or mass killing; or to conceive concentration camp slavery as a unique and wonderful opportunity to carry out medical research for the advancement of scholarship and, of course, of humanity”.

Perhaps the final point to make in this brief review of this powerful book is to quote David Smith (who quotes Justo González from the southern tradition) on what he sees as the central concern of Jesus when he was alive: “…the early believers recognize that the core of the human situation is neither a debt to God nor a lack of spirituality, but a slavery to the powers of evil.” That is a very strong thing: paradoxically, as we focus on the ‘life’ lived of Christ, we also remember that supernatural dimension that is always present and always real. Christ did not die by accident; evil wanted it to be so, and the truth to be suppressed. We ignore this, especially when we pretend or act as if humans could solve all human problems, at our peril.

It shouldn’t surprise you then that I highly recommend you buy this book and experience for yourself its remarkable power and strength. He will reward much reading and challenge you to tackle his personal version of being a ‘Christian’; I certainly felt and still feel his criticism of my life.