The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief &
Behavior
Steven Garber
(IVP, 2007) $16.00

In the mid 1990s I had this long, wonderful, interesting conversation–late,
late into the night—with my friend Steve Garber. He was working on his Ph.D.
in education, trying to learn through research, vast reading, great
conversations with leading mentors and educators, and tons of first hand
interviews with not-so-young-adults—what caused Christian faith to take hold
in meaningful, long-lasting, and integrated ways. I was happy to regale him with
stories of my own college years, and into my journey with the Coalition for
Christian Outreach (CCO) doing campus ministry. Steve and I had many mutual
friends, some common interests, and shared an affinity for professor of
philosophical aesthetics, Calvin Seerveld, and all-of-life-redeemed philosopher
/preacher Dr. Peter J. Steen, and the agrarian essayist and poet, Wendell Berry.
Each gave feisty and academic legs to the vision of God’s Kingdom coming in
every area of life and invited us to live life with an earthy, Christian
lifestyle. Steve told me about his early days as a college student living in
community and running a thoughtful, Christian activist newspaper and his days
learning from Francis and Edith Schaeffer in their Swiss study center, L’Abri. I
told him about my feeble activism on behalf of the United Farm Workers,
advocating for nonviolent social justice in ways inspired by Martin Luther King
and Cesar Chavez. Mostly, we pondered how in God’s great grace He has drawn us
to good authors—I think I was re-reading J.I. Packer’s Knowing God at
the time—and the good people in our lives who kept us going as we attempted to
live faithfully for Christ’s reign in our callings, careers, and vocations.

I didn’t know, or don’t recall thinking, that this interview would end up
being in a book, let alone a book that great leaders (from Stanley Hauerwas to
James Sire) would insist was one of the best books about the journey of young
adult faith into serious, integrated whole-life discipleship. After having
read Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief & Behavior in the
University Years,(first released in late 1996) and enjoying the many, many
stories of fellow pilgrims who told their stories to Steve, I realize that my
little late night interview wasn’t all that vital. Some of the stories, however,
are truly amazing, and some of the folks he tells of in the book are stunning in
their insight and eloquence. Still, all of us who were interviewed, nearly every
one, had some testimony of the same three things, three things that Steve has
identified through research, reading, and his excellent knack of listening so
very well, to be the things that most characterize what Eugene Peterson’s book
on the Psalms calls “a long obedience in the same direction.” Three things that
help us keep on keeping on, long after the heady and idealistic years of campus
fellowship groups and young adult commitments.

Sure, Peterson swiped the line from Neitzsche. And Garber swipes lines from
everybody from abolitionist William Wilberforce to novelist Walker Percy, from
Bono to Beavis, from third century Augustine to twentieth century Newbigin, from
Calvin (and Hobbes) to Calvin (of Geneva.) It makes for a fun and engaging read,
a contemporary and urgent book, at once learned and urgent. I mention it often
in my own book reviewing and public speaking; it has become a touchstone of
sorts, a classic.

When pondering the best non-fiction Christian books of this decade, in fact,
a few continue to impress me, haunt me, challenge me, and reassure me. Among
others I could name, I think Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat’s remarkably
faithful, postmodern Bible study, Colossians Remixed: Subverting the
Empire (IVP) and the delightful and insightful Culture-Making:
Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch (IVP) or all three of the books by Lauren Winner stand out for
me as perhaps the truly most significant of the 2000s.

Yet, in the later half of that first decade of the new century, Steve
Garber’s Fabric of Faithfulness was re-issued by InterVarsity Press,
allowing me to declare here that it is “the book of the decade.” Of
course the great new cover really helps and the shortened subtitle (showing that
its audience is most often those who have graduated from college and, perhaps
approaching mid-life like many of those interviewed in the book, were longing to
more fully understand the relationship of the Biblical themes of vocation and
the Kingdom of God.) Yes, that subtitle makes it clear that this is a book about
integrity, about living with coherence and clarity about “connecting the dots”
between our deepest worship on Sunday and our deepest struggles on Monday. Such
integration is the foundation upon which long-term, hopeful discipleship
emerges.

But, most importantly, there is, quiet significantly, a fabulously
interesting and very important new introduction and afterward.

