WE ARE living in a crisis-shaped world. So says Jesse Zink, Principal of the ecumenical theological college in Montreal, citing the threats of climate change, the inequalities of our economic systems, and the challenges of widespread human migration. He could have added war in Europe, and the election of right-wing politicians here and in the United States.

Faced with this, we could easily get depressed or simply give up and get on with our more private lives. The Church used to have answers, albeit ones that depended on and sustained a large imbalance of power. As fewer and fewer people identify with what we say and do, one answer is to withdraw into Charismatic pietism or inward-looking sacramentalism and come out fighting only on selective issues. Zink believes that the Christian gospel offers and demands much more.

In Faithful, Creative, Hopeful (Feature, 14 February), he demonstrates how what we believe and how we witness to it can renew the Church and contribute to the flourishing of human societies. Following Luther’s example, he offers 15 theses, bringing together scripture, liturgy, and the lived experience of the Church in varied contexts, to show an alternative to a world based on neoliberal capitalism. Much of this is rooted in the life of the local congregation and the relationship with their given community, which will please those working “to save the parish”.

Zink argues that a market-based consumerist economy inhibits personal happiness, espouses values that lead to the exclusion of the poor, and endangers the planet. He calls for solidarity, treating the needs of the other person as if they were your own, and not naked nationalism, and for trust and truth-telling rather than the rhetoric of those who make false claims to gain power.

So far, so good; but here is the missiological problem. If the Church, or parts of it, is rediscovering these things at the heart of the gospel, how do we relate to those Christians with a very different understanding, including those who were key to getting Trump into the White House? Furthermore, at a time when such values may be increasingly counter-cultural, and our churches diminishing in size and authority, this is unlikely to make us popular. So, should our priority be the public challenge that these values present, or more personal conversions, in the hope that the converted will at some point take on this much wider agenda?

The Rt Revd Michael Doe is an honorary assistant bishop in the diocese of Southwark.

Faithful, Creative, Hopeful: Fifteen theses for Christians in a crisis-shaped world
Jesse A. Zink
Church Publishing Inc £16.99
(978-1-64065-738-0)
Church House Bookshop £15.29