Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 179:716 (Oct 2022)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Matthew S. DeMoss

BSac 179:716 (October-December 2022) p. 492

Book Reviews

By The Faculty And Staff Of Dallas Theological Seminary

Matthew S. DeMoss

Editor

Religious Freedom in a Secular Age: A Christian Case for Liberty, Equality, and Secular Government. By Michael F. Bird. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022. xxxiv + 187 pp. $18.99.

Bird is associate dean and lecturer in New Testament at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, and the author of more than thirty books. This one was written “during the tumultuous years of 2016–20, ” as “the world witnessed epic intersections between religion and the domains of government, law, business, media, terrorism, health care, education and culture” (xiii). Bird attempts to do four things: “first, I explain the true nature of secularism. . . . Second, I try to clinically dismantle the arguments for limiting religious freedom. . . . Third, assuming that progressive hegemony will be the future norm, with a potentially uneasy relationship between the state and religion, I set forth what I call the Thessalonian strategy as a way of maintaining a Christian witness in a post-Christian society. Fourth, I encourage Christians to participate in a grand age of apologetics by being prepared to defend the Christian faith and the freedom of all faiths in a secular age” (xvii).

Bird’s context and audience is Western Christianity. He is Australian and is writing primarily to Christians in Australia, the United States, and Canada. He writes, “My contention is that as religion and politics get increasingly volatile, people of faith in many Western jurisdictions need to be willing to lose their cultural privileges and resist potential state coercion in order to maintain their religious liberties” (xxi). He continues, “There is a likelihood that in the future, religious communities will be compelled to withdraw from the education sector and charitable work, experience degrees of censorship, and be compelled to affirm causes against their own consciences. In other words, religious freedom is going to get complicated, and we potentially face a more intrusive state apparatus trying to ensure that religious bodies are compliant with either nationalist or progressive orthodoxies” (xxi–xxii).

The book is divided into three parts. In the first, Bird defines and explains secularism. He claims to be “adamantly pro-secularism, not despite my religion, but precisely because of it” (3). He explains, “The idea of secularism is to keep religion in its proper place and to ensure its freedom from interference by the state. Secularism should not be regarded as the removal of religion from the public square; rather, it is the separation of powers between church and state and freedom of ...