Real Cultural Engagement: A Review of Death By Love by Mark Driscoll

Cultural engagement is all the rage in Christian circles these days. Everyone wants to talk about how to engage the culture and to criticize others for doing it “wrong.” Most of these discussions, however, revolve around abstract concepts of “culture.” That ubiquitous and ambiguous word. All of that has its place but arguably the most important place to begin engaging the culture around you is by applying the gospel to lives of your friends and neighbors. That’s what Pastor Mark Driscoll does on a weekly basis as he preaches to, counsels, and cares for the people at Mars Hill Church and those in his community. With the help of seminary professor Gerry Breshears, Driscoll offers a glimpse of what it means to do real cultural engagement with the gospel in his book Death By Love: Letters from the Cross. The book is a gritty and hard look at the struggles of real people and a demonstration in applying the gospel to their deepest hurts and needs.

With his usual wit and direct talk Driscoll writes a series of letters to individuals from his church suffering from real hurt and sin, and he demonstrates for each of them how the gospel applies to their situation and offers hope and healing in Jesus. So to the young girl who was raped he says Jesus is your expiation. To the man whose wife is dying of a brain tumor he says Jesus is your example of how to suffer. In each case study we see one particular aspect of the glory of the atonement. Driscoll does a great job in the introduction of highlighting how the work of Christ is a multi-faceted jewel that requires thorough examination to fully appreciate. To promote one aspect to the exclusion or devaluing of another is to miss the glory of the cross.

The book is very gritty and honest about sin. Mark doesn’t soften the reality of what has happened to these people or what they have done. But it is through these gruesome pictures of sin that we see more clearly the gospel’s beauty and glory. This is practical theology at its best! Driscoll and Breshears do a tremendous job of demonstrating how very important theology is for our everyday lives and how it can bring real life emotional and spiritual healing to the children of God.

I just finished using this book as my primary textbook for a Free Seminary course on the gospel. It allowed for lots of discussions on various theological and practical topics but also demonstrated, throughout the course of the semester, how central the gospel is to all these other doctrines and life issues. This is real cultural engagement and it is done with a gospel focus.