Truth and the New Kind of Christian
From Neoredemptive
| Truth and the New Kind of Christian | |
|---|---|
|
| |
|
R. Scott Smith
| |
| Book Review Policy |
Synopsis
Smith responds to Brian McLaren's and Tony Jones' takes on "the postmodern turn" and its implications for the church. His argument, in short, is that postmodern and emerging theological camps have overstated the collapse of the modern enlightenment world and have wrongly deposited all of their ecclesial eggs in the basket of postmodernity, and that a theologically healthy Christianity cannot survive being framed in philosophically postmodern (i.e., linguistic) terms.
Doc's Take
A worthwhile book, although I think I am more inclined to recommend it to those steped in the "post-modern" and emergent movements than to any other ministry practitioners. Smith works his way systematically through the philosophy and practicality of post-modern high philosophy, theology, and practice within the context of the culture at large and the church. His critiques of postmodern philosophy in general (Focault et al) and of its Christian co-opters (Grentz, Hauerwaus, Kallenberg, Franke) are spot-on and deserve an answer from the emergent camp.
Perhaps the most important observation to take away from this book is that McLaren et al have misdiagnosed the problems with Christian practice in the present age. McLaren attributes many of his own negative experiences with Christians to a "modern way of being Christian", implying that a "post-modern way of being Christian" would somehow fix them, but Smith rightly highlights that the roots of McLaren's bad "modern" church experiences are not issues of philosophy and worldview, but rather issues of pride versus humility, legalism versus mercy, willfulness versus obedience, works versus grace, and (ultimately) our sin versus God's holiness.
Perhaps it's because I've been reading so much of David Wells recently, but it seems to me a shame that Smith refers to Wells only tangentially by way of another book which cites him, as Smith seems to be trying to cover some of the same ground Wells covers in greater depth and with greater clarity in Losing Our Virtue and Above All Earthly Pow'rs. Wells also teases apart "high culture" and "low culture" post-modernity and debunks the popular assumption that philosophical post-modernism is driving the post-modern flavor of popular culture, an assumption made by Jones and McLaren which Smith simply goes along with.
The book's structure and writing has hints that it may have emerged from a compilation of independent essays. For example, a few arguments against a constructivist approach to Christianity are often repeated. One in particular showed up several times: (paraphrased) "the assertion that all people are inside of language is itself a statement made inside of language about the reality outside of language, and therefore contradicts itself" (see self-referential incoherence).
Smith also spends a fair amount of time on philosophical argumentation that will probably be beyond the depth of most readers, e.g., the difference between intentional and intensional properties. Since this material is largely a rehash of Willard's important contributions in this area, the material may have been better served by a more colloquial discussion and a formal treatment in an appendix. Still, this is mainly a stylistic concern, not a concern with the content itself.
