Winsome Persuasion: Christian Influence in a Post-Christian World - Softcover

Muehlhoff, Tim; Langer, Richard; Schultze, Quentin J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0830851771 ISBN 13: 9780830851775

Publisher: IVP Academic, 2017

Synopsis

• Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year Award of Merit - Apologetics/Evangelism

How are Christians viewed in the broader culture? We blush at the possibilities. Brainwashed fanatics? Out-of-touch dogmatists? Buffoons? The task of bearing faithful witness to Jesus is complicated by persistent―and not altogether baseless―cultural stereotypes. In our post-Christian society, thoughtful Christians are considering again how to engage the dominant culture as a minority, a counterpublic, amid varying perceptions and misperceptions. In this timely book, Timothy Muehlhoff and Rick Langer ask what our interactions with the dominant cultural ethos should look like. How might we be persuasive and civil at the same time? How should we respond to those who ridicule and caricature us? How can we challenge the beliefs of other communities with love and respect? Muehlhoff and Langer present a model for cultural engagement that integrates communication theory, theology, and Scripture. Penetrating, wise, and relentlessly practical, it includes test cases and examples from history, such as William Wilberforce and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now more than ever, Christians need what Winsome Persuasion offers: a compelling vision of public engagement that is both shrewd and gracious.

About this title

About the Author:

Tim Muehlhoff (PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is a professor of communication at Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he teaches classes in family communication, interpersonal communication, persuasion, and gender. He is the author of I Beg to Differ and Marriage Forecasting, and the coauthor of The God Conversation: Using Stories and Illustrations to Explain Your Faith and Authentic Communication: Christian Speech Engaging Culture. Muehlhoff and his wife, Noreen, are frequent speakers at FamilyLife Marriage Conferences, and Tim also serves as a speaker/author with Biola's Center for Marriage and Relationships.

Review:

"In a world marked more by incivility and talking past each other than respectful engagement, Winsome Persuasion is a refreshing consideration of how to pursue genuine engagement with those with whom we may have deep ideological and theological differences. Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer speak not just from a theoretical perspective but from the lived experience of engaging those with opposing views as bearing the imago Dei―the image of God―and therefore being worthy to be seen as our neighbors, to be treated with dignity and respect. This is a great resource for all of us seeking to be the presence of Christ in the world." (Carol A. Taylor, president of Evangel University)

"After more than twenty-five years of working with college students in campus ministry, I would argue that students living in a 'post-discourse' society need all the help they can get with learning to engage others in meaningful discussion―and not just students, but everyone who desires connections with other humans that go beneath the surface. Read this book as a prayer for change in your own life and in the lives of our communities." (Ed Uszynski, Athletes in Action, Cru)

"Looking for a manual on winning arguments and scoring points in the current cultural debates? Keep looking! Winsome Persuasion is not the culture warrior's guide to winning. If, however, you hope to learn how to listen well and be heard, how to speak truth irenically, with more light than heat, keep reading. Deeply rooted in contemporary communication theory and ancient biblical wisdom, this excellent work is a wise and effective guide to speaking truth in love. For anyone who hopes to be truly persuasive in our polarized context, Muehlhoff and Langer serve as faithful guides to the work that's required to gain a hearing, to speak effectively, and to create the best possible relational environment for our words to have an impact." (J. Michael Thigpen, executive director of the Evangelical Theological Society, associate professor of Old Testament and Semitics, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University)

"Muehlhoff and Langer have produced a book well worth the time of any Christian who wants to be real salt and light in a difficult, pluralistic world. To be sure, not only is Winsome Persuasion grounded wonderfully in the Scriptures and current communication theory, but the writing is crisp, the examples and illustrations are entrancing, and the usefulness is immediate and profound. This is the perfect book for church leaders and thoughtful laypersons to read and study together." (Craig J. Hazen, director of the graduate program in Christian apologetics, Biola University, author of Five Sacred Crossings)

"This is an amazing book! Muehlhoff and Langer merge the best of rhetorical theory, biblical witness, and the stories of caring members in Christian counterpublics who have transformed their communities. It's not a book for those who argue, accuse, or insist that 'my way is Yahweh.' Instead, the authors model what they advocate: winsome persuasion." (Em Griffin, author of A First Look at Communication Theory)

"Winsome Persuasion could not be a more timely book! In our increasingly hostile and fractured world, followers of Jesus are needed who embrace their role as peacemakers and ministers of reconciliation. But how? Muehlhoff and Langer are incredibly helpful in that regard. This book shows us what cultural engagement can look like; wise, honest, compassionate, and helpful discourse is more important now than ever. Weaving together strands of multiple disciplines, Winsome Persuasion is a rare book that more than delivers on its title. Highly, highly recommended." (Mike Erre, author of Astonished)

"The American public square is now more cantankerous and less civil than perhaps any time in the modern era. How should a Christian live and speak hope without merely adding more noise? Muehlhoff and Langer's book Winsome Persuasion casts a positive vision for a way forward and indeed models it. This is a book whose time has come." (Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic, author of Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined)

"In this age of shrill and often hateful public rhetoric, Muehlhoff and Langer's Winsome Persuasion is a breath of fresh air; wise, warm-hearted, and well researched, its advice for speaking Christianly in the public square could not be more timely." (Thomas M. Crisp, professor of philosophy, Biola University)

"Following the presidential election of 2016, it was declared that we are now living in a 'post-truth' world. With the dominance of social media where echo chambers are nearly unavoidable and the rise of 'fake news'―which once would have been cast aside as nothing more than a gossip rag―is being used as evidence to support belief claims, what do people who claim absolute truth do to maintain active participation in the culture while maintaining a level of personal integrity that does not feed into the worst of stereotypes? In Winsome Persuasion, Tim Muehlhoff and Rick Langer present both the challenge and a plan for how Christians can regain credibility and speak persuasively into a world that they no longer recognize as their own. This is not a book that just lays out a problem and provides lament to the believer. Rather, it's a strategy for action. Christians do not have to be victims of an increasingly secular society, nor do we have to become the angry, hate-filled rhetors we have been portrayed to be. How we talk about the issues of our day matters. If we as Christians want to be more than political and social pawns, engaging in winsome persuasion may be the best way to present the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ while creating space to be heard and taken seriously." (Joy E. A. Qualls, chair, department of communication studies, Biola University)

"Winsome Persuasion paints an intricately detailed picture of an American public square growing more and more fragmented and frustrated as her citizens entrench themselves along ideological lines. Far from leaving us in despair, though, Muehlhoff and Langer offer incisive exhortations to Christian communities to strive to heal our national divides through Christlike compassion and countercultural communication." (John W. Yates II, rector, The Falls Church Anglican)

About this edition

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0830851771
• ISBN 13: 9780830851775
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208