These two new chapters, which include moving stories about William Wilberforce,
about valiant Chinese dissidents, about Steve’s’ meetings with the likes of
seeking rock star Billy Corgan or Peter Gabriel, are among Garber’s most
eloquent writings, and they set the stage for the re-launch of Fabric as
a truly adult book. It is to some extent about learning, about young people in
their yearnings for a life of coherence, and it was written when Steve was
mostly working with collegiates. Deans and administrators and educators have
used it. He does talk about rock stars and youth trends and pop culture. So,
yes, yes— it is a book even for college students. But more, especially with
the significant new book-ends of powerful forward and afterward—you have to
read them for yourselves to see what I mean—this is now more than ever for
anyone who longs for the deepest joys of discovering a sense of vocation, of
relating faith to their tasks in this sorrowful, broken world, for those who
long to make a difference, in the arts, culture, business, civic life or other
areas where a Christian worldview might most profoundly shape our thinking and
practices, allowing us to engage the societal pressures and resist the cultural
forces so well described and analyzed within these pages.

So. Book of the Decade it is, thanks to the expanded edition that appeared in
2005. I thought to celebrate it here at decade’s end I would reprint a review I
did when the book first appeared in the late ’90s. I’ve changed very little, and
trust this long review will convince you that this is a book worth having, a
book worth reading and re-reading, a book worth working on, discussing, and
sharing. See more of Steve’s writing at the Washington Institute on Vocation, Vocation, Culture.

In the middle of the remarkable new book The Fabric of
Faithfulness, Steve Garber tells the

story of a meeting with one of his
students, a student who “asked wonderful questions about important ideas.” As
one experienced in mentoring college students, Garber saw that the student
seemed not to take his intellectual search all that seriously. Our author found
himself doubting that the fellow “really understood the difference of truth and
the difference it makes.” In a move which seems uncharacteristic for the gentle
teacher, Garber issued an ultimatum: he would talk no further with this student
until he watched all of the films of Woody Allen, from Annie Hall on. It
should be a clue as to who might enjoy this book, as well as who ought to.

Laden with quotes from popular cartoons, film and rock music, The
Fabric of Faithfulness is a book which takes young people–specifically
people in their university years (what developmentalist Sharon Parks calls “the
critical years”) and their culture seriously. In fact, it is a book that takes
everything seriously, including the quest for meaning in Woody Allen movies.
(Indeed, at least one critical reader has suggested that this is a hindrance of
the book: it perhaps takes itself too seriously.) For those who want a light
read, or rather formulaic principles for spiritual success, this is not the book
for you.

At times lyrical, nearly always eloquent, occasionally written with such
wisdom it can only be called profound, The Fabric of Faithfulness
is a passionate plea for those who work in higher education to help young people
develop a coherent and meaningful worldview which issues forth in a life-long
commitment to relevant, radical discipleship. In the face of the obstacles that
latter-day modernity and the dawning postmodern milieu place before us, which
Garber helpfully explores to considerable benefit, his desire to help students
weave together beliefs and behavior is no small thing. That he apparently has
motivated some of his young friends and students to struggle towards a
thoughtful, evangelical faith which is able to stand, even amidst broken lives
and perverse culture, earns him the right to tell his story.

As the author points out in the opening pages, however, the story of this
book is significantly intertwined with the stories–successes and failures,
brave attempts and false starts, foibles and faithfulness–of the scores of
people he interviewed for the book. It is their animating presence throughout
The Fabric of Faithfulness that gives it such a real-life feel and
keeps the philosophical reflections (with visits from Richard Bernstein,
Alastair MacIntyre, George Steiner and Lesslie Newbigin) from becoming
ivory-tower speculation. Its ultimate practical application is seen in rave
advance reviews from the likes of InterVarsity Press’s resident intellectual
guru James Sire (who called it “the best book on moral education I’ve ever
encountered”) and Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University’s resident alien, who wrote,
“If there is any book I would want to give to a son or daughter going off to
college, it would be this one.”

If the playful yet deadly serious question “Why do I get up in the morning?”
is asked by Professor Garber to his college students, he asked similarly
pregnant queries of the 40- and-50-somethings he interviewed for
Fabric. His guiding passion was to determine what happened to
folks who got serious about their faith in their college years that enabled them
to endure and thrive in their desire for a life-long commitment to godly service
in their careers, loves and lifestyles. Were there discernible traits of those
whose faith journey led them through the “valley of the diapers” and across the
threshold into the beginnings of middle age with their Kingdom cares and
commitments intact? Were there certain scenarios of discipleship that provided
the context for such idealistic faith to endure and mature? How and what sorts
of habits of heart (as Garber often puts it) were formed which served to develop
character in the lives of those interviewed? Quite specifically,

