When was the last time you thought about where air comes from? You probably don’t. You just breathe.
Many of our assumptions and convictions are the same. Like air, they are all around us and we breathe them in constantly, but when do we consider how they got there?
Glen Scrivener wrote The Air We Breathe to show how the assumptions of Western people today are born from the Christian story. We value things like consent and equality, but where did those values come from? Scrivener says, “None of these values are self-evident, nor are they widespread among the civilizations of the world. So where did they come from, and how did they become ‘the air we breathe’?”
In The Air We Breathe Scrivener argues that the gospel story is the foundation for what we hold to be good, true and beautiful- even if we don’t believe a word about Jesus. Like fish in the ocean, “Christianity is the water in which you swim.”
The Cross and How We See
Scrivener shows how the Jesus movement radically changed the assumptions of the culture it inhabits. A prime example of this is the difference between how a Roman citizen viewed death on a cross compared to how we talk about the cross today. A Roman citizen of Jesus’s day saw the cross as an “un-personing,” a punishment reserved only for those deemed less than people. Yet, today when we mention the cross in the West, even non-Christians probably think of hope and love. “The way we see the cross has been revolutionized because the cross has revolutionized the way we see.” The assumptions we make about people, their worth and dignity, are radically different from the assumptions of people for most of history and the difference is because of the cross.
Scrivener shows how our assumptions about equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, science, freedom and progress, all find their origin in the Christian story. In his chapter on Compassion, Scrivener uses the titles political leaders have as an example of this shift. Ancient kings were treated as gods. Think about the portrait of the Persian king in the stories of Esther or Daniel. The king’s word was irrevocable- what he commands bears divine authority. N.T. Christians were persecuted for their claim that Jesus is Lord because to Romans Caesar was the true God-man.
The Jesus movement changed the way leaders define greatness. Not by might, but by service (Mark 10:32-45) “If you want evidence of the Christian revolution,” Scrivener says, “look no further: our rulers used to pronounce themselves “God’s”; now they are servants.” Our assumption in the West is that authority is given to serve the good of others. That’s a deeply biblical assumption.
It may surprise people, but the Christian story shares a lot of common ground with the assumptions of many of its opponents in the West today. But the gospel confronts those same assumptions by exposing that apart from God those assumptions are baseless.
On the issue of morality, Scrivener says to call something wrong there must be an objective good and true. To expose the crooked lines assumes the existence of a straight line. “If there were no such thing as a straight line, there would be no crooked line either. Lines would simply be lines, and stuff would merely happen.” Moral judgment demands a moral standard.
Even when we confront the sins of the past, especially of Christians, we do so based on the gospel. The Christian faith gives us the resources to confront Christian sin in history. He says, “The straight line which condemns the Crusades is precisely the sign under which they were fought: the cross.” The Christian conviction that Jesus builds his kingdom by persuasion, not force confronts the Crusades.
The Biblical equality of men and women stated in Genesis 1 grounds the conviction that people, especially women, are not tools to be used for pleasure and then thrown aside. It is the gospel belief that every person stands before God equally as an individual and the brotherhood of believers from every tribe, nation, language and tongue, that cut the legs from under slavery.
History is complicated. It has many dark corners and sharp edges, but we shouldn't avoid them, or blindly condemn everything that came before us. We must own what is crooked and insist on the straight line. The Air We Breathe helps me think about history with grace and clarity.
Nones, Dones, and Wons
The book addresses three readers, (1) the “nones” who are outsiders of the Christian faith, (2) the “dones” who tried Christianity and found that the shoe didn’t fit, and (3) the “wons” who are convinced believers of Jesus.
As a Christian, I read this book from the perspective of the “wons.” I found it to be insightful, challenging, and persuasive. I think it also is a great teacher for how to engage in conversations about the gospel and the world.
The Air We Breathe is the kind of book that helps you understand the world you live in and, from the perspective of a Christian, how to be a faithful and hopeful presence in such a world.