Book Review: Everyday Idolatry

Whitney Oxford. Everyday Idolatry: The Dramatic Tragedy of the Ages. Expositors Press, 2025. 231 pp. (paperback), $15.00.  Reviewed by Paul Shirley, Pastor of Grace Community Church, Wilmington, DE.

We all worship something, whether we admit it or not. We were created to worship, and as much as we might try to usurp the created order, we cannot turn back the clock to change what we were made to do. God formed us for his glory, which is another way of saying that we were uniquely fashioned to worship God in a way that only humanity can worship him. However, when we refuse to worship the creator we will inevitably worship his creation, which is the essence of idolatry. This reality is foundational to our experiences on this earth and it is at the heart of Whitney Oxford’s book, Everyday Idolatry: The Dramatic Tragedy of the Ages.

Whitney Oxford serves on the pastoral staff at Grace Immanuel Bible Church and he serves on the faculty at The Expositors Seminary in Jupiter, FL. Over the course of his biblical expositions within the church and his academic instruction in the seminary, Oxford has spent years considering what the Bible has to say about idolatry. In Everyday Idolatry, Oxford shares the biblical insights of his study and demonstrates for readers how much idolatry can impacts our everyday lives.

One of the recurring themes of Everyday Idols is the warning that idolatry is not a thing of the past. The graven images and household gods rebelliously worshiped in the Old Testament might not be on the mantle in your home, but that doesn’t mean you are immune to idolatry. As Oxford perceptively explains,

Worship is as inescapable as our creaturehood. The human heart is an unceasing wellspring of worship. But there is one essential variable in the matter: is our worship true or false? … The Recipient of true worship is the one true God, but this raises the question: who or what are the recipients of false worship? The recipients of false worship are idols. All rebellious worship is idolatry … . (19)

You don’t even need a graven image to commit the sin of idolatry. “As murderers and adulterers have never needed physical engagements to commit their crimes (Matt 5:21-22; 27-28), so idolaters have never needed physical idols” (58). All this to say, idolatry is a grave sin that does not require a graven image.

Since idolatry does not require a material object, how should we think about idolatry and idols? Oxford explains,

Idolatry, then, is the effort to build a bridge from imaginations of self-glory to mechanisms for self-glory. It tries to call into existence that which is in one’s mind—as God did. Hence the blasphemy of idolatry. Furthermore, serving idols is a codependence of the most evil kind: it is codependence with nonentity. The apostle Paul makes this clear: “We know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world” (1 Cor 8:4). This is the futile vortex: Idolaters need idols to find the purpose of their existence, and idols need idolaters for their ‘existence.” (178)

Oxford’s explanation is dense, but the concepts are not difficult to grasp. We choose to worship what we think will serve us, and as a result, we end up serving what is not even real! Idolatry is sinfully self-serving! To make matters worse, the path of idolatry always leads to destruction:

In an idolater’s pursuit of singularity, he becomes fragmented. In his pursuit of utility, he becomes futile. In his pursuit of fullness, he becomes empty. In his pursuit of power, he becomes impotent. In his pursuit of satisfaction, he remains insatiable. In his pursuit of gain, he knows only loss. This is the tragic picture of unbelieving existence: deluded, futile, empty, impotent, insatiable, bereft.” (204).

Idolatry is self-serving, deadly, and ubiquitous:

Idolatry, explicitly or implicitly, is the context of an overwhelming portion of Scripture. In the Bible we are constantly encountering warnings against it, depictions of it, the fallout from it, or, occasionally, repentance from it. Idolatry is blindingly with us. Like gravity, it usually goes unobserved; it is always exerting its influence, but it is overcomable. (103)

Thus, idolatry is an affront to the character of God:

Idolatry is not ‘mere’ rebellion. It is the fundamental expression of sin because it fulfills archetypal temptation, being diametrically opposed to the character of God. Its blasphemy is diametrical in designs because it is diabolical in origin. … [I]dolatry, by design, opposes the holy character of the living God. (46)

This is just a sampling of the insightfulness by which Oxford provides his readers with a biblical, theological, and devotional guide to the subject of idolatry. Oxford writes with a compactness and a compellingness that make readers hang on every word. This is a volume that I would recommend to anyone looking to understand what the Bible teaches about the subject of idolatry.

Note: You can find the book on Amazon using this LINK