Life in the Negative World
by Aaron Renn
Good categories are good. A good category is clear, and as simple as it can be. It’s good to know what we’re dealing with.
Renn’s categories work.
The title of the book is the third category: Life in the Negative World. It is a timely book, as in, it concerns current events. It also has local concerns, for those swimming/flailing in the waters of Western Civ, and maybe most for those in America.
Positive world refers to when being a Christian made things better, so much so that you might identify as a Christian even if you didn’t follow Christ as a disciple. Society/culture/business/neighbors treated you better as a Christian.
Neutral world refers to when being a Christian didn’t matter. It was one option among many options. It didn’t help or hurt to identify as one. Of course, tolerance of alternative/opposing belief systems is mostly a Christian idea, but tolerance could be a virtue (for a while) even if people couldn’t connect it to a transcendent principle.
Negative world refers to when being a Christian is bad, when Christians and Christian churches become a scapegoat for society’s anxieties.
Renn makes the case that we are in the negative world now. There is compelling evidence that this is mostly true.
Renn also provides some basic counsel for what to do in the negative world, counsel that is more optimistic that The Benedict Option, and less optimistic than evangelicals living in their pretended hopes of still being in the positive world.
It’s worth reading no matter your quibbles. I am recommending it for our men’s group at church. Realizing that we, as Christians, need to build more in negative world is better than thinking we need to be all battle all the time.