Guarded Praise
Reading through Brian McLaren's book with the arrogant and completely lame title, (A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN), I found this quote:
"In terms of intellectual rigor, I believe that Reformed Christianity is the highest expression of a modern Christianity, which is a sincere compliment - and a gentle warning, too. If we are moving beyond modernity in general, then the forms of Christianity that have most successfully adapted themselves to the assumptions and thought patterns of modernity are in the most trouble."
McLaren's presupposition is, of course, that modernity is in trouble and so is every local church that follows its epistemology. However, if you don't accept this presupposition, the quote is praise indeed. I was almost touched.
"In terms of intellectual rigor, I believe that Reformed Christianity is the highest expression of a modern Christianity, which is a sincere compliment - and a gentle warning, too. If we are moving beyond modernity in general, then the forms of Christianity that have most successfully adapted themselves to the assumptions and thought patterns of modernity are in the most trouble."
McLaren's presupposition is, of course, that modernity is in trouble and so is every local church that follows its epistemology. However, if you don't accept this presupposition, the quote is praise indeed. I was almost touched.
so if you find me this week, answer me this: you think modernity isn't in trouble?
Posted by
Jay |
3:02 PM
um, yeah. I'm not emergent by any means. But modernity is not only in serious trouble culturally--it is serious trouble.
Posted by
em |
7:43 PM
Right, Em. I can agree that modernity is trouble (also in response to Jared) but I also wonder if our church, for example, is really the one best adapted to modernity. I think there's something deeper than that going on every Sunday that just a "modern" way of doing things. I have a LOT of problems with this guy, but here he makes a false dictonomy, I think. Either you're with him or your modernist. I don't think so.
Posted by
Whitney |
5:36 AM