Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Technical Problem

Due to a incomprehensible technical problem, in which my PC (from which I do our monthly uploads) will not connect to the internet... June's update will probably be a bit delayed. Really sorry about that... some really good stuff to come for your summer reading.

Dave

Friday, May 27, 2005

9 resources on Emerging Church

Well, here we go, my first attempt at blogging. It's been no mean feat getting me to this point: thanks Dave Bish!

I've no idea how long I'll keep this up for or how often but I thought I'd push the boat out here a bit wider than our usual focus on biblical theology. I've been reading a bit recently about the 'emerging church' and so wondered if it might help to post some resources here for folks to find out more about it and also find some resources for responding. My guess is that it is going to get bigger and bigger in the UK and rest of the world.

A huge amount of emerging church material exists in blogging cyberspace although there are also numerous books as well. Here are just a smattering of things (and it's important to realise how quickly, given the nature of blogging and emerging conversation, some of these links will go out of date) ... but they might get you into the picture:

1. This link from a critical perspective provides an orientation to the emerging church (although it seems to operate with an unfortunate blurring of the distinctions between emergent and emerging. The former arguably refers specifically to Brian McLaren's movement and the latter more generally to emerging churches. I am not sure it's straightforwardly correct to refer generically to 'emergent churches', although I myself could be wrong here and am open to correction! At the very least, caveat emptor)!
Emergent Movement

This site also lists a good blog called "Emerging No" - I have seen one key emerging leader refer to it as one of the best anti-emerging blogs.

2. D. A. Carson's new book on it is a must read: "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and its Implications" (Zondervan, 2005). This book is an expanded version of lectures Carson gave in the USA.
Amazon.co.uk

3. David Mills wrote an online response to Carson's lectures:
David Mills

Carson responds in his book to some of Mills' critique.

4. Andrew Jones (tallskinnykiwi) is a well respected figure in emerging circles and listened to Carson's lectures. He then wrote an open letter to Carson which you can read here:

Andrew Jones & Don Carson

5. Justin Taylor, who has recently co-edited some books with John Piper, has responded to Andrew Jones' open letter to Carson. He charges Jones with both misrepresenting Carson and not really understanding him; he even calls on Jones to issue a public aplogy to Carson! Although Jones does reply in Taylor's blog he is not able to respond to his charges and as far as I am aware has yet to do so. Read Taylor's blog here and be sure to follow the link in this blog to "my blog post":

Justin Taylor

6. If you'd like more Justin Tyalor, you can listen to him being interviewed about the emerging church at the website I listed under point 1). He has important things to say.

7. Taylor is also one of the editors of a great book called: "Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times". I mention this book because it contains D. A. Carson's review article of the late Stanley Grenz's book "Renewing the Center." Grenz's work scores highly for many in the emerging movement and they look to him for more academic support of their views. In Carson's new book he has a few references to his critique of Grenz so these books (Grenz/Taylor) are probably a must read if you really want to dig deep into this.

8. Andrew Jones has had some dialogue with Michael Horton, a prominent and well-respected Reformed theologian. Horton models courteous and clear disagreement and there are some parallels with Carson's critique. You can read some of that here:

Andrew Jones & Michael Horton

9. Scot McKnight who used to teach at TEDS with Carson and who has some broad sympathy with the emerging church has provided one of the first online analyses of Carson's book going through it chapter by chapter. You can get to this here:

Scot McKnight & Don Carson

McKnight seems to take seriously Carson's criticisms of Brian McClaren but broadly falls into the camp of those who think Carson has fallen short of his usual high standards by focusing on a) epistemology generally and b) Brian McLaren in particular. (McKnight says Carson's book is really about becoming conversant with McLaren's epistemology!!).

This is wrong. The book does say a lot about McLaren - a huge amount, in fact - but the title of Carson's book is not misleading. Read it and digest it and you will be able to converse intelligently with emerging folks, including ones who Carson does not deal with and who adopt different views from McLaren. Carson's book is simply looking at one prominent exponent in a way which gives concerned Christians a framework to adopt, questions to ask and things to think about in relation to the emerging church. In all my web browsing I haven't yet come across anything new or different in non-McLarenite emerging church leaders that Carson's book didn't give me something to converse with them about.

It also misses the point to suggest that Carson focuses too much on epistemology when emerging is either not really about that or is about so much more. Carson's point is not that emerging is all about epistemology but that key leaders adopt a faulty one in a way which skews a lot of the things that emerging is about. To respond properly to Carson someone needs to argue not that emerging is not about epistemology but that its epistemology is correct and does not skew its stance on other issues. That would count as an actual engagment with Carson. So long as there remains no response to Carson on this particular issue emerging theology will actually go some way to proving his argument about emerging epistemology (i.e. a reluctance to address truth claims head on)!!

Further, apart from some of McKnight's sympathy for Carson's critique of McClaren (and McKnight himself is not an emerging leader), I have not yet come across any emerging leaders who formally distance themselves from McLaren's theology in any of its key areas or lovingly call him to change his mind and stop propagating extremely misleading teaching. It makes little difference to plead that there are so many other emerging leaders out there who Carson does not deal with when just about everyone involved in emerging is raving about Brian McLaren in some form or other. By focusing on him, Carson gives us some vital bearings to take in conversing with other emerging proponents. The book delivers what the title promises: it will help you become conversant with emerging, not be an expert in emerging.

I might post in any new sites of note if I come across them.

David.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

New Link: Lionel's Bible Resources

Jonny's down at Moore and he dug this site up from a student there.

Lionel's Bible Resources
A website for theological students, particularly helpful resources for learning Greek and Hebrew.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Nigel Beynon


Managed to get a new picture of Nigel Beynon, who was speaking at Reading University Christian Union. The old picture was terrible.
Read Nigel's Biblical Theology Briefing on Hosea: The Adultery

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Bio: Dave Bish

this is dave bish

AKA, "THEBLUEFISH"

Dave has spent most of his time since 1997 on campus as a student or student worker. Currently he works for UCCF as a Christian Union Staff Worker. In between he's tried his hand at web design and retail banking... Dave edits the site and is also it's webmaster. His interest in Biblical Theology came whilst on the UCCF Relay Discipleship Training programme via the books of Graeme Goldsworthy amongst others. He's married to Emmalee.

Dave also blogs at thebluefish.blogspot.com

Bio: David Gibson

this is david gibson... a long time ago

AKA "DAVID"

After recovering from premature tie-wearing, David studied Theology at Nottingham University and King's College London. He has worked for the Religious & Theological Studies Fellowship, part of UCCF, and is married to Angela. They currently live in Aberdeen, which is very far away from anywhere else in the world, where he is studying for a PhD in historical hermeneutics under Francis Watson.