Each person responded to a series of questions that asked them to reflect on
their “cares and commitments” at this point in their lives, and what had
happened during their university experience that gave “shape and substance” to
them. In a variety of ways, this question was asked again and again: What is the
relation between how you are living today–particularly your sense of what is
most important, what you most care about–and the tapestry of influences on you
during your university years? (p. 35)

Over and again, Garber discovered three traits which emerged from the
interviews. And in teacherly fashion, he reminds us of them in numerous ways
throughout the book:

As the stories were told, during the critical years between adolescence and
adulthood they [those that thrived and continued to live out their vision of a
coherent life] were people who (1) formed a worldview that could account for
truth amidst the challenge of relativism in a culture increasingly marked by
secularization and pluralization; (2) found a mentor whose life “pictured” the
possibility of living with and in that worldview; and (3) forged friendships
with folk whose common life offered a context for those convictions to be
embodied. (p. 160)

A faith understood as comprehensive and true, a mentor and a community. If
these are the essentials for building a story of healthy fidelity over the long
haul of one’s life, how might ministry plans, Christian ed programs and
discipleship strategies nurture such traits? Garber is only suggestive (since
this is not the book’s focus). But if his own ministry style is any indication,
the typical youth pastor, campus minister or college teacher could learn
volumes: read good books with students, eat lots of meals together, view films
and discuss novels, analyze the lyrics of pop songs and struggle to understand
the cultural visions being promoted through pop culture, listen to the pains and
fears of post-adolescents, talk, write letters, speak honestly, encourage deep
friendships, help folks make connections, model a concern for current events,
always and everywhere ask questions of “knowing and doing” and how to live a
whole, integrated life. (If this sounds like the rigorous whole-life approach
modeled by Francis and Edith Schaeffer and others in the L’Abri movement, it
should come as no surprise. Garber himself dropped out of college in the early
’70s and made his way to the Swiss study center for a season.)

Life-long learning and commitments to long-haul discipleship best happens,
then, in community with other like-minded folk reflecting together on real life,
and Garber’s stories offer adequate proof that there are plenty of
spirituality-hungry young adults seeking lives of moral consistency and
integrity. True to the “Generation X” and “Millennial” research, they long for
genuine and deep relationships and one wonders, at times, if these profoundly
struggling young adults are being patronized or trivialized in many church and
parachurch ministries. Even at our finest Christian colleges, some observers
wonder if students are truly challenged to unite life and learning, telos and
praxis; in a phrase, have we created authentic communities of Christian learning
or just religious shadows of secular institutions of higher education? Those who
lay awake worrying about such things–and some, I’m sure, do, including some of
those who appear in this book–would do well to reflect on Garber’s work,
digging through the footnotes and citations, as soon as possible.

Despite the media blitz about the cynicism of Gen X, Garber and his
colleagues from organizations with which he works, such as InterVarsity
Christian Fellowship, Pittsburgh’s Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO), and
the American Studies Program of the Coalition for Christian Colleges and
Universities, can offer vibrant testimony that there are those who want more
than a cheap faith or a cheap thrill. There are those who want to deeply connect
what they believe about the world and how they live in that world. There are
young men and women who are thoughtful about their culture and long to make a
difference in their callings, vocations, life and times. Throughout this book,
Garber seems to imply that working with this strategic group is extremely
important (these are, after all, in many ways, tomorrow’s leaders and cultural
gatekeepers) and uniquely rewarding. The stories which are told here certainly
lead readers to agree.

If the invitation to engage in this sort of thoughtful mentoring of those in
the “critical years” doesn’t make many potential readers (who may not have any
connection to campus ministry) rush out and buy The Fabric of
Faithfulness, traditional church leaders ought to know this, too: this
book is an exceptionally useful guide to some of the most important moral
philosophers and social critics writing today. As such, it can serve as a
helpful introductory crash course, a way to get a taste of authors you’ve heard
of but with whom you may not be adequately familiar. Would that church leaders
knew these scholars, understood these issues, cared for ideas and people—I can
attest that Steve’s sensitivities, shaped as they are by engagement with these
deep thinkers, has allowed him to mature into a man of great impact on others.
For those that want to mentor leaders, his approach, as shown here, is simply
essential.

