How does the Christian faith relate to a world stuck in ideological captivity? What happens when vast numbers of people abandon biblical faith for pre-packaged sets of ideas they received from podcasts, videos, and online personalities? How can we stay faithful, humble, and wise when everyone seems quick, arrogant, and foolish?
In A Captive Mind, pastor and author Chris Nye presents Christianity next to the ideologies of this world to reveal the shocking and important truth: Christianity is not an idea in the first place, and therefore confuses, disrupts, and corrects any cultural ideology. To commit to Jesus Christ in this new age, the body of Christ will need a new way to see the faith they hold. Those who place their faith in Jesus cannot fit inside the pre-packaged sets of ideas regurgitated to us through the amalgamation of cultural events, leading charismatic thinkers, and now, algorithms and social media influencers. Fortunately, the event of the gospel gives us just what we need: a new mind and a new life.
Chris Nye is a doctoral student at Duke University’s Divinity School and the author of Distant God (2016) and Less of More (2019). For fifteen years, he has served as a local church pastor and is currently on a sabbatical. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and various other publications. He lives with his wife and son in Portland, Oregon.
“Nye has done it again. A welcome invitation to Christ’s peace in a painful matrix.”
—A. J. Swoboda, Bushnell University
“I’m so grateful for thinkers like Chris, helping us to better understand and navigate this new terrain to live faithfully to Jesus.”
—Josh Butler, author of The Skeletons in God’s Closet
“Chris Nye made even an old theologian/pastor like me stop and reassess how I view Christian commitment. As I pondered his deep insights and powerful call, it drew me back to join the mission of the triune God, who creates, comes, calls, connects.”
—Gerry Breshears, Western Seminary
“This book is a lighthouse in the fog. With skillful precision and pastoral conviction, Nye helps us set course toward clarity amid the haze of warring ideologies.”
—Jay Y. Kim, author of Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age