Cultural Christians in the Early Church

Cultural Christians in the Early Church
by Nadya Williams

1. Would you Recommend this Book?
I don’t believe I would, in most circumstances.

2. What is the Main Point?
The main argument Williams is making is that the problem of “cultural” or nominal Christians in the church is not a new problem, but is instead a problem that has always been present, particularly from the very beginning of the church. Her effort seems largely to be to encourage the modern church, particularly in the places like the Bible Belt where nominalism is rampant, that their enemy is an age old one that the church has always dealt with. She is responding to the general idea that “cultural Christianity” or nominalism didn’t really exist when Christianity was a persecuted religion (in the early church) since it was too costly to say you are a Christian if you were not one, arguing instead that nominalism was a significant problem even amidst persecution.

3. Which Parts should I read if I’m short on Time?
The First two chapters and the final chapter.

4. Why does this book Matter?
If she is correct, this book helps change the narrative about the frustrating rampant cultural Christianity in the modern Bible Belt in particular; however, I do not think she is correct or defends her primary thesis effectively.
However, Williams does help the reader realize that there have always been a variety of sins that were accepted by the culture that the church had a hard time convincing Christians were really wrong and worth mortifying; this is greatly encouraging. She uses the example of Christian couples cohabitating and sleeping together before marriage today being seen as not that significant of a problem, while the ancient world accepted prostitution as a normal part of citizen life.

5. Is this Book an “Easy-Read?” (Include Length)
Yes.

6. Who is this Author and what did you think of their writing?
Williams is a new author to me; I was made aware of this book in a mention from Gavin Ortlund in one of his Truth Unites videos. Her writing is fine, and she gives great historical insights throughout, though I did find her taking every chance she could to stand on a modern politically progressive soap box whether it directly aligned with the topic at hand or not.

7. What is One Key Take-Away or Application for my life?
There have always been Christians who “known the way of righteousness” and yet have either never given up their culturally accepted sins or have turned back entirely from the faith to re-embrace such sins; there have always been people leaving the church and breaking hearts of those inside the church that loved them; that battle is not a fresh one and we, like the thousands of years of Christians before us, can by God’s strength endure.

8. What was One point of Disagreement?
There were several. The larger ones were there were several times when it seemed that Williams stretched the passages true meaning to fit the narrative, and even more centrally that she throughout equates cultural or nominal Christians with early church apostasy. She correctly argues that apostasy was a rampant problem in the early church; however, that is not the same problem as people who are still calling themselves Christians and even still coming to church but who are not actually following the Lord. She successfully argues that apostasy was a problem in the early church amidst persecution, but this does not mean that nominalism was also prevalent.

9. What are any other things that stood out to You?
Williams had some helpful pushback for politically right wing assumptions.

10. Have you read any books similar to this one that you would recommend one to read first to help with this one?
I just think of a general book on church history that I love called “Turning Points” by Mark Noll.