In a fairly brief and quite readable way, Garber interprets for us three
primary “lenses” through which contemporary cultural critics tend to view the
influence of the world on people’s worldviews and lives. With biblically-based
insight, happily, Garber looks at and through all three lenses, showing the
compelling insight of each perspective. He explains, firstly, the “history of
ideas” approach which emphasizes how intellectual presuppositions guide our
worldview formation. (As a representative of this approach, think, for instance,
of Francis Schaeffer, or, as Garber suggests, the work of Thomas Oden.) In this
view, what people believe is influenced most by the philosophies of the books
they’ve read, the movies they’ve seen, the doctrine or ideologies they’ve been
taught. As the old saying goes, “ideas have legs.”

Inevitably, however, this gives way to a deeper question, the matter of the
“ethic of character” and the complexities of the dichotomy between personal and
public lives. Think here of Stanley Hauerwas, whose work such as Vision and
Virtue and The Community of Character have influenced significantly
the discussion about moral development and character formation. Simplistically
put (and Garber does him much better), this approach asks not so much what we
claim to believe but who we are. This is profound stuff and his discussion here
on the difference between idealistic optimism and becoming people of hope are
pages which are alone worth the price of the book.

Thirdly, Garber walks us through the role of the “sociology of knowledge”
approach, that is, the thesis that “What I believe is deeply affected by my
social experience: my family, community city, society and century” (p. 34).
Peter Berger’s book The Social Construction of Reality is a standard
here–or consider his writings about the impact of “privatization” on the
possibility of developing meaning-systems. Somewhat similarly, consider, too,
the influential work of evangelical scholar Os Guinness and how he reminds us of
the pressures of modernity on the Christian mind. There is no doubt that we all,
as Garber phrases it, “bear the bruises of modern consciousness.” In a stroke of
understated genius–almost too good to be true–Garber suggests a linkage of
these three ways of understanding (and their respective emphases upon the role
of convictions, character and culture) with the three traits uncovered in his
interviews: worldview, mentor, community. A sense of truth undergirding a
worldview seems to be a trait best understood by the history of ideas
perspective. The role of the mentor is helpfully highlighted by Garber’s
ruminations on the ethic of character and the role of culture is mediated and
nuanced by the role of one’s own subculture or supportive community. Three
different lenses help us see the three traits which enable young disciples to
thrive and endure.

The Fabric of Faithfulness is a splendid resource even if one doesn’t
work with young adults or new Christians. It is well worth reading for the sheer
joy of walking through a near barrage of contemporary Christian authors (from
the prophetic social critique of Jacques Ellul to the Christian educational
theory of Craig Dykstra), wise novelists and writers (from Dostoevsky to Milan
Kundera and Walker Percy) and classic theologians (Augustine, Lewis). But the
sources are wider still; one is often surprised with an excerpt from a Mike
Royko column or a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon…

***

Early on in The Fabric of Faithfulness, Garber shares a letter
from one of his anguished young friends who has become disillusioned with the
painful difficulties of remaining Christianly steadfast and redemptively active
in current affairs while pursuing her new career and lifestyle. Her last line to
him was, “Your secrets for dealing with the brokenness are coveted by one who
has been blind-sided by the reality of the world.” Interestingly, though, it
seems that one of the convictions most dearly held by those enduring
40-somethings Garber interviewed was a sense that their faith and Christian
obedience was, in fact, in keeping with the reality of the world. Firmly rooted
in a biblical doctrine of creation (as well as fall and redemption), mentored by
leaders who embodied a principled and realistic Christian lifestyle and
surrounded by a community of caring fellow-travelers, they were
convinced–contrary to the fact/value dichotomy of modernism or the radical
relativism of postmodernism–that Jesus Christ is Lord, Lord of politics, of
history, the economy, careers, romance, culture…this is the fundamental
reality. It is this awareness (along with the community of fellow-believers)
which creates “plausibility structure.”

It is my prayer that this excellent book, rooted in Garber’s own diligent and
creative work with students and careful listening to former students, will
inspire many of us to find for ourselves such a plausibility structure, the
sense that we together can live out the implications of an integrated Christian
life. Perhaps reflecting on this book and its stories will help us not be
“blind-sided by reality” when the going gets tough but, like Sophie Scholl and
the other anti-Nazi students with which Fabric ends, “face the consequences of
their convictions, addressing not only the indifference of the university but of
Germany itself.” These youngsters stood up and paid up, sadly, with their very
lives. That is the sort of faithful Christian this book hopes to help produce.
May we in the established churches be worthy to receive the gifts, insights,
courage and questions of such young disciples. And may we hear them as they call
us who may already be beyond the “university years” to weave together our own
belief and behavior.

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Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief & Behavior

Steve Garber

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