Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

Love Does sits firmly within a broad contemporary religious movement often called “faith in action.” Faith in action is a tenet of Christian (and many other religions’) practice which helps believers to consider and enact their faith as an active force for good in their communities and the wider world. The concept of faith in action is based on the idea that true religious faith does and should influence the whole of a person’s life and behavior and should be the main motivating force in determining one’s impact on others. A wide variety of faith-based charities, churches and other organizations have faith in action programs or philosophies. Generally, these center around charitable activity, outreach, and discourse on religious ethics and morality in practice.

In Christianity, and in the United States in particular, faith in action is often an Evangelical movement that, moving away from overt and traditional conversion techniques, seeks to expand the influence of Christianity through humanitarianism and moral example. This style of faith practice is prevalent in modern American Evangelical circles, where there is a strong emphasis on the individual's relationship with Jesus, and the belief that faith should be evident in tangible acts of kindness and social justice. Goff’s book is a clear proponent of this particular mode of Christian practice.

While Goff's perspective is informed by a Western cultural landscape where Christianity is interwoven with societal values, in an increasingly globalized world where multi-faith and multi-cultural communities are the norm, faith in action is a large and varied movement internationally. As a concept which engages with the realities of everyday life, it intersects with numerous modern-life ethical challenges, including national and international inequality, conflict, the climate crisis, and the culture war phenomenon. The movement is also a contemporary example of how faith communities and the practices they adhere to adapt over time and to a changing global environment, as a self-reflective movement that interrogates the role of faith in real-world application.

Like many faith in action treatises, Goff's message asserts the universality of faith, assuming and arguing its power in the lives of everyone, regardless of their faith (or none). This reflects a broader cultural shift in American Christianity toward non-denominationalism, where specific doctrinal differences are downplayed in favor of a more inclusive, action-based practice of faith: faith in action as Evangelical humanitarianism. Goff’s particular thread of these values is characterized by a focus on individual initiative and the personal relationship with God, which resonates with a broader trend in contemporary American Evangelicalism that values personal experience and direct action as expressions of faith. In avoiding specific doctrinal proscriptions or prescriptions, Goff reflects the movement’s deliberate avoidance of a narrow—and potentially controversial or alienating—manifesto, presenting Christianity as accessible and applicable to modern, everyday life.