Oct 24, 2016: Avoiding a Narcissistic Faith

Robert E. Webber

Privatism, which is a preoccupation with God’s narrative for me, forgets the cosmic nature of God’s narrative and results in a narcissistic faith . . . . Churches embrace this narcissistic approach to life when they shape ministry by need. Consequently, the church as a living witness to God’s narrative became the place where the consumer could buy a product that fulfilled his or her needs. Of course, the church does fulfill needs, but they must be placed within the cosmic narrative, thereby reducing the individual’s focus on self and turning his or her contemplation to God’s saving deeds, whereby the whole world is made right.


-Robert E. Webber, Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 131.

About the author

Alumni Director, Practicum Professor, and DWS graduate.

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