But have you noticed the categories we have used in this discussion of what ails the church in the West?  They are all sociological, historical, occasional, demographic, economic, psychological, medical.  They are all performance-related, circumstance-related.  There is nothing about the Devil — and nothing about God…

I am certainly not suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from sociological and demographic analysis…

But if all of our analyses are restricted exclusively to such categories, the huge danger is that our solutions will be cast in such categories too.  Our answer will be superficially sociological because we do not probe deeply enough to analyze the cosmic tension between God and the Devil.  And then, quite frankly, we do not really need God.  He could get up and walk out, and we would not miss him.  We have got this thing taped; our analyses are quantifiable.

— D. A. Carson, Scandalous