Confronting the Idols of Our Age (Wycliffe Studies in Gospel Church and Culture)

An idol is a good thing. It is good because God created it. Nothing exists that God did not create and God created all things good. So sex can be an idol but before it was an idol it was a good creation of God. Materialism is an idol but to have a material world was Gods idea in the first place. Workaholism is an idol but work is itself a good gift of God. What turns these good gifts of God into idols is what we have done with them. So we have common forms of idolatry expressed in consumerism individualism narcissism careerism and hedonism; while there are less familiar expressions found in omnism fatalism Gnosticism relativism positivism and reductionism. We have put these and other things on a pedestal and made them into mini-gods. In the end they fail to deliver what they promise. These twelve mediations on a scriptural passage by faculty members of Wycliffe College Toronto emphasize that the good news is that God can redeem idols. Each one can be restored to its proper place in Gods created order and placed under Gods authority.