A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State. By Darryl Hart. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006. Pp. xiv, 273. $26.95, ISBN 978-1-56663-576-9.)
Darryl Hart can be frustrating. Rarely, however, is he boring. In this book Hart wants to know "what ... Christianity require[s] of its adherents politically." Almost nothing, he answers: "the basic teachings of Christianity are virtually useless for resolving America's political disputes" (p. 11). Moreover, efforts to employ the Christian faith for "political ends fundamentally distort the Christian religion because it is essentially an otherworldly faith" (p. 16). Jim Wallis will be no more pleased to ...