SPIRITUALITY & RELIGION

QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross: Christianity and Conspiracy Theories

Eerdmans. May 2023. 288p. ed. by Michael L. Austin & Gregory L. Bock. ISBN 9780802882653. pap. $24.99. REL
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Austin and Brock have assembled an anthology of 24 articles from evangelicals in diverse fields in an attempt to understand why many white evangelicals subscribe to recent right-wing conspiracy theories. Topics include conspiracy-theory characteristics; the distinguishing factors of real conspiracies; the relationships between evangelicalism and science, culture, and authority; the role of scripture, faith, and reason in evaluating conspiratorial claims; and the various tensions that exist within the evangelical community. This book provides feasible and positive ways for non-conspiratorial evangelicals to handle the conflicts and divided congregations. Individual articles stand on their own, but there is also no sense of a mea culpa.
VERDICT This book treats conspiracy theories like an aberration, instead of confronting the possibility that recent events might be a natural development within the evangelical movement itself.
Reviewed by James Wetherbee , Apr 01, 2023
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