A review of “Disarming Leviathan”

A while ago I promised some friends a review of Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor by Caleb E. Campbell.

To head off any misunderstanding: Campbell does not engage with Thomas Hobbes’s seventeenth-century study of the structure of society and legitimate government; he is using the name Leviathan in its biblical sense — the Hebrew name that embodies the spirit of chaos and destruction.

The short version: This is a sober, gracious survey of the origins and current dimensions of the movement called Christian Nationalism — not simply exposing it as an error, but understanding its appeal. And, as the subtitle promises, more than half the book opens up practical ways to listen, to engage, to befriend, and to call them back to the Gospel.

The purpose of this book is to equip you to love your American Christian nationalist neighbors by reaching them with the hope-filled message of the kingdom of God. In the following pages you will better understand American Christian nationalism, discover why people are buying into it, prepare yourself to engage them in healthy ways, and learn how to facilitate conversations that point to Jesus (from chapter one).

Campbell shares in one section how, as a teenager, he found a sense of certainty and belonging in neo-Nazi skinhead culture — and how a family genuine disciples of Christ gave him room to express himself, and by their faithfulness to the Gospel, drew him to repentance. Then in later chapters he spells out the mindset, spiritual preparation, and practical ways to “love your Christian nationalist neighbor.”

This is one of the few books that I have read and immediately begun re-reading. 

For a longer, more thoughtful review, I’ll point you toward A long ramble, a confession, and a review of “Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor” by Caleb Campbell AND “Another Gospel: Christian Nationalism and the Crisis of Evangelical Identity” by Joel Looper:

One person said we should think twice before promoting this new title but I think it is a very, very important book and while there are plenty of loose cannons around in our polarized political culture, and too many simplistic memes, this is no off-the-cuff, ill-considered jab. Disarming… was written by an evangelical pastor who is heart-broken by the ways in which the gospel has been distorted or lost among some in his church, with some members more concerned about political vengeance and getting folks to hear their wild conspiracy theories than they are with faithfulness to ordinary Bible teaching and the ways of Jesus. In some places, in Sunday school classes where there used to be lessons about books of the Bible or Christian living, say, now some highlight the violent, camo-wearing Oath Keepers or how to remove books from the local library. Where Christian used to gather to pray for world missions, now some gather to pray against the government. This is a book, as you can tell, about the idolatry of far, alt-right (usually white) Nationalism and the toxic sort of extremism that is seen these days on the right side of the political spectrum. Disarming Leviathan is written by Rev. Caleb Campbell of Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona.

Keep reading…