The New Christians
A few thoughts about The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony “Heretic” Jones (see chart below).
Jones provides an “on ramp” to the emerging conversation. If you are going to criticize the emerging church movement, please read this book and base your criticism from what the movement truly encompasses and stands for. If a person were to ask me “What makes you interested in the emergent movement?” I would place this book in their hands (they would thank me later).
The book, in part, is a history lesson of the movement. The book’s major selling point is the other side of the discussion concerning the exodus of Mark Driscoll from the Young Leaders Network (the group which is credited with the birth of all things “emerging”). Driscoll paints a picture of the split that leaves him quite saintly. Jones painting is more realistic and once again has Driscoll living up to his title as “the cussing pastor.” The detailing of “the birth” is worth the books price.
As Jones takes the reader on a guided tour through the Emergent frontier, he showcases defining characteristics of the frontier, which he labels “dispatches.” A few of my favorites:
Dispatch 9: The Emergent movement is robustly theological; the conviction is that theology and practice are inextricably related, and each invariably informs the other.
Dispatch 13: Emergents believe that truth, like God, cannot be definitively articulated by finite human beings.
Dispatch 14: Emergents embrace paradox, especially those that are core components of the Christian story.
Dispatch 20: Emergents believe that church should be just as beautiful and messy as life.
If you were to read the book…..you would find nothing heretical. Simply an honest look at scripture and how it works itself out in today’s church and culture.
love your blog title. i am in the middle of reading the new christians and quite enjoy it.
as someone who considers himself an “emergent methodist”, my one real problem with emergents is that it seems that there is a lack of confrontation with what some theologians call the “domination system.”
that’s why i like brian mclaren when he says we might be missing the bigger story if we don’t understand or connect postcolonialism with postmodernity.
Thanks for the props! Love the blog.
i also appreciated the book. it’s a great intro to the movement. my only critique is that it focuses only on emergent village related matters and doesn’t do enough to acknowledge the larger movement. now don’t get me wrong, i’m not criticizing jones for focusing on one aspect, i just wish he would have done more to acknowledge that emergent village is part of a larger whole. this is not a big criticism.