Uncommon Ground

Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference
By: Timothy Keller (Editor)

A very conflicted review. The premise of this book caught my attention and, paired with Tim Keller’s name, I was sure this would be a perfect fit. We all interact with people with different beliefs than ourselves and it’s clear that most people aren’t doing an awesome job of it-- thank you social media. I am the first to raise my hand that I needed a book with this title. I am still processing what I read, but overall I was pretty disappointed with the execution of this topic.

This book is a compilation of essays written by 10 different people based on their own experience in our conflicted culture. There were a lot of true and good things advised- like interacting with humility, tolerance, and patience- but it all felt so vague and abstract. Maybe the specifics of what I’m looking for is unrealistic to expect to fit into a book and would make for better in-person discussion. I guess I still need to wrestle with that.

I just didn’t feel like they really gave me any concrete examples to follow. Yet they all came across as if they had an idea in their mind of what they wanted everyone to do or say, but no one was willing to just say it bluntly. They were all beating around the bush of really portraying: this is right and this is wrong. Act like this, not like this. Say this, not that. Because honestly, I think we all already know we’re supposed to be humble, patient, and tolerant, but I think we’re all walking around with our own definitions and ideas about what each of those look like. We all think we’re doing them but we’re probably not.

I also feel like there was this negative generalization of white evangelicals by most of the contributors (and really people everywhere) that I’m exasperated of. It’s this idea that all white evangelicals, because of their privilege, somehow have an incomplete or illegitimate faith, living in some la-la land, unable to see or understand hard reality and that, though it’s not necessarily our fault, we are these immature and unenlightened Christians whose opinions and faiths don’t really matter because we haven’t personally seen, experienced, or struggled with racism or oppression of some kind. We are a group ‘to be reached with the truth.’ How am I to respond when I happen to be white and I’ve chosen the beliefs of evangelical Christianity? How does that automatically make ‘my gospel’ ‘white and wrong’ when we’re reading the same Bible? Additionally, there’s this vibe that if we’re not out advocating for social justice every day then we are part of the problem, not the solution. And I realize these are extreme and exaggerated statements to make, but I read and hear it time and time again with no clear ‘solution.’ Books like this aren’t giving any other sort of practical and realistic suggestions of how this actually would look like for a normal US citizen. And I’m just at a loss.

You can’t just say the church and white evangelicals are getting it wrong and then provide vague directives like ‘be humble, patient, and tolerant,’ ‘listen more than speak,’ ‘choose our words carefully,’ ‘be willing to take action,’ ‘have a posture of embrace rather than fear,’ and ‘don’t over-identify with a political group.’ These are not new concepts. We all think we’re doing these. Give us examples of what this does or doesn’t look like for the average person. How do conversations actually look? What particular action steps make sense for my life as a stay-at-home mom in a mostly white suburb with not a lot of people I interact with on a regular basis?

All of these contributors have significant areas of influence- professors, pastors, book-writers, song-writers, doctors, etc. It’s great what they are doing and the influence they are able to have to bring about change, but we don’t all have the ability, capacity, or opportunity to have our lives look like that. I just want a book on this topic that is more accessible and answers questions rather than avoids them.

It’s probably clear by now that I was disappointed, and I didn’t agree with everything that was written, BUT I don’t condemn this book by any means. I think it’s probably worth everyone reading because we’re all coming at it with different experiences, expectations, and questions. What I found to be abstract and unhelpful may make a lot of sense to you. Like I said, I’m still processing and trying to figure out what I’m going to take away from this book. Try it for yourself and see if you can find the answers you’re looking for.

**Received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**