We are all living in Babylon now and yet most churches are still preparing us for life in Jerusalem. This is one of the concerns of the authors, David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock, of Faith for Exiles. It is of little use preparing followers of Jesus for the safety and predictability of a Christian culture, they argue, when the internet, social media and our all pervasive use of ‘screens’ have situated us all in a ‘digital Babylon’. This is a cultural environment which is indifferent, and even hostile, to the Christian faith. It is also a ‘coercive culture’, requiring that we accept its beliefs and values or be marginalised at best.

Some have objected to the use of this idea of exile when describing Christians living in the West where we still have wealth, privilege and relative security in comparison to persecuted Christians across the world. And certainly our position cannot be compared to the experience of actual refugees who have been dislocated from their homelands and are literally exiles far from home, with all the very real danger, emotional pain, turmoil and separation from loved ones that this experience usually entails. This is worth being clear on. Nevertheless, the Bible uses the theme of exile to describe the state of all Christians because this world is not our home. We all live east of Eden. The authors quote Tolkien:

Certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of exile.

J.R.R.Tolkien

There are moments in a culture where that sense of exile for Christians, the feeling of not fitting into the world around us, and maybe even experiencing hostility to our faith, is intensified. We are living in such a cultural moment now. A reminder that we are exiles is important (see John Mark Comer’s Live No Lies, which begins with ‘a manifesto for exiles’, for more on this).

This book is primarily about the US experience where, for a long time, it has been a more ‘Christianised’ society (not necessarily a good thing) despite the supposed separation of church and state. Christians have had a privileged position in that culture and the shock of that changing is clearly impacting many Christians there. Things have been different in the European experience – before even mentioning other parts of the world – but still there are insights and lessons we can all learn from Faith for Exiles about being resilient disciples while living as exiles in this world.

The book is based on research carried out by the Barna Group and focused on those young adults who are managing to sustain a strong faith in the face of an indifferent, distracted and hostile society. After a chapter describing what they mean by ‘digital Babylon’, the book is based around the five practices that their research identified as characterising these young resilient disciples. Despite it being based around these five clear practices, the chapters can feel a little scattergun at times in terms of their proposed challenges and changes for the Church. But I think that this can be explained by the authors’ clear passion and determination to get practical in response to this challenge of faith in exile. The first practice about intimacy with Jesus may appear a little too obvious, even banal, but as you read on you realise that there are helpful insights on identity, individualism, weak cultural versions of faith, and the danger of religion inoculating young people from real faith. Other practices include the importance of community (challenging the idea of ‘solo discipleship’), especially intergenerational relationships, and the importance of connecting discipleship to vocation. Theirs is not the last word on this whole area of faith in exile, but the authors’ research and the insights gained from it are well worth reflecting on if we are serious about following Jesus in today’s world.

I recommend reading the book if you can. But I have also written a chapter summary of it here if you want to start with a taster, or you are happy to manage with a digest of its main insights for now.