To Change the World

Regent University prides itself on being a global university at the forefront of Christian thought and practice. Its noble mission of preparing “Christian leaders to change the world” invites Regent students into an incredible calling. As “regents” we are called to represent the King, Jesus Christ, through His Spirit on earth and seek to further His kingdom while we wait for His return. However, one may ask, how are we going to do this? What does changing the world for Christ look like? Is it even possible, or is it merely a flowery, lofty ambition that we say in theory but know nothing about in practice?

Dr. James Hunter, professor at UVA, addresses some of these issues in his recent book, To Change the World: the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. I was fortunate enough to listen to him speak at a conference at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in DC on Monday night. Dr. Hunter briefly spoke about his book and how it relates to the Millennial Christian’s possibility of changing the world. According to Dr. Hunter, Christians have historically taken three positions in engaging the world: “defensive against, relevant to, and the Anabaptist view.” In reality none of these have been that effective, and Hunter calls us to consider a fourth option, “faithful presence.” 

In order to change the world we must have a presence in key positions of leadership in the world. Hunter believes that culture changes from the top-down rather than the bottom up, as a rule. He emphasizes the importance of institutions and networking in implementing sustainable change in society. This puts Christians in a challenging position. Today, Christianity in America is fragmented and weak. The institution of the Church as a whole is broken and divided, and Christians are nearly completely absent from the cultural institutions that matter the most. As Mark Noll describes in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, evangelical Christians have largely ignored higher level thinking and have practically made themselves irrelevant in larger discussions about the nature of science, art, law, politics, culture, and society. Today, if we are going to change the world we must reevaluate how we view the world, the Bible, and the Church. Christian intellectuals need to develop distinctly Christian narratives and systems for engaging all areas of society. We must find unity in the body of Christ and be well grounded in sound doctrine. Today we must have a distinctly Christian voice in all areas of society. We cannot merely buy into the relativism of the world or solely criticize the “evils of world.”  I encourage the Regent community to join me in reading this book and critically evaluating what real “world changing” looks like. Too much is at stake to do nothing.