A field guide to wokeness in the world

When I first publicly critiqued what I called “winsome thirdwayism” in 2022, I was often asked what I would put in its place. The two words I returned to were clarity and courage. Those virtues are on display in Post Woke: Asserting a Biblical Vision of Race, Gender, and Sexuality (Harvest Apologetics, 288 pp.). It’s an important work of cultural apologetics by Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer. The book functions as a practical sequel to their earlier volume, Critical Dilemma (Harvest Apologetics 2023). Whereas that work traced the intellectual genealogy and internal logic of critical social theories, Post Woke is intentionally concrete, focusing on their everyday manifestations and equipping readers to recognize and respond to them in ordinary social, professional, and ecclesial contexts. 

Alongside extensive data (carefully documented in the endnotes), Shenvi and Sawyer draw on familiar examples that many readers will instantly recognize. The effect is disarming: Readers repeatedly find themselves thinking, “Yes—that’s exactly what I’ve encountered, and I didn’t know how to respond.” The book becomes something like a field manual for navigating contemporary workplaces, institutions, and strained relationships. The authors show that these debates are not merely academic but exert real pressure on ordinary people trying to live and speak with integrity amid rapidly shifting moral expectations.

Anticipating common objections, Shenvi and Sawyer address skepticism about the usefulness of the term “woke” itself. They demonstrate that “wokeness” does in fact name a coherent cluster of ideas—it’s a term many of its advocates embraced positively prior to 2019. They employ the term descriptively rather than polemically, aiming at moral and intellectual clarity rather than rhetorical dismissal.

The authors combine precision with confidence. Christians, they argue, need not be intimidated by wokeness. Wokeness, they argue, is neither inscrutable nor insurmountable. Rather, it is identifiable and refutable: “It is the popular expression of a coherent, comprehensive view of reality that emerged from a particular stream of scholarship known as critical theory.” Once readers grasp its assumptions, internal tensions, and characteristic fallacies, the ideological structure does not withstand sustained scrutiny. 

However, Shenvi and Sawyer do not assume that wokeness’s errors are immediately obvious to most. This recognition explains the book’s pedagogical posture. Post Woke is not written to flatter its audience, but to train it. As the authors explain, they are motivated by a desire “to provide compassionate clarity”—a posture that combines intellectual rigor with pastoral concern.

That compassion extends both to those unsettled by wokeness and to those drawn to it. Chapter 2, “How We Got Here,” may test the patience of readers eager to dismantle progressive orthodoxies. Here the authors offer a charitable account of the social and historical conditions that have made wokeness appealing. They treat the legacy of racial injustice in America with moral seriousness and address the #MeToo movement in a way that acknowledges genuine abuses and institutional failures. This chapter should dispel any lingering suspicion that Shenvi and Sawyer are merely right-wing reactionaries indifferent to the suffering of black Americans or to women who have endured abuse. Nor are they dismissive of the moral energy animating contemporary appeals to justice. On the contrary, they take that energy seriously—precisely because they believe it must be ordered by truth if it is to bear good fruit.

Less expected, and equally important, is their concern for those who react against wokeness by drifting toward the dissident right. Shenvi and Sawyer identify a generational dynamic here, noting that younger cohorts—especially Gen Z—are particularly susceptible to this overcorrection. Lacking any meaningful memory of a pre-woke cultural consensus, and having come of age amid sustained moralizing rhetoric that often targets men—white men in particular—these young people experience contemporary dynamics in ways that differ markedly from those of older generations. The authors’ willingness to admit these issues provides another layer of depth to their engagement, and will hopefully serve to steer these men to more sane and Christian responses to the woke errors. 

Much of the book’s practical value lies in its careful unpacking of stock phrases, rhetorical moves, and logical fallacies—bulverism, motte-and-bailey tactics, appeals to emotion, ad hominem attacks, and hasty generalizations—that routinely disarm ordinary people. For the average Christian encountering such claims in workplaces, schools, or social settings, this material functions as a concise and immediately applicable crash course in critical reasoning. Shenvi and Sawyer also offer guidance for engaging those who charitably advance woke ideas, insisting that genuine dialogue remains possible even amid deep disagreement.

At the same time, the authors do not minimize the seriousness of the threat they are addressing. They argue that critical theory—the intellectual framework underwriting wokeness—is actively deforming social institutions and patterns of moral reasoning, and that it is a mistake to imagine one can simply “chew the meat and spit out the bones.” In their account, critical theory is not a neutral analytical tool but a comprehensive worldview, functioning in many respects as a surrogate religion for those who imagine themselves to be secular. Because its most pernicious errors are tied to its central claims, selective appropriation is neither possible nor prudent. Just as one would not recommend extracting usable insights from Satanism or Nazism, so too Christians should resist the temptation to domesticate wokeness rather than reject it outright.

Chapters 6–8 form the book’s substantive core, addressing race, gender, and sexuality. The race chapter is especially strong. They argue that while race is a social construct, it is not therefore unreal. It names a socially salient category, though one far less ontologically basic than sex. They further explain that modern racial classifications are historically contingent and should not be conflated with older conceptions of peoplehood or with ethnicity as such. They offer a concise theological account of why racism is sinful, dismantle dissident-right misuses of ordo amoris, and commend a unifying account of American ethnicity grounded in shared civic belonging. 

The chapters on gender and sexuality are no less significant. Shenvi and Sawyer offer a measured critique of the successive waves of feminism alongside a cogent defense of complementarianism. They acknowledge that certain gender norms and stereotypes are socially constructed. At the same time, they insist that gender is a social category grounded in biological sex, and that gendered expression ought to reflect that underlying reality. As they write, “Christians should embrace the various social expressions of biological sex that are prevalent in their culture in order to communicate the fact that they accept and delight in their God-given sex.” They also challenge the assumption that justice requires the abolition of all hierarchy. While Scripture redefines leadership in terms of service, it does not oppose all hierarchy. Their treatment of #MeToo is similarly careful: Abuses are neither minimized nor excused, yet neither do they abandon the value of truth or the reality of moral agency. 

The material on transgenderism is among the book’s boldest. In addressing issues such as “pronoun hospitality,” Shenvi and Sawyer argue that capitulation to contemporary pressures to affirm gender confusion ultimately fails both dimensions of the biblical command to love God and neighbor. Love of God entails honoring the good and meaningful categories He has created; love of neighbor must be grounded in truth rather than indiscriminate affirmation. This commitment requires a willingness to risk offense by speaking truthfully as an act of genuine care. Indulging destructive falsehoods is not compassion but cruelty. Accordingly, Christians must be prepared to challenge such lies not only in private conversation but also in public settings. The probability of being misunderstood and maligned is far greater here; however, we cannot let that silence us. 

Post Woke takes the current moment seriously without succumbing to panic. The authors remind readers that this is not the worst era in history, while refusing complacency about the distinctive trials of our own. Clarity, courage, and compassion remain the way forward—and Shenvi and Sawyer help show it.