Mark Meynell - A Wilderness of Mirrors: Trusting Again in a Cynical World

PRAISE FOR A WILDERNESS OF MIRRORS

The trouble with pessimism is that it isnt dark enough. Nor is optimism bright enough. A Wilderness of Mirrors takes us deep into the shadows of our culture of mistrust. With his unsparing look at recent history, Mark Meynell uncovers a relentless litany of examples, from dreamy-eyed hopes for international understanding to intelligence cover-ups, political campaigns based on fear, spin doctors, and the rest, leaving us convinced that things are far bleaker than we had imagined. But then the book follows with hope, a radically different kind of hope, brighter than wed thought possible. The gospel commends proper suspicion, a Jesus subversive of established order, but especially love, the love of God that enables us to love your crooked neighbor with your own crooked heart. Just as Ecclesiastes and the Gospel accounts belong in the biblical canon, so Meynells fresh apologetic confronts us with both miserable desolation and great joy.

WILLIAM EDGAR, professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary

A Wilderness of Mirrors is a really good book well researched, well written, and well worth reading. Mark Meynell does an excellent job of analyzing the skepticism of our age and showing there are good reasons for cynicism. However, he also shows us why the God of the Bible is utterly different and how we must learn to doubt our doubts if we are going to see God for who he truly is as the promise keeper. Weve all struggled with trust, but Mark gives us a solid base from which we can learn to truly trust.

STEVE TIMMIS, executive director of Acts 29 Network

A Wilderness of Mirrors is born out of years of paying attention to the world. Remarkably adept at understanding the cross-Atlantic cultural complexities between the United Kingdom and the United States and set within the complexity of globalization Mark Meynell is as perceptive a reader of contemporary politics as he is of modern art. With his richly wrought theological vision and uncanny honesty, he offers a way forward for all who wrestle with how to form a good life in this disorienting time in history, where the more we know, the more cynical we must become. Here we are offered a hard-won, deeply thoughtful reason to believe otherwise.

STEVEN GARBER, The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation, and Culture and author of Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good

Leaders, experts, and institutions alike have abused us with their spin and self-serving manipulation so we no longer feel able to trust anyone. A Wilderness of Mirrors is a penetrating cultural critique that explains how and why trust has collapsed in our society. This is neither a simplistic nor an easy book, but it is profoundly challenging and will repay careful reading.

JOHN STEVENS, national director of FIEC (Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, UK)

It is easy to feel waterboarded in cynicism living in Washington, D.C. It is a city that houses leaders and journalists who are superb at crafting lies and deceit for personal gain. A Wilderness of Mirrors is a timely resource for anyone who finds life dominated by mistrust and suspicion. Mark Meynells insights help us better understand not only why such cynicism is warranted, but how the gospel is the only reason for hope.

CHUCK GARRIOTT, the Presbyterian Church in Americas Ministry to State director, Washington, D.C.

In this profound book, Mark Meynell resists the temptation to tell us what to see in this illusory, fallen world. Instead he lays the groundwork that allows us, through faith, to perceive for ourselves. He isnt concerned with telling us what to think, but rather with providing insight into how to unravel for ourselves lifes confusing inconsistencies.

MICHAEL CARD, singer, songwriter, and author

A Wilderness of Mirrors is a book that reads like a crime novel. Comprised of fast-turning pages and thorough research into the subject matter, it is a clear and accessible presentation of the argument. Mark Meynells book comes as a welcome and needed contribution to the discourse about trust and trustworthiness as essential ingredients for the flourishing of society.

DR. KOSTA MILKOV, director of the Balkan Institute for Faith and Culture in Skopje

ZONDERVAN

A Wilderness of Mirrors

Copyright 2015 by Mark Meynell

ePub Edition March 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-51527-2

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Meynell, Mark.

A wilderness of mirrors : trusting again in a cynical world / Mark Meynell.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51526-5 (softcover)

1. Trust Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Integrity Religious aspects Christianity. 3. Honesty. I. Title.

BV4597.53.T78M49 2015

261 dc23

2014045435

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: DualIdentity

Cover photos: Shutterstock

Interior illustration: Alex Webb-Peploe

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

15 16 17 18 19 20 /DCI/ 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For
Andrew Fellows
&
Gavin McGrath
good friends
who get me
as much as they get this stuff

CONTENTS

by Christopher J. H. Wright

I was once asked to write an article for a magazine in India, during the time we lived there in the 1980s, on the topic Why I am a Christian. I remember the headings went something like, Because being a Christian is satisfying, because it is secure, and because it makes sense. I was trying to express how my Christian faith not only gave me personal fulfillment along with the security of eternal salvation, but it also made intellectual and explanatory sense of the world we live in. That third point came back to mind as I read Mark Meynells intriguing book.

It makes sense to me, I wrote, that this universe is not merely the product of inexplicable chance, but rather the creation of the personal, powerful, and loving God of the Bible. It makes sense to me that the mess the world is in is due not merely to lack of progress, ignorance, or any of the myriad inadequate diagnoses and remedies that humanity has spawned, but rather to a fundamental moral rebellion against the very source of our humanity and our rejection of Gods benevolent authority in Gods own world the Bibles radical analysis of sin. Anything less is naive and fails to make sense of reality as we know it. It makes sense to me that the God who created such a wonderful world should, out of love, choose not to destroy but to redeem it through Jesus of Nazareth and his incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension. And it makes sense to me that the God who promised and accomplished all of that in biblical history would not (will not) leave the whole project unfinished, but will finish the story in the full restoration of creation envisaged by Isaiah, Paul, and John of Patmos.