“Exiles” book review

In his book Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, Michael Frost argues that the Jewish exile provides the best metaphor for modern Christianity in a post-Christendom culture. He argues further that the driving forces for a Christian of “exile” are, first of all, “dangerous memories,” which are the memories of Jesus and his values against “consumerism, greed, self-centeredness, and violence” (11). Secondly, “dangerous promises,” which are the values of Jesus enacted in his followers (15). Thirdly, “dangerous criticisms,” which come in the form of the previous promises lived out while keeping distance from one’s cultural context in order to critique it (18). Fourth and finally, “dangerous songs,” which express a Christian revolutionary spirit (22).

Frost begins to support his argument by concluding that Jesus himself was an exile. Frost retells many of the Gospel stories concerning the actions of Jesus and subsequently tangents into medieval art and Latin derivatives in order to fluff his argument, which in the end come off more as milk than anything solid. The Bible stories are strong, but there is no application to today’s time and culture. Therefore, Frost’s argument merely provides information to pass a history test, but nothing else.

Frost remains in Biblical culture as he continues to propose that exilic Christians should “follow Jesus into exile” by doing the things that Jesus would do. His point of imitating Jesus is good and helpful as Christians would be wiser to participate in the “fears, frustrations and afflictions” of those whom they have relationships with while also using the language of the culture, being prepared to be more proactive in bringing the gospel to others, and to have confidence that the gospel can be shared through ordinary means (55). But is evangelism the only thing that Christianity is about? Do we live only to become a Christian and then share the gospel? Life sounds much more difficult if this is the case because at one time I was enjoying myself with friends and others and now that I have become a Christian my sole priority in life is to invade every social structure that I can in order to proclaim the gospel.

Furthermore, in his list of “promises” Frost argues that exiles are ones who are honest and authentic to their surrounding community. Another promise is to be missional in creating communities. Frost’s definition of creating community is the attitude of going out into secular culture and to begin forming communities out of the people one finds. But this is hardly authentic. Some people can do this because they simply enjoy making new friends. But for others it is very inauthentic as Christians enter these places where people go to hang out in order to intentionally create a strong community of friends. This sounds more like invasion than ministry where Christians automatically assume to be outside the experience of normal humanity as they can twist and turn people into community with each other. Christians are no better than non-Christians. The only difference is that Christians acknowledge and accept the grace of Jesus. This does not make saviors out of them.

Frost would do better to stick with his argument of “liminality” where communities are born out of a group of people gathered to achieve a certain goal (112). This explains why missions trips, sports leagues, and many types of small groups are effective in creating community among diverse individuals because there is a goal for which everyone unites to achieve.

In conclusion, I found Frost’s book to be full of preaching without any explanation or consistent praxis. For a Christian who so desperately wants to avoid Christendom and is suspicious of chain stores and major governments and corporations, Frost is very much a product of Christendom as he proposes a definition of church and what a Christian should look like. Frost is a modern day Simon of Styletes who climbed down from his platform. He would do better to return there, stop writing, and let the people who are interested travel out to him in order to hear his mere opinions.