A few months back, I planned to connect with another Christian writer for coffee, and I asked if we could meet at Starbucks.

He immediately suggested another option, and when I arrived, he explained that he doesn’t patronize Starbucks, saying something to the extent of “They’re doing the devil’s work.” I was surprised. Starbucks has championed many liberal causes over the years, but I’ve never been one for boycotts.

Thanks to many of its liberal leanings, though, Starbucks has become a polarizing presence in the debate among Christians about how to engage in American culture. As Joshua D. Chatraw and Karen Swallow Prior write in Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues, “Your reaction to this question about Starbucks might reveal more than you think.”

Do you believe Christians should boycott companies that oppose Christian values to pressure them to change their policies or agendas? Do you believe Christians should visit Starbucks to “build relationships with the baristas and other patrons in order to evangelize them"? What about encouraging Christian entrepreneurs to open their own coffee shops?

The varying perspectives toward this issue are endless, but no answer is definitive. Our sometimes visceral responses often come from our own traditions and backgrounds, making the discussion worthy of debate. So yes, Christians can disagree about Starbucks. This is how Chatraw and Prior treat a variety of issues in Cultural Engagement, a timely and powerful book for any Christian wondering what engaging in today's society should look like.

The Sohrab Ahmari and David French debate, as explosive as it was within a small group of conservative Christians, revealed that Christians are deeply divided on the issue of how to approach both politics and culture. Instead of choosing one answer, though, Chatraw and Prior list hot-button topics from gay or transgender issues to immigration to the death penalty, with perspectives on each subject from various Christian writers.

For example, Robert George argues for a return to small government, Rod Dreher (author of The Benedict Option) calls on Christians to retreat from public life and embrace localism, and Tish Harrison Warren (author of Liturgy of the Ordinary) explains why she believes women should serve in ministry.

For their part, Chatraw and Prior introduce the book by explaining the broad strokes of a biblical approach to culture and why virtue is necessary in the debate. The rise of secularization has divided many Americans on the meaning of virtue, yet Christians are called not just to promote morality, but also to maintain civility in each debate.

The authors take an ecumenical perspective, neither embracing nor rejecting the idea of the “culture war”: “Whether we think the most biblical model for our relationship with the culture is to be at war with it, to engage it, to transcend it, or transform it, Christians are called to have virtuous character.”

Each section includes a short introduction followed by several different perspectives and discussion questions. Prior writes two essays: one about why she owns a handgun, the other on why our rhetoric about abortion is so important. "Calling abortion what it is will bring good," she writes. "Doing so without the temperance of love will bring harm." Chatraw argues that Christians shouldn’t cherry-pick Bible verses to support their stances on immigration. One pastor, he writes, did not follow this advice, even using a story from the book of Nehemiah to proclaim, "You see, God is NOT against building walls!"

Overall, Cultural Engagement is aptly named; it is a compelling crash course in contemporary issues, sharing voices from many well-known leaders in Christian communities. Prior and Chatraw do an excellent job of explaining the teaching around certain issues but letting Christians differ in good faith. All they ask is that Christians approach disagreements from a sense of love.

After Cultural Engagement came out this summer, a Virginia church went viral for posting a sign that read, "America: Love it or leave it." The church was trying to engage with culture. It was just doing so poorly, and the incident became a reminder that many Christians are lost when it comes to approaching the broader culture from a biblical standpoint.

Theologian Miroslav Volf said that Christians should respond to culture by engaging with it but maintaining some distance. “When they have responded to the call of the Gospel they have stepped, as it were, with one foot outside their own culture while with the other remaining firmly planted in it," he said.

Finding where to step in and where to step out, though, takes consideration, and a nuanced approach to cultural engagement can be difficult in the internet age. As Christians take this all into consideration, Prior and Chatraw argue, they should remember to take an eternal perspective. As the authors write, "the gospel frees us from naiveté and despair about cultural change," so it guards Christians from fatalism. And as they approach the culture, it offers a prudent hope.