In Overhearing a Christian Apology to the Nones: Revealing Still Hidden Truths in Dialogue, Thomas E. Rodgerson encourages honest, direct, and respectful dialogical engagement between Christians and the “Nones” (the religiously unaffiliated). Rodgerson argues for the necessity of deep listening and humility between Christians and the Nones to bring members of both groups to a place of encounter, which he calls the “threshold of possibility” (15). The book is both a demonstration of a potential dialogue between unlikely dialogue partners and an exhortation to dialogue. The sections of imagined direct dialogue between the two groups are interspersed throughout sections that name the intellectual, cultural, and theological drivers of religious disaffiliation, and discussions of authors who may provide guidance on how to shift toward a different approach to the Nones by Christians. Richard Rohr and David Bentley Hart—themselves diverse figures in the Christian intellectual and spiritual landscape—are a couple of the authors Rodgerson favors. Their mode of thinking can transcend the seemingly irresolvable distance between Christians and the Nones.
The book expounds on the theme of a Christian apology in two ways: as “admission” (part 1, comprised of three chapters) and as “appeal” (part 2, also three chapters). Rodgerson, a former professor of pastoral counseling, adopts an approach to the Christian-Nones impasse rooted in his counseling work, advocating for the creation of safe space for encounter through active listening, followed by the issuance of an invitation to think collaboratively about possibilities for resolving the relational issues at hand. Chapter 1 acknowledges various cultural factors that have colluded to bring about the phenomenon of the Nones, including the rise of individualism and secularism, an increasing emphasis on the insights of the social sciences and the primacy of experience. These provide a logic to the choice of Nones to pursue meaning and purpose in the ways that they do. Chapters 2 and 3 turn to the specific failures of Christianity and Christians that have led to the growing number of Nones in America today. Rodgerson describes these as failures to embody the vital energy of agape-love at the heart of true Christian existence, and drives home that “canned religion” has a certain “shelf-life.” Extrapolating from the root meaning of the word religio, which means that which “binds back” or “binds together,” he names two key “binding” problems that have faced Christianity from its earliest years: confusing bonds of obligation for bonds of love, and forming bonds with empire and the marketplace rather than with the Source of all unity and life. Together these chapters validate critiques by the Nones of what Christianity lacks. Part 1 ends on the need for Christianity to shift from being a “transactional” religion to being a “transformational” religion.
Part 2 lays out the case for why a None might still find value in being in a dialogue with a Christian. In this section there is a more concerted effort to ask the None to inhabit the space of “listener,” with Rodgerson showing that we are all in need of a “spiritual technology” or grammar by which to live the game of life. Rodgerson proposes that a compelling Christian spiritual technology would “maximize the freedom and possibility in our life-stories and, therefore, [allow one] to drink deeply from the ‘spiritual well’ that supplies essential life-giving nurture, meaning, care, guidance, purpose, self-fulfillment, or love.” He expounds on this possibility with terms that suggest a Christianity that embraces process, openness, plurality, diversity, and uniqueness, noting that there are Christian “Somes” who share the concerns of the Nones in their critique of “canned religion.” Rodgerson’s hope is that Christians and Nones together can imagine a new possibility of engagement at the edge of what Christianity is like on the ground today. He gestures toward the promise that ecological solidarity holds in this process, as it attends to the reality of suffering in the world and reveals the blind-spots and insights that both the Nones and Christians bring to the problem. The book closes with an example of a “church-cum-restaurant” that Rodgerson experienced in South Carolina as a newly imagined way for religious and non-religious persons to relate that moves everyone toward the goal of living from and ever into the heart of creation.
A notable strength of this book is the sincere constructive intent and compassion for the Nones that is evident throughout the work; it models the respectful dialogical approach that other texts aiming to build bridges between mutually alienated groups often only espouse. The opening chapters of the book especially include explicit invitations to engagement that, while uncommon in an academic work, underscore the author’s goal of presenting an imagined dialogue. The ambition to bring about mutual respect between Christians and the Nones through modeling a respectful dialogue is itself bold and creative. In this the work achieves its goals of allowing readers to overhear a dialogue between a Christian and a None that may advance new ways of understanding and persuade readers anew of the good of dialogue.
What undercuts this strength is a critique of Christianity that sounds at times like a prosaic liberal critique of Christianity which lacks a nuanced vision of ecclesial faith. Christianity is reduced to a tired hegemonic institution that is too rigid and rules-driven. This interpretation of Rodgerson’s analysis of Christianity’s problem is bolstered by his proposed vision, which places hope in concepts of moving toward greater levels of unity and integration as exemplified by thinkers such as Ken Wilbur. Methodologically, too, the approach of cherry-picking a handful of favored authors repeatedly (Elizabeth Drescher, Linda Mercadante, Richard Rohr, David Bentley Hart, and N.T. Wright are each referenced in five to ten different contexts) for sociological and spiritual insights is also slightly dampening.
There is still much to appreciate in Rodgerson’s diagnosis that Christians must move beyond the present state of indifference or simplistically negative judgment of the Nones, and his efforts to begin a more constructive relationship between these groups. Religion scholars who span the areas of pastoral theology, faith and culture, ecclesiology, and American studies, along with pastoral counselors, laypersons, and graduate students interested in exploring the increasing cultural importance of the Nones, will find the book accessible and comes from a place of commendable commitment.
Carolyn Chau is an associate professor in theology at King’s University College at Western University.
Carolyn Chau
Date Of Review:
May 31, 2023