by Blair Adams

The books in this series combine deep historical insights with a clear understanding of the dominant trends of our techno-industrial, mass-media age. This series presents a radical critique of our contemporary world from a uniquely consistent Biblical perspective, one that seeks to open the eyes of the reader to the some of the ways in which he or she is personally caught up in the trends of modern culture and to how these trends have influenced and shaped their lives in ways that they are not consciously aware of.

In This Series:

Vol 1: Two Trees
The Epistemology of Civilized Death and the Search for a New Frame

In the midst of the garden of Eden stood two trees. To partake of one would bring life eternal. The other would bring a certain form of knowledge that, while giving the appearance of wisdom, would unleash the curse of death upon all of God’s creation. Most are familiar with the story and its cataclysmic consequences. But few see the extent to which this motif of the tree of knowledge still stands, both spiritually and culturally, as the axis around which all of human civilization revolves.

Vol 2: “Many Devices”
Going to Your “Own Place” or Finding God’s Place?

In what appears to be a perpetual retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, an entire generation of individuals has charted their own course on a voyage of self-discovery where each will stop at nothing in their effort to make a name for themselves—an ongoing odyssey to prove that they are “somebody.” But an increasing number are arriving “home” to that place of self-awareness only to find that it is the loneliest place on earth.

While sounding a clear warning to those tempted to trust in “many devices,” this book also tells of another journey to an altogether different kind of place, a place created for us by God where we can become as little children and surrender our lives to love—a place we can truly call home.

Vol 3: The Supernatural Power of Greed
How Christianity Has Been Co-opted

Jesus rebuked the Laodicean church for seeing themselves as “rich,” “wealthy” and “in need of nothing” when in fact they were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.” In their abundance and worship of material things, they had become blinded to the reality of their condition. Situated amidst a consumer culture driven by materialism and competition, shouldn’t the church today also recognize the possibility that, reckoning ourselves free, we may actually be enslaved by the very same unseen forces that Jesus said were powerful enough to “deceive the very elect”?

This brief study suggests that only by “coming out” of the kingdom of this world and its commercial systems of covetousness and greed can we see through the deception and enter into the comprehensive life of Christian community that constitutes the kingdom of God.

Vol 4: Self-Idolatry and Scapegoating
The Supernatural Power of Desire

From the foundation of the world, human civilization has borne the mark of Cain—the one who, in a spirit of envy and competition, slew his brother and went on to build the first city with its weapons of war, commerce and trade. Enslaved by the desire to have what belongs to its neighbor and to “be as god,” fallen humanity, like its archetypal predecessor Cain, remains trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of increasing violence as it searches for someone to blame for its failure to obtain its desires.

Following in the footsteps of the apostle James, Self-Idolatry and Scapegoating pursues the question, “Where do wars and fights come from among you?” This searching survey examines key scriptural passages in an effort to uncover the mysterious spiritual forces and “elementary principles” lurking behind our everyday decisions—motives that lie at the root of entire political and economic systems of power and greed that have claimed millions of human lives over the past century alone.

Vol 5: Illusions of Modernity
Do We Plug In or Pull the Plug?

In an era being described by some as post-postmodern, we find ourselves surrounded on all sides by a perpetual revolution—an indiscriminate discarding of the old in relentless pursuit of the new. But, in the age of “infinite progress,” a few brave souls have been bold enough to ask, “Just what exactly is it that we are progressing toward? And how will we know when we’ve arrived?” Yet the vast majority seem content to leave these questions unanswered, propelled forward by the universally accepted faith of modernity. Illusions of Modernity offers a brief look at some of the unexamined assumptions behind the mythic quest for the “just now” in hopes of providing direction for those desiring to take the leap off of the conveyor belt of constant change and into the enduring culture of the God “who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Vol 6: Unplugging From the Matrix
Representational Images versus Presentational Reality

According to cognitive neuroscientists, only five percent of human thoughts are conscious. This means that ninety-five percent of our decisions, actions and emotions are the result of totally unconscious mechanisms, shaped entirely by what has been manufactured in our minds by our culture and, increasingly today, by an all-pervasive mass media. Once our perspectives have been shaped by these cultural influences, we cannot help but view the world through these same patterns of thought, even becoming enslaved by them. This is why it has never been more crucial that Christians “not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of their minds.”

Unplugging from the Matrix is for those who seek to be transformed through a complete exodus into an alternative culture—a culture where they can begin to reclaim every essential aspect of their lives.

Vol 7: Aporia and the Collapse of Cultures
The Cultural Shift That Birthed Modernity and the Shift That Is Coming

The term aporia describes a state of mind totally paralyzed by doubt and uncertainty. It is often so all-encompassing that people are overcome by feelings of helplessness, leaving them at a total loss as to how to deal with the sudden and overwhelming crises that confront them. It is as if the entire order of life is collapsing all around them, leaving them disoriented, without direction or any conceivable way out. Aporia and the Collapse of Cultures serves as a beacon of hope for those who have found themselves in just such a place—those with an overwhelming urge to act, to do something. History has proven that all it takes to discover an alternative in the midst of total cultural collapse is a remnant who is willing to open their minds to the possibility of a radically different way of thinking, acting and living.

386 pages total