A sermon is, or rather should be, an argument. I think that the bloodless nature of much preaching stems from an unwillingness to argue. The man in the pulpit should make a case and he should make it assertively. That case, of course, should be the case the Biblical author was making. The preacher should make his case in a civil fashion. I include these words about preaching because I read this book to wrestle with the role of civility in preaching. While preaching wasn’t Mouw’s focus, his thoughts are certainly applicable.
The longer I have preached, the more attention I have found myself giving towards civility. As a result I have been able to cover less ground in any given sermon. Civility in a sermon takes time. It takes much more time to graciously describe something with which you disagree than it does to reject it out of hand. It takes more time to make nuanced statements than it does to make blanket statements. It takes more time to research and wordsmith a sermon that bears no false witness against others than it does to simply, ‘say what you think.’ I’m sure I still have much to learn in this area, but those are a few lessons I have learned thus far.
Mouw’s book is a helpful look at the soft skills necessary for civility. That is by no means a disparagement, but rather a recognition that Mouw focuses mostly upon cultivating a particular posture of the heart rather than upon logical fallacies or the art of argumentation. I didn’t encounter anything groundbreaking in this book, but that in itself is instructive. Civility isn’t hard to understand; its difficulty lies in the execution.
Mouw’s groundwork for civility in the areas of religion, politics, and sex is a rather common sense approach. I appreciated the humility with which he worked his way through different areas of contention within our culture. That being said, I thought that his last two chapters didn’t fit in the flow of the book and seemed rather tacked on. My favorite chapter was Mouw's exploration of the relationship between hell and civility. He shrewdly points out how the doctrine of hell, when misapplied, can easily lead to arrogance and incivility while the doctrines of election and God’s sovereignty, when properly applied, lead to humility.
I read this book with an eye towards preaching in our age of outrage, but it also proved fruitful as I am currently taking part in our denomination’s annual Synod. Speaking humbly and with conviction is proper when preaching the word of God and when deliberating over church matters. Since being here I have been reminded afresh how easy it is to mischaracterize others and how common it is to be mischaracterized.
If you are looking for an easy read with short chapters on the topic of civility in our times, Mouw’s book might fit that bill for you. My guess, however, is that those who are eager to read a book like this don’t need it as much as those who have no desire to read such a book, but maybe there is an internet troll or flamer book club of which I am unaware.