If you've ever wondered why it can be so hard to convey the distinction between a life-changing faith and a "life-changing" kitchen gadget, this might be the book for you. Noble builds on the framework of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age to really delve into how secularism has both thinned and flattened our beliefs, while eliminating concrete shared values, and giving rise to individualism. He then recommends several sets of practices or disciplines - personally, communally as the Church, and as participants in Western culture - that enable us as Christians to push back against that and disrupt those patterns and effectively witness to the transcendent God we worship.

At times academic feeling, this book did an excellent job of explaining how to talk about our beliefs with others in this age of technology. It also went into detail about how to stay connected to our faith personally. This book would be a great one for small group discussion.

A book that has the work of Charles Taylor underpinning much of it's thought is assured to be good if it is executed well. Alan Noble does this, and helps the modern Christian to understand how to best share and live out their faith in the postmodern culture we find ourselves in. Noble highlights our culture's emphasis on instant gratification which hinders proper reflection, and the way that Christianity is seen as equally valid amidst the milieu of religious perspectives. The book is a bit technical at times but worth the read nevertheless.

Meditations on applications of the lessons of Charles Taylor's <i>A Secular Age</i> to Christian faith in modern America.

The author distills many of the primary lessons from <i>A Secular Age</i>: the "optionalization" of faith, the development of the buffered self, etc., and also spoke of the siren song of modern consumerism and the constant distractions of the age.

The author makes a case for living the faith as a disruptive witness: no longer content presenting Christianity as but one option for lifestyle among many, to take its claims seriously and to live like it, and attempts to find some ways forward.

His analysis and application of Taylor is excellent. I appreciated his concern regarding how the Gospel and church are presented to people in terms of what works in marketing, with kitsch, or in any other way that makes the Gospel look like just one option among many in the modern marketplace. His focus on practices which are countercultural - to cease distraction, at least at times, for prayer, service, and devotion, to really mean what is prayed, sung, and preached, etc., are beneficial.

At times the Reformed/Calvinist inclinations of the authors are made evident, and that must be kept in mind. Nevertheless, a work which deserves the high regard it is receiving in many places. Worth consideration.

Good reading for those who would desire to mature in Christian discipleship. Could be used in small groups that are well along in their Christian walk

Modern life is distracting and shallow. That goes without saying. But how should a Christian respond in the modern environment of social media? How can a connected life reflect Christian discipleship? Alan Noble has a few things to say about these issues in Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age.



A few things stand out as I reflect on the book. First and foremost, Noble argues against a trivialization of faith. This hit home to me as I think about my Facebook feed and the posts of my friends, both believers and non-believers. It's easy for faith, as expressed through social media, to be seen as merely on choice among many, a lifestyle category. You follow a particular style of music, sci-fi comics, political activism. Well, I follow Jesus, as you can see from this meme I just posted. . . . Talk about robbing the gospel of its distinctiveness and immediacy. But in many cases, that's exactly what happens. Our connection to Jesus seems superficial, like our connection to a sports team.



Noble writes about the "double movement," which he describes as "the practice of first acknowledging goodness, beauty, and blessing wherever we encounter them in life, and then turning that goodness outward to glorify God and loving our neighbor." A life online can only hint at this double movement. While we can express our identity in Christ online to a limited extent, to glorify God and love our neighbor, we must log off Facebook and put down our smart phones.



Noble is not anti-technology or anti-social media, but he wants Christians to be reflective regarding how technologies impact the practice of our faith. The more distracted we are, and the more the world around us becomes secular, it's worth taking some time to reflect on our own practices and connection to God and each other.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Recently I have noticed a number of books riffing on Charles’ Taylor’s tome, <i>A Secular Age</i>. I have never read <i>A Secular Age</i> in all its 900-page glory, but it was interesting to be exposed to the ideas of someone whose thinking has been shaped by it. This is my first detailed encounter with his philosophies, so I may not be entirely accurate in my understanding of them, but here are my initial impressions:

The first half of this book offers the author’s perception of the constantly-distracted, non-introspective-yet-identity-obsessed culture in which we live. In this culture, says Noble, Christianity is seen as a collection of options in a buffet of more-or-less equal ideas, preferences, and opinions that I can adopt to express what I perceive as “the real me.” Noble desires some way to “disrupt” this “secular” way of thinking and make it clear that the Christian faith is a transcendent reality, that tells us who we are and our place in the universe (loved by God, deeply in need of his grace, etc.).

