Bad Religion, by Ross Douthat, is a look at religion in contemporary America…and specifically at the heresies present in contemporary America. Heresy is one of those words that gets folks riled up—it seems to cry out to be said in a low, cutting, judgmental voice with a menacing hiss—but it’s a perfectly good word. It’s also misunderstood. People think of heresy as being some kind of wrong belief (which it is), but it’s wrong belief that comes about by putting too much emphasis on some particular right belief. The Arian heresy, for example, put too much emphasis on Jesus’ humanity and taught that he was not God, but rather a created being.

So what Douthat’s interested in is not the complete spread of religion in the United Stated; he’s interested in what’s going on with the historically Christian majority, and the distinct ways in which they are going astray from a rather nebulously defined orthodoxy. He’s not pitting Catholics against Protestants, here; he’s pitting those who are historically orthodox in the manner of their denomination against those who aren’t, and those who have move out of their denominations altogether. He’s looking at the belief systems that have drawn folks partially or completely away from orthodoxy while still leaving the semblance. Though “pitting” is much too strong a word—the book is not a screed, is not strident at all.

He begins with a lengthy discussion of how religion changed in America over the course of the 20th century. I won’t go into that; anyone who was been following the turmoil in the Anglican Communion over the last twenty years, as I have, is already well aware of how the leadership of the mainline Protestant churches have been running into the arms of the zeitgeist over the past fifty years. It’s a sad tale, and although I learned a few things I didn’t know it’s a familiar one. A religious community simply cannot conform itself to the world without losing its reason for being. They do it to be welcoming to the world, to be “inclusive,” to be popular, to draw more people in; but frankly, the worldly are quite capable of being worldly without coming to church, and the more a denomination has followed the path of “inclusion,” the more they have shed members.

Following that, he talks about the four main streams of heterodox thought and practice in modern America: what they are, where they came from, how they flow into each other.

The first is the quest for the latest “historical Jesus”—the desire to find, either in the canonical scriptures or in various extra-canonical texts, by dint of much analysis and tortured logic, the Jesus you want instead of the Jesus who was, and who people have followed for nearly two-thousand years. It almost always leads to a Jesus who was not divine, but was a wise teacher. The remarkable thing about the quest for the historical Jesus is that nobody has really built a religion around any of the specific historical Jesus’s, but the notion that the Orthodox Jesus can’t be right and that I’m free to make of him what I will has taken firm root. In the name of truth, then, they have rejected truth. This notion underlies the other three.

The second is the Gospel of Prosperity. Worship God, and he will give you everything you need in this life, including the nice home, the new car, and so forth. The newer preachers of this message have evidently gotten more sophisticated than the prosperity preachers of yore, but the message remains much the same: God will bless you with every material thing if you are devoted enough; and if He doesn’t, then you weren’t devoted enough. The witness of the martyrs in every age, those who stood strong for Christ despite oppression, torture, and death, stand against it.

The third is what Douthat calls “the God Within”. This is the faith of those who are “spiritual but not religious”. Folks in this group regard all religions as ways to approach God, who is to be found deep within our own souls. They do not reject Christ as such; but it’s sad that those of us who insist on an orthodox view of Christ haven’t come to fully understand him. Closely tied to the “God Within” is the therapeutic gospel—the notion that God’s job is to make us well-balanced, emotionally stable, and fundamentally happy.

The fourth is nationalism: the notion that God has especially blessed the United States and has a significant purpose for the USA—and that consequently, what the U.S. does when it is most true to itself is sure to be blessed by God. Note that Douthat is not rejecting a healthy love for one’s own country; he is rejecting the notion that the USA, simply because it is the USA, can save the world.

All four of these notions, being heresies, are true to an extent. Being heresies, though, they go astray. The quest for the historical Jesus is about truth, but ends up relativizing truth. God really does want to give his followers what they need; what they need, not what they want. God really can be found deep within our own souls, and he really does want to give us the peace that passes understanding; but on his terms, in keeping with his majesty and glory, not on the basis of our feelings. And being “The City on the Hill”, it turns out, is more about being careful of one’s deeds because everyone is watching carefully, rather than a sanction for whatever that city wants to do.

These are familiar notions, familiar trends in society, and I agree with Douthat that they are trends that American Christians need to push back on, whether they are Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, non-denominational Evangelical, or whatever.