Book Review: Radical by David Platt

Subtitle: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream


In “Radical” best-selling author/pastor David Platt calls American Christians to evaluate their lives and their finances in light of the teachings of Christ.

I must admit I expected this book to be the social gospel for the Twenty-First century.

I was wrong. This is not doing good works to earn salvation, but rather doing them because of our salvation.

The true gospel is clearly preached throughout this book – he is spot on in that regard. This isn’t about the social gospel, but rather examining where our treasure is. It’s a call to Christians to carefully consider what a need is and what is a luxury. How much more could we give if we cut out the extras? How big of a house do we need? How about our churches – do we need huge buildings with comfy seats while our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world suffer?

The author admits there are far more questions than answers. I appreciate that this was not written in a legalistic manner, and it doesn’t condemn. He is just asking valid questions; questions that we must all answer for ourselves.

My only concern with this book is that it seems to almost bring good works up to gospel level; as if they are a second part of the gospel, rather than an evidence of our faith. Please notice I said ALMOST. He in no way claims this, but I fear that it could easily be interpreted that way and turned into legalism.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

You can read the first chapter HERE.