Much of his diagnosis in the first section is insightful (or at least thought-provoking), but I was uncomfortable and bemused with much of the second half. To me, he comes across as nostalgic for his (Charles Taylor’s?) vision of pre-Reformation days when Christianity was generally accepted because it was imposed from the outside by “Christendom” and “the Church” (i.e. the Roman Catholic Church) who spoke with a unified voice. Throughout the second section, fidelity to Scripture (a major concern of the Protestant Reformation and the “noble” people in Acts 17:11) takes a back seat to promoting a sense of awe and transcendence.

The primary ways he suggests promoting this disruptive awe are: prayer before meals, sabbath-keeping, and especially solemn liturgy with a strong anti-technology bias. He offers little or no biblical support for anything he says. To me, he communicates far more about his own “high church” sensibilities than he does about what is at the heart of the Christian faith and the sanctifying truth of God’s Word (John 17:17).

Overall, I appreciated the thought-provoking perspective on society in the first half of the book, but was entirely unimpressed with his solution for effectively sharing the faith (and disturbed that the days when “orthodoxy” was imposed by raw power should be idealized).

Alan Noble’s book, Disruptive Witness, tackles a familiar theme in a fresh way. He has the ability to put into concise language what is for many of us a vague discontent. The book contains many inspiration quotes from a range of sources, not limited to his chief inspiration, Charles Taylor. The author also includes a number of practical strategies. I found his thoughts about personal habits and cultural participation particularly interesting. Alan Noble thinks deeply, and writes with insight. The discussion about everything we see and touch ultimately alluding to the Creator was a thought-provoking concept, as was his comment that we ‘court’ suffering to look for an experience of reality. A timely book.

Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age is a book that drew me right away because of the title. This is a subject I have pondered on my own often, wondering how to reach others with the message of Jesus’ love for them so they can see Him as He truly is.

The first half of the book was the most enjoyable and helpful on the subject. The ideas shared regarding the distractions of our age (such as the continual notifications of our phones and social media) impacted me greatly. Also impactful were the ideas about the typical, non-ministry use of various social media avenues versus how believers and ministries might better utilize them. These observations brought me into a place of pondering the way I use technology and social media in sharing about Jesus as well as in every day life. This deeper reflection and the changes it brought forth were in themselves worth the book!

I appreciated the presentation of the ways in which Christ followers can serve as witnesses in our age through the practices of our faith both individually and in community, as well as in other ways presented. In order to most benefit from this book, I recommend reading slowly while taking time to ponder the ideas presented, perhaps journaling your thoughts about them and pondering them out loud with other believers.

My only frustration is the book seems geared more toward students in seminary, or at least people who have a college education or beyond. I had next to no issues reading (other than having to remind myself of the definition of the philosophical terms included). However, this is a message that needs to reach those of any level. I do not feel the book could easily do this in its current state, and this brings hesitation in recommending it to just anyone. I think the book would require a simplified writing style and approach to reach the Body of Christ at large.

Also lacking was the use of God’s Word to strengthen and support what was shared, the benefit of which I sorely missed.

All in all, this book contains an important message about the world we reside in during this age, a message that needs to be known, understood and lived by every follower of Christ. However, I think there is much more to be discovered in this issue of our age, and more solutions to come forth that will be able to be implemented by any believe, anywhere in the world.

* I received a free review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. *

Summary: In order to be a Christian within culture, we need to understand what the culture is. Which means we need to be rooted in historic Christianity as a means of disrupting the effects of culture.

The old illustration about two fish being asked how is the water, and then one asking the other, 'what is water?’ is my best description of Disruptive Witness. We are part of a culture, but we need tools, and language, to help us understand, and describe, the culture around us.

