Playing God - Redeeming the Gift of Power

Playing God is an audacious, admirable work. Crouch's first book, Culture Making, aspired at nothing less than offering an alternative to Reinhold Neibuhr's seminal Christ and Culture. But the sequel is even bolder in targeting the philosophical giants Michel Foucault and Friedrich Nietzche, whose influence on the modern world defies superlatives. Crouch's contention is that the philosophers are right that power is everywhere--but perversely wrong in seeing it as essential coercive and violent. . . . Per Crouch, those called to redeemed lives, freed by the promise of resurrection from the prison of seeking status, can regard their power as a very good gift to be given away for the flourishing of all.

Playing God is an essential book for thoughtful Christians, a true gift, a must-read. I am thankful that God has graced Andy Crouch with the power of words, with the gift of gab, with the ability to report and to ruminate. Perhaps it is enough to say this: this book will help you understand our world and be God's image bearers with Christ-like fruitfulness. We commend it to you as it is surely one of the most important books we've seen in years.

Playing God is an excellent resource for pastors who are afraid to use the power at their disposal. Crouch contrasts God-given power that brings light, hope and goodness to the world with a different kind of authority: that which corrupts and can be abused.

Playing God is certainly a healthy challenge to the spiritual-power paradigm by which many of us may be operating without even knowing it. For anyone interested in a firmly theological yet brilliantly practical discussion on our place as God's children on this earth, Playing God is most certainly a great place to begin. Any leader who fears an inability to use their power well should pick up this book and take comfort from its stories.

Playing God is highly commendable reading for any student of scripture who longs for a deeper understanding of how we, as stewards and witnesses, are to use our gift of power to live and flourish in this world between Creation and New Creation. It will inspire your heart and engage your mind, while simultaneously confronting and challenging any strongholds of power that you may cherish.

Playing God will be an important resource for undergraduate and graduate classes on leadership, reconciliation, and service. . . . It will also be helpful for organizational leaders in CCCU schools, helping them to think about how they view power and how their institutions organize the flow of power. Crouch is an evangelical thought leader, offering wise and intelligent advice here for Christians engaging a rapidly changing society and world.

A good book prompts you to ask questions you wouldn't have otherwise. A great book embeds some of those in your gut so that you can't shake them for a while. On that score, Playing God is a great book. It provoked nagging questions I haven't been able to shake (or answer!). . . . Playing God's proclamation of the good news about power is crucial and timely--an antidote to both our penchant to seize power exclusively as well as our allergy to assume responsibility.

Andy Crouch's Playing God goes a long way to helping a wide variety of audience members understand networks of power and the power they personally hold. Having power is one thing. How one uses power is a whole other matter and strikes at the heart of what Crouch is seeking to argue in his worthwhile read.

Crouch helps us place power within the overall biblical story, beginning not at the fall but at creation. By doing so we discover that power is a gift, rooted in creation and tied to our calling (or 'vocation') to bear God's image in the world.

Crouch is insightful and backs up his anecdotal and social discussions of power with biblical examples . . . . This is worthwhile reading for anyone looking to reevaluate power and its wordly place within God's kingdom.

If this book hadn't been by Andy Crouch, I wouldn't have read it. A book on power? No thanks. But a book on power by Andy Crouch? Yes, I'll give it a try, maybe a bit reluctantly. Glad I did. (So much so that I started over immediately and read it a second time.)

In the end, power is for human flourishing, and it takes the shape of the cross. As Crouch says, '. . . We are meant to pour out our power fearlessly, spend our privilege recklessly, and leave our status in the dust of our headlong pursuit of love, ' like Christ, who loved us and gave himself up for us. That is our calling. That is what it means to play God in the truest sense.

Readers will find plenty of insight and inspiration here. As a journalist, Crouch places high value on clarity of style and usefulness for everyday life. He brings in stories from his personal life and from popular culture that sustain interest and shed important light. And he illuminates his theme through multipage explorations of key biblical passages, which will be helpful to readers with preaching responsibilities. Crouch's evangelical perspective bears provocatively on a conversation pertinent to everyone.

The timeliest aspect of Playing God is its attention to social justice and how American Christians both empower and dispossess people around the world in attempts to help them. Rather than blindly striking at world ills, Crouch encourages us to understand idolatry and injustices as the negative consequences of ill-used power. If we 'play god' by swooping in and saving the day, we make ourselves into idols, rather than restoring the image-bearing capabilities of the people we seek to help. . . . There is something in Playing God both for those who are sensitive about their privilege and for those who feel hopeless to change anything. The reality is somewhere in the middle, and Playing God sets the stage for action, challenging us to acknowledge and use our power to increase mankind's capacity for image bearing.

With his trademark clear-headed analysis, Andy Crouch unpacks the dynamics of power that either can make human flourishing possible or can destroy the image of God in people.