A little over a year ago I read After Evangelicalism. This book is everything that book could have been. Both books address the common concern that the Evangelical Church in the West (particularly the White Evangelical church in America) is in a crisis of its own making. In embracing an idolatrous nationalism and calling it Christianity, we have alienated the very ones we are called to reach. At the same time, we are losing the younger generations who are justifiably put off by our cultural Christianity that has drifted too far from the biblical Christianity we are all called to participate in.

Unlike After Evangelicalism which did little but point to (or create from straw) problems, this book offers a way out. It acknowledges that minority and immigrant evangelical churches in America. as well as the church of the Global South, are healthy and growing and they have a lot to offer if only we are willing to listen. Those offerings, and this book, are broken into four parts: the kingdom of God, the image of God, the Word of God, and the mission of God. In broad strokes, those categories address cultural (and nationalist) Christianity, racism, misreading scripture through a Western (or American) lens, and cultural colonialism masquerading as missions.

I probably should give this book five stars, but the premise and my skepticism after AE and other books and papers I have read since put my back up. I spent too long thinking this was going to be another of the same and it took a while for those barriers to drop and for my reading to really hit its stride. Had I embraced from the start that this book was approaching the issue from a pastoral perspective rather than that of a burned out skeptic, I probably would have enjoyed it and embraced it sooner. If you are reading this review before reading the book, don't make the same mistake I did. Get this book and read it with a truly open mind. If you are in ministry or Christian leadership, that last sentence was an imperative, not a suggestion.

Some quotes:

You cannot be a prophet on your way out the door. You cannot shake the Evangelical dust off your feet and then hope that your criticisms lobbed from elsewhere will somehow change things.

The new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization of American Christianity.

What happens when American Christians who place more importance on their identity as Americans go to make converts? To what exactly are people being converted?

We are called to a great, multiethnic collaboration, as the gospel message of Christ's kingdom goes "from everywhere to everywhere."

Learning to embrace limitations and weakness is not subsequent to strategy. It is the strategy.

They did not measure our value so much by what we could give as by how present we were when it mattered to them.

It is indeed time for the church of the Global South to rise and shine, and for the American church to learn to look to their leadership, because we need them as much as they need us.

I read this book from a unique perspective: I'm currently living outside of the US and get to attend an incredibly diverse church where I'm blessed to call friend so many people who would fit the book's definition of marginalized. I have learned so much and been molded and shaped by people like the ones whose stories and perspectives are presented in "Inalienable." The authors don't shy away from pointing out problems in the American church, but the focus of the book is a hopeful one. One thing I appreciated is all of the global Christians quoted in the book. I came away with a long list of other authors I want to read. Besides wanting to reread this book immediately, I will be recommending this to all of my American friends.

Every once in a while, a book comes along that is like a breathe of fresh air. Inalienable is like an emergency oxygen mask to resuscitate the Church. It hits hard like a defibrillator to deadened hearts. However, even more precious than simply being a hard-hitting wake up call is that Inalienable also somehow manages to be a beautifully hopeful book. Eric Constanzo, Daniel Yang, and Matthew Soerens, at the beginning of their book, write that “While we’re uninterested in simply resuscitating a damaged religious brand, we believe–because we have seen it–that God is still at work in the American church, and we want to be a part of restoring her gospel witness. To do so, we’re going to need to learn to listen…”. Constanzo, Yang, and Soerens have very admirably and excellently accomplished what they set out to do. “Speaking the truth in love,” as Ephesians 4:15 exhorts us to do, is already difficult in and of itself. Costanzo, Yang and Soerens, however, not only manage to do it but, they also manage to do it with joyful hopefulness, open listening ears, and deep humility.

As a minister of the gospel living abroad, I have witnessed the sad reality that “American Christians have far too often made the mistake of viewing Christians from other parts of the world as our ‘little brothers and sisters,’ as if they are less equipped by the Holy Spirit because they have fewer resources and smaller theological libraries.” Inalienable makes some very good steps to remedy that by not only including but, highlighting hidden voices of wisdom, the voices of theologians, refugees, and believers from all across the nations, and setting them alongside the voices of Jonathan Edwards, N.T. Wright, and etc… The willingness and intentionality of Constanzo, Yang, and Soerens to not just talk about listening but, actually listen and include those voices sets Inalienable apart.

On a more personal note, each of the three authors briefly offer a bit of their background early in the book. Being American-born Taiwanese and having grown up in a Chinese Taiwanese American church, Daniel Yang’s testimony struck me very deeply. Yang shares, “Some might say God sent refugees like us to the United States so that Americans could reach them with the gospel. Others might say we were socialized into a version of American civil religion. I am starting to wonder if God sent some refugees like us to shake up American civil religion, and to reach Americans with the gospel.” The courage to write that perspective, one that I myself have long considered but, been too afraid to articulate, pierces my heart. Inalienable is a courageous book desperately needed for the church in this hour.


This review is based on NetGalley ARC provided in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion. Thanks go to NetGalley and IVP for providing the ARC.

I have not lived in the United States for the past eleven years, but I think this is an important book for the North American church to read. Published by InterVarsity, and written primarily for an evangelical Christian audience, the three authors share about their deep love for the church— but also the deep brokenness they see. This book is their call for the American church to rediscover the good news of the Kingdom of God, recognize idolatry in the church and repent from it, and humbly learn from brothers and sisters around the world.

While the term “Inalienable” is often associated in American minds with ones’ rights as a citizen (“inalienable rights to liberty, justice, etc…), this book challenges the reader to take a look at what should be inalienable for followers of Christ. I highly recommend this book, especially those in the USA.