Part One of Disruptive Witness uses Charles Taylor and others to describe and understand our culture from the perspective of Christianity that is always within a particular culture. I have read a number of books about Taylor’s ideas, and I think that Disruptive Witness is one of the most understandable presentations of Taylor’s ideas.

Part Two of Disruptive Witness is focused on what we should do now that we understand some of the benefits and problems of culture. These are largely spiritual practices of the historic church that can help disrupt the effects of culture. 

Over the past five years I have been meeting with a spiritual director and I am planning on pursuing formal training in that area when my children a bit older. So part two, while helpful and an important part of the book, was not new to my thinking. But part one was very helpful in giving me the language I have been looking for to understand how to think about spiritual formation within ‘a secular age’.

Much of Disruptive Witness confirms what a number of others have been saying. Charles Taylor, James KA Smith, the liturgical, Catholic, Orthodox and the pentecostal wings of the church all remind us that embodiment is essential to our Christian faith. What that means is slightly different depending on who you ask. But the fact that we are embodied keeps being brought up as particularly important for our current culture.

Part of the issue is that we can, at least in part, be disembodied Christians. Can you go to church and not really be present? (I can stream my service to my phone or iPad or TV if I cannot be present). Will anyone miss you or will you miss something from not being present? (I go to a megachurch and as much as my children love to be in their classrooms, no one is looking for me as an individual and we do not participate in the sacraments as part of our regular Sunday service, so whether I watch on a screen or participate in person, I have roughly the same experience.)

In addition to the disembodied nature of a lot of faith traditions, Noble particularly points out the problems with our constant, but distracted attention. The distraction and consistent jumping from task to task, keeps us from thinking deeply and dealing with some of the deeper issues of life. It is isn’t only our phones and social media distractions, it is also our individualism that separates us from community and deep relationships that makes us believe that we are creating ourselves as individuals apart from our communities, not individuals that are within community.

I really do think the part two suggestions are part of how we created a ‘disruptive witness’ to culture about what it means to be Christians. But for me, it is the part one language that gives voice to what it means to be a Christian that makes this book an important read to me. I picked up an advance copy of the book nearly two months ago. I read it through, set it aside for a while and then went back and re-read part one again. It has convinced me that I really do need to read Charles Taylor directly soon.

Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age by Alan Noble Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I evangelize to lots of people, from actors to uber passengers, but many of my talks become a “rhetorical dance that didn’t haunt or unsettle [them] at all…there are so many more interesting and distracting things for them to do than to reflect on the gospel. So they leave the conversation untouched by our words.”
This is because in a discussion of religion these days, in the new millennial era, truth doesn’t matter to our lives, and nothing is at stake. It’s just a nice intellectual discussion that ends when we swipe to the next smartphone app.
This is the problem that is clearly described by the author of Disruptive Witness.

We live in a generation and culture of endless distraction. This point is drilled again and again with various examples. His point is made solidly clear. There’s not enough introspection or mindfulness to consider the contradictions in our basic beliefs or have meaningful discussion of faith. Maybe there’s too much presentation of the problem. Let’s get to the solution already! It’s only after 88 pages does the author begin the treatment. And it’s not until page 156 that the book becomes actually useful.

People’s “objections to Christianity is not so much logical as existential: [Christianity] simply does not fit with their conception of themselves. And so they may reply, ‘Christianity just isn’t my thing.’” The solution is called “bearing a disruptive witness.” It involves “adopting a new movement, a shift in ends from ourselves to a transcendent God, and then letting that shift shape us in every aspect of our lives.” He finally unpacks what that means in the last chapter of the book.
The book was interesting, but I wonder how useful.

This is a very good and useful book. The author addresses the problem of Christians trying to have an impact in the world as if Christianity was just another option on the market, and claims that the proper way to live out Christianity is to live a life that disrupts the norms of naturalism and individualism, and to get out of the idea that faith is for the mind only and to live out an embodied faith.

The most important part of the book is that it does not disappoint as many recent ones have by not offering any practical solutions. The author draws from Charles Taylor and James K A Smith, among others, to present a good critique of the culture of distraction that we live in and to propose small steps toward faithful witness.