Campolo, Tony. Partly Right: Learning from the Critics of Christianity. Thomas Nelson, 1985 (rev. 2008). ISBN: 978-0-8499-2086-8.
Meet the Author
Tony Campolo is an ordained American Baptist pastor, professor emeritus at Eastern University, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, author of 35 books, and popular speaker. He is a media commentator on religious, social and political matters, including appearances on television programs like Nightline, Crossfire, The Charlie Rose Show, Larry King Live, CNN News and MSNBC News. Campolo was named by Christianity Today as one of the 25 most influential preachers of the last 50 years. For more information about this self-proclaimed passionate follower of Jesus, visit his website.
Book Basics
Since the 1960s many have claimed that middle-class Christianity would soon die. Rather than simply dismissing this claim and the more specific words of those who are critical of contemporary Christianity, Campolo engages them (a list that includes Hegel, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Freud, Marx, and Dostoyevesky) and admits that they are often partly right. By walking through some specific criticisms in detail, Campolo not only enables readers to engage in the dialogue but invites them to take the same approach in dealing with the critics they may face in their own lives.
So What?
I have been challenged for many years by Campolo and have heard him speak at the Ocean City Tabernacle and Baylor University. While Partly Right was written over twenty years ago, it speaks about a topic in a manner that is needed today. Campolo’s own closing words of hope are worth repeating: “Yet when all is said and done, I believe that middle-class Christianity is on the verge of its greatest days” (p.210). These words are conditional. I invite you to struggle with the conditions Campolo suggests as necessary.
On the local church level how would you rate your congregation in these four areas?
- Giving in to the seduction and pressures to embrace cultural Christianity?
- Listening to and allowing for voices that call all people to radical discipleship?
- Having the humility to learn from critics about shortcomings and failures?
- Having the courage to live with the tensions that keep it vitally balanced?
This website’s purpose, in part, is not to be a place to find answers but rather to be a place to find encouragement for asking the important so what questions and responding with lives of radical discipleship that display a faith that matters. Campolo strives to help each of us toward that purpose.