Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
book reviews
159
Estrelda Y. Alexander,The Will to Power: Confronting Ideologies That Dismantle
Christian Community(Lanham, MD: Seymour Press, 2018). 174 pp. $19.44 paper-
back.
The Will to Power: Confronting Ideologies That Dismantle Christian Community, by Estrelda Y. Alexander, is a poignant and practical book that addresses the force behind the many factions of culture that separate God’s people. The book exposes people’s innate compulsion to devalue others to promote self-interest and control, defined as the “will to power,” an idea coined by Friedrich Niet- zsche. In response, Alexander offers “a more excellent way” to love and honor others resulting in a coming together in Christian community.
The forward contains a concise primer of Nietzsche’s philosophy and the reactions of scholars and theologians to “the argument that abused people could forcibly resist their exploitation by their will to power” (iv). Conservative Christians emphasized the preaching about human depravity and liberal the- ologians stressed the potential of human benevolence. The divided emphasis amongst Christians created a gulf between those preaching an individualized gospel and those contending for a social gospel. Alexander skillfully bridges this gulf by exposing the will to power as a tendency present in all individuals and groups alike.
Alexander, a self-described sociologist and political theologian wrote The Will to Powermore from a sociologist’s viewpoint than a theologian. The book’s underpinnings are, without a doubt, biblical, and the book confronts political issues without descending into the rancor that is common in today’s culture. Although the book is not overtly theological, Alexander asks the reader to bal- ance the tension of the sin nature expressed in the will to power and theImago Dei present in every individual. Alexander reveals the tendency within each of us to upend creation and create God in our image. She states that, “in our hubris, we presume God must be like us” (18). More problematic is the notion that “God, assuredly, is unlike them” (19). The more God we make God be like us, the more we presume God likes what we like and hates what we despise. In turn, we deify ourselves and vilify others.
A good coach will negate the athlete’s potential to perform with excellence through practice and training. Alexander challenges the passive Christian to love others by “intentionally seeking the goodwill of others” (40). The culprit plaguing much of the slumbering church is “negation, which fails to recog- nize and address the real personhood and need of the other” (43). The book exposes three self-spoken lies we tell. Unaware or unwilling to admit privi- lege, we declare, “We are innocent.” Entrenched othering blinds people to their privilege. A person who is disadvantaged compared to another group neglects
Pneuma
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2021 | doi:10.1163/15700747-04301016
1
160
book reviews
their privilege in other contexts. Many people fall victim to the second lie, “The Problem is Them.” The oppressed quickly can become the oppressor when he assumes to be innocent of what it takes to will to power. The third and most damaging lie is, “We are Ontologically Different.” This deceit is at the heart of the effort we must undertake to “hold ourselves harmless and support system- atic oppression” (58). Alexander summarizes these myths, turned to self-talk, “keep us entrapped in dehumanizing circumstances that kill us emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and often physically” (64).
As a pastor and practitioner, Alexander moves the discussion from theory to practice in the following chapters. The will to power manifests in seven lev- els: stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, patronization, bigotry, oppression, and genocide. The will to power is ubiquitous and could fester discretely unless diagnosedintheearlystages.Byclearlydefiningeachstage,theauthorprovides a self-diagnostic tool for the motivated reader to implement.
Every person is uniquely created and loved by the infinite God. Effectually everyone can be regarded as the other. The ever-present differences “continu- ally challenge us to act out our Kingdom principles or capitulate” and discrimi- nate against the renditions of the will to power: racism, sexism, misogyny, clas- sism, sexual identity,generationalism, nativism,and multi-otherism. Alexander invites us to move beyond an aloof characterization of people and come face to face with the reality of their lived experience. Warning: confronting these renditions honestly will stretch the reader to examine entrenched values that may not align with the ethics of the Kingdom of God.
Alexander is not content to address the surface renditions of the will to power. She turns to root out the will to power’s manifestations from their com- mon core: fallen human nature. The sociologist identifies the base of the onto- logical dysfunction as socialization reinforced with conforming behavior—the reality of subjugation effects the oppressed and oppressor for generations. Alexander notes a propensity for some with an authoritarian personality to seek to dominate others. Present in each of the roots mentioned above is the presence of fear. Fear is taught and learned, manipulated by politicians, media, and advertisers to profit in one form or another. Blaming others or scapegoating is a common tactic of the authoritarian personality. The reality, says Alexander, is “some part of each of these roots lies within every one of us” (126). Only by recognizing these manifestations in ourselves and those with whom we have an affinity or those at enmity with us can we take responsibility, become gen- uinely repentant, and work to dismantle the Will to Power and heal others.
Before concluding, Alexander calls the reader to the altar in true Pentecostal form. The call is to first recognize the will to power’s real and powerful exis- tence in each one of us (Romans 3:23). Then we must acknowledge or confess
Pneuma 43 (2021) 135–166
2
book reviews
161
our role, whether active or passive (Romans 10:9–10). Finally, we must commit to perpetual repentance that resists the temptation to withdraw from authen- tic relationships (Romans 12). The call of salvation is personal and communal. It is a call to be one as God is One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Salvation comes when we pray like Jesus, “not my will, but Yours be done.”
Matthew Larson
Southeastern University, Lakeland, Florida, USA [email protected]
Pneuma 43 (2021) 135–166
3
