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You know, one of the most amazing things that I've seen the Devil do is imitate me. Now, I'm not talking about Rich Little, I'm not talking about an impersonator, like a comedian -- I'm talking about actually duplicating my voice, my body, my face, everything about me. And I've had this happen on several occasions when I was dealing with people in the highest echelons of the occult seeking to get out.
-- Bob Larson Live, March 26, 1996
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News: Christianity Today: Everything Hasn't Changed
Posted on Monday, January 21 @ 05:46:25 PST by Virgil |
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John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture
In Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope (Thomas Nelson), Brian McLaren—one of the two or three most influential figures in the "emergent" movement—pursues a similar project, though one even more ambitious than Lakoff's. McLaren attempts nothing less than a reframing of what Jesus taught and what it means to follow him on the Way.
McLaren contrasts what he calls "conventional" frames ("frequently defined as 'orthodoxy,'" he writes) with "emerging" frames. So, for example, in the emerging view, "Jesus came to become the Savior of the world, meaning he came to save the earth and all it contains from its ongoing destruction because of human evil."
McLaren intends to correct an overemphasis on Last Things in the "conventional" view of salvation. Instead, he stresses "the privilege of participating in [Jesus'] ongoing work of personal and global transformation and liberation from evil and injustice."
McLaren sets this discussion in the context of an apocalyptic global crisis. Whereas Lakoff writes with urgency inspired by what he sees as a "radical revolution" brought about by American conservatives, McLaren speaks of our global civilization as a "suicide machine."
Well. That's a lot to chew on. Much that McLaren says here reminds me of conversations I've had with fellow Christians in the last decade, and in fact, while I disagree with him on many points, I share his dissatisfaction with aspects of the "conventional" account of Jesus' Good News: McLaren's reference to "emerging views" is not mere wishful thinking. But here are some preliminary issues—preliminary, that is, to any serious wrestling with his thesis.
Click here to read the entire review
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Re: Christianity Today: Everything Hasn't Changed (Score: 1)
 by Islamaphobe on Monday, January 21 @ 11:09:50 PST
(User Info | Send a Message) | I have not read any of McLaren's books and do not plan to do so based on what I have read about him. I confess that I have a bias against professors of English who show a disdain for the study of basic economic principles, such as comparative advantage, and who reveal a profound ignorance about economic history. I recognize, however, that he has picked up on some of the important trends in today's world and senses that we are in a time of profound social change and great danger. With that I totally agree.
According to reviewer John Wilson, "McLaren is particularly misleading when he's suggesting . . . that someow the church went off the rails early on, and that only now are (some) Christians beginning to understand what Jesus was really saying." I believe that people like McLaren overstate the extent to which "the church went off the rails" as part of a reflexive effort to better market their own "products." From the first century on, there have ALWAYS been forces at work that have tended to cause the church to go off the rails, but progress in understanding what Jesus was really saying, as well as in understanding the Bible as a whole has nevertheless occurred, and that progress is accelerating at the present time.
In my opinion, the church did go "off the rails" early in its history as a consequence of embracing Second Coming theology, yet that theology nevertheless proved useful in building hope. Where it really went off the rails was with the great boom in premillennialism that took off in the first half of the nineteenth century, but that boom served a social purpose in helping to offset the impact of the onslaught against Christian belief that got well underway in the eighteenth century and came into full bloom with Darwin, Marx, Nietzche, Freud, etc. Unfortunately, premillennialism has now outlived its usefulness and is in the process of being dismantled as a result.
I hope that McLaren will manage to read more things like the article posted at americanvision.org today (Jan. 21)by Gary DeMar on how liberals mix religion with politics. He could learn something from it, particularly on how state-supported welfare measures are counterproductive in terms of teaching people to behave responsibly. But I'm not holding out much hope on that score.
John S. Evans |
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