--- title: "Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World by C.J. Mahaney" description: "Takeaway: We should pay attention to sin and spend time thinking about whether we are focusing more on loving the world or loving God. Purchase Links: Hardcover , Kindle Edition , christianaudio.com M..." url: https://bookwi.se/worldliness-mahaney/ date: 2011-04-26 modified: 2011-04-26 author: "Adam Shields" categories: ["Blogger Review Books", "Book Reviews"] type: post lang: en --- # Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World by C.J. Mahaney ![Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519l0vtfn0L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg)**Takeaway: We should pay attention to sin and spend time thinking about whether we are focusing more on loving the world or loving God.** Purchase Links: [Hardcover](http://www.amazon.com/Worldliness-Resisting-Seduction-Fallen-World/dp/1433502801), [Kindle Edition](http://www.amazon.com/Worldliness-ebook/dp/B002SVQCYC/), [christianaudio.com MP3 Audiobook](http://christianaudio.com/worldliness-c-j-mahaney) It is hard to review a book on worldliness.  Not nearly as hard as writing one, but still hard.  The tension is viewing worldliness as not anti-world, viewing holiness as a worthy goal, a desire to avoid legalism, the need to focus on the grace of Christ and the tendency to focus on a fairly narrow set of outward sins makes for a book on worldliness easy to take shots at. I did not realized when I started this book that it was a series of essays by different authors rather than a complete work by Mahaney.  And that makes a difference.  What I liked so much about Mahaney’s book [Humility](http://www.amazon.com/Humility-Greatness-C-J-Mahaney/dp/1590523261/) ([my review](https://bookwi.se/humility-true-greatness-by-c-j-mahaney/)) was that it was so tightly pastoral.  And that seems to be a bit missing in some of the essays.  It also seems like it might be oriented toward young Christians.  After all the chapters are about media, music, consumerism and how to dress right.  (The chapter, my Mahaney, on dress really was inappropriate, it should not have been in the book and the focus seemed to be blaming women for being attractive.  Guys can lust if a woman is in a Burka.  The sin is the lust.  The women are the victim of the sin, not the perpetrators.  Yes, women can be immodest.  Yes, that is a sin, but having a chapter about modesty without talking about the sin of lust means that you are picking on women without dealing with the root issue.  After all if Adam and Eve were naked, without either shame or lust, then lack of clothing is not the issue.  Unfortunately, the long section on immodest wedding dresses really crossed the line for me.) On the other hand, when read in the most generous fashion, mostly, there is little to disagree with.  There is a very long chapter (in relation to a fairly short book) on the consumption of media.  Most of it is quite true.  We are very much affected by the media in this world.  We do waste too much time in mindless consumption.  We should train children and others in how to look deeper in the the meaning of what is in front of us.  It is very convicting, especially the questions at the end of the chapter.  But it seemed to lack some of the pastoral focus that I think would have made it better.  It felt guilt inducing.  Maybe that is because I am guilty about my media consumption.  It is hard not to be.  As important as the particulars of the chapter were, I thought that being placed as the first chapter after the introduction, gave a prominence to an ‘easy target’ that might have been better balanced by placing it later in the book and cutting the length a bit.  (I also thought there was very little added by having another fairly long chapter on music, when most of the points were fairly similar to general media consumption.  And there was another section in the consumerism chapter that also dealt with advertising which again was repetitive.) The chapter on consumption was probably the best chapter and came closest to my desire to deal with the actual internal issues of desiring to be like the world (instead of focusing on issues of appearing to look like the world.) In the end, I wanted more of a focus on the positives of Holiness and less a focus on the problems of being in the world.  We are all in the world, that is part of our calling as a church.  And I certainly agree (and this it might be the best line in the book) when it says in context of being relevant that “we too often cloak our transformation by Christ in order to share Christ.”  That is convicting.  (The final chapter looked at ways that we can love the world and I thought that chapter was OK, but really too little too late.) The main problem I have is one of editorial decisions of focus more than any real individual essays.  Personally, I think that a focus on holiness as a gift of the Holy Spirit is a better approach.  (The chapter on consumerism actually said that the main way to not focus on the world is to focus on the gospel, but the book seemed to mostly ignore this.)  When the focus is mostly on external view-able sins (and that is what this book is mostly about) then it is hard not eventually move to legalism or just to give up.  We cannot become holy by striving to not be worldly.  And the hardest sins of worldliness are not those external sins like watching the wrong movies or listening to the wrong music, or dressing too provocatively, it is the internal sins of desire, greed, a lack of trust in God for our provision, the internal sins that can only be confronted by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I like Mahaney, but I felt there is so much wrong with this book that I have a very hard time recommending it. ____________ This book was provided by [christianaudio.com](http://christianaudio.com/worldliness-c-j-mahaney) for purposes of review.