





































Ecclesial Futures
2025 – Volume 6 – Issue 2

134
Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef25098

B O O K  r E V I E W

DOI: 10.54195/ef25098

Root, Andrew 2025. Evangelism in an Age of 
Despair: Hope beyond the Failed Promise of 
Happiness

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781540968715

Reviewed by Felix Eiffler

In his new book on evangelism, Lutheran theologian Andrew Root presents an orig-
inal and inspiring concept. Under the headline “Read before Using (Don’t Skip!)” he 
lays out his basic idea of his book: “Evangelism and discipleship are fused. Evange-
lism is the invitation to receive consolation, to receive ministry. Evangelism is the 
reception of care that places a person on a path of encounter with the divine. Evan-
gelism is the invitation to lean into one’s sorrows to find the sacramental presence 
of the living God changing one’s deaths into life” (2). The first chapter sketches the 
idea of the book and its basic assumptions and rationales. This is, that the church is 
called to “participate in the life of God through the work of the Spirit” (21). Christians 
are followers of Christ, because “the Spirit leads us to hear the voice of the living 
Christ calling us to follow. This following takes us into sacramental participation as 
the concrete invitation to join another’s sorrow” (21–2).

Root criticizes an approach to evangelism that views evangelism as a task to keep 
the church alive (Chapter 2). His criticism is mainly a theological one: A church that 
avoids dying underestimates the godly dynamic of bringing new life through and out 
of death: “Therein lies the church’s conformity to the body of Jesus Christ. Therein 
lies the sacramental logic of the infinite entering into the finite, finding union in oppo-
sites. When Christianity faces death, it lives” (49). Consequently, Root states,”Evange-
lism is central to Christianity, but only if it wears these marks of a sacramental dying 
for the sake of others” (50).

This idea of evangelism is rooted into the Lutheran theology of the cross (theo-
logia crucis) and Root links it with the human condition of having to pilgrim through 
life from goodbye to goodbye until the ultimate farewell – one’s own death: “We 
are the creatures who are dying and tempted to deny all our sorrow. But it’s inside 
this sorrow, and by wrestling with this temptation, that we find ourselves in the real 



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presence of Jesus Christ” (250). Thus, evangelism is potentially relevant to every 
human being, because everybody sooner or later faces losses and goodbyes. This 
not only means to lose some loved one, but also to pass a dream, a goal or a plan. The 
experience of farewell is even true for the good things, because e.g. to marry means 
to say goodbye to a lifestyle of independence. This basic human condition offers the 
chance to encounter God, who reveals himself in the very depths of sorrow, grief and 
losses. So, evangelism is primary consolation – a comfort that is experienced when 
people meet God and are held, solaced, healed and saved by him.

To outline this Lutheran-shaped understanding of evangelism, Root dives deep 
into the history of philosophy and theology with an emphasis on the late Middle Ages 
and the Early Modern Age. He enriches the historical quest with ideas and thoughts 
from people like Macrina and her brother Gregory of Nyssa, Jean Gerson, Johann 
von Staupitz and Martin Luther as well as René Descartes and Blaise Pascal (Chap-
ters 6 to 9). This approach also aims to understand our present times, which Root 
describes as sad times: “Ultimately, and ironically, we are in sad times in the early 
twenty-first century because we’re a society obsessed with happiness. We are sad 
because we’ve made happiness our highest aim and goal” (27). Root connects the 
current “sad times” with the modern idea of the free self (Chapters 3 to 5), which he 
traces back to “Michel de Montaigne (1533–92), who, through his extremely popular 
essays, invented the self as a free person who seeks happiness” (28). Root concludes: 
“A world like ours – filled with sad happiness-seekers in misery who are stuck in their 
self-imposed châteaus of fragile authenticity – needs evangelism and ministry not as 
polemics but as consolation, not as arguments but as visions of how sorrow itself is 
shared by God and brings peace and mercy. What is needed is a theology of consola-
tion as the pastoral shape of evangelism” (273).

Every chapter opens and ends with a continuous story of different people, whose 
lives are interwoven and who minister each other as everyday evangelists in accom-
paniment, support and consolation. By this, Root illustrates his theological thoughts 
and rationales. This attempt is quite convincing, because it serves his argumentation 
and helps to make his case.

Root’s book on evangelism is a refreshing approach to this very topic and offers 
a rich philosophical as well as theological encounter with some surprising connec-
tions and ideas. His interaction with the named thinkers of different centuries is thor-
ough and profound, but sometimes maybe a bit too detailed to keep track of his 
main theme. Although, his description of our times as sad times is persuasive, it is 
also a bit one-sided and focuses mostly on the downsides of individualism, which 
are evident. This, however, hides the positive aspects of individual access to and 
expressions of faith in Jesus Christ, which is also an achievement of the Lutheran 
reformation. Furthermore, one could criticize that Root’s description of evangelism 
is focused primarily on the edges of life, the losses, sorrows and deficits. This leaves 



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the reader with some questions: What does the gospel have to tell those, who are 
well off (even though this might only be a temporary state)? Is the gospel only rele-
vant for the sad and grieving ones? Is loss in Root’s theology maybe somehow a 
precondition to encounter God?

Nevertheless, however, the kind of evangelism Root describes is stimulating, 
because he links the Gospel message of God incarnate with a basic human experi-
ence: to lose, to say goodbye, to pass and to be sad. The consolation that is offered by 
evangelism is a kind of Christian empowerment (see Domsgen 2025: 12–20), because 
it equips a person to lean into one’s own sorrow and sadness instead fleeing from 
it. By this, to be evangelized means to encounter God, means to be consoled, means 
to be able to be confronted with the dark sides of life, means to be resilient and well 
suited for the small, medium and big farewells of life. And this leads finally to divine 
hope and deep happiness. This recontextualization of the theology of the cross in 
terms of evangelism under current (mostly Western) societal and cultural circum-
stances is inspiring and seems to be a fruitful approach to the topic of evangelism.

Root’s approach to evangelism offers an enhancing perspective to the approach 
of “Frohbotschaften” (messaging the good news), which was lately introduced into 
the debate by David Reißmann in a German academic handbook on evangelism (see 
Herbst et al. 2025: 431–83; van Driel 2025: 77–83). Frohbotschaften is linked to Isaiah 
61/Luke 4 and describes the role of a messenger of the gospel, “to proclaim liberty 
to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are 
oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Lk. 4.18–19). Therefore, it is not 
that people are to be evangelized, but that the Good News is to be messaged – out of 
the specific joy of the church and ultimately for that joy – in words and deeds of proc-
lamation, liberation, recovery and worship. Root adds to this approach the invitation 
into one’s own and other’s sadness in order to encounter God and thus find delight.

About the Reviewer
Felix Eiffler, Head of Research Unit Missional Church Development at the Center for 
Empowerment Studies, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg. Contact: felix.
eiffler@theologie.uni-halle.de

References
Domsgen, Michael. 2025. “Christian Empowerment and Secularity: Introduction to a Research 

Idea”, in Ecclesial Futures 6 (1): 12–20. DOI: 10.54195/ef22184.
Herbst, et al. 2025: Evangelisation. Theologische Grundlagen, Zugänge, und Perspektiven. 2nd ed., 

Leipzig: 431–83.
van Driel, Edwin. 2025. “Review of Evangelisation: Theologische Grundlagen, Zugänge, und 

Perspektiven, by Andreas Herbst et al.”, in Ecclesial Futures 6 (1): 77–83. DOI: 10.54195/
ef23521.

mailto:felix.eiffler@theologie.uni-halle.de
mailto:felix.eiffler@theologie.uni-halle.de



