Quote:
Originally Posted by HERn
OBW, before you fade into the ether, would you please recommend some readings along the lines you mentioned in your last post?
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I've read things that I think have serous problems, but that still ask valid questions. And some good stuff from some good sources.
Brian McLaren's
A Generous Orthodoxy comes to mind. A lot of good issues bubbling forth from someone who would lead us to water everything down if given the chance. One of the primary theologians of the Emergent movement. (Not the Emerging, but the Emergent movement. If you don't know the difference, don't worry about it.)
Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer. Available on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble (or both) as an ebook. He is prone to hyperbole and paints a darker picture than is probably warranted, but worthy of consideration.
Two books by David Fitch. He is a professor of theology at Northern Seminary (Chicago area). He is quite prone to writing like it is for study within the scholastic theological world, so sometimes uses a lot of excessively expensive words. But once you get through the words you don't understand, very thought provoking. I like that he speaks of the problems within Evangelicalism yet from the standpoint of someone that considers himself to be part of it rather than as a sniper from the outside.
#1 (which I read most of several years ago) The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies. Actually got a lot of thoughts on worship from this one although it is about a lot of things, including expositional preaching (the staple of most Evangelical preachers).
#2 (which I am almost done with right now) The End of Evangelicalism? Discerning a New Faithfulness for Mission. This one picks on the "decision" pretty strongly. Also the "inerrant Bible" and the "Christian nation."
I used to study the Emerging/Emergent movements, but that has fallen to the wayside as the biggest speakers on the radical side (the Emergents) sort of shot themselves in the foot in recent years. That would be Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. Bell with his
Love Wins and McLaren when he finally took a stand, I think in
A New Kind of Christianity. I have read neither and probably do not intend to even think about it.
I follow blogs by Scot McKnight (Jesus Creed), Chaplain Mike (Internet Monk. Oddly this was the blog of Michael Spencer until he died three or so years ago. It is now written by two or three regulars, mostly a guy who is a hospital chaplain.), Kevin DeYoung (at The Gospel Coalition — very "Reformed" and sometimes dogmatic about it). There are a couple of others that I visit occasionally for interest, but that I have some issues with generally. I also follow a blog by a guy sort of in charge of worship direction for a Baptist organization in the Midwest (not sure if it is SBC or some other Baptist group). Can't remember much about it to lookup right now, but it is not really in the area of the controversies.
Despite my tendency for the logical arguments, I think that the value in apologetics is way overrated. Just too much thinking about stuff and checking off things on an "I believe that" list. Not enough rubber-hits-the-road emphasis on moving beyond that decision (i.e., to sanctification). Besides, I'm not sure how much you believe if you don't actually act like a believer. And people who don't obey aren't acting like it. (And that was pointed at me as well.)