Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives | 
 enlarge | Authors: Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch, Brian D. Mclaren, Erwin Raphael Mcmanus, Michael Horton
Creator: Frederica Matthewes-green
Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 230026
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0310254876
Dewey Decimal Number: 261
UPC: 025986254872
EAN: 9780310254874
ASIN: 0310254876
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
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Product Description
A feisty, entertaining, and educational conversation about the shape of the church of the 21st century.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Disappointing November 13, 2008
I completely agree with the review entitled "pass". The layout of this book makes it very difficult to understand or track with.
I took a class on Christianity and the Post-modern World at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Charlotte, NC) and I was most excited about reading this book because of the folks participating in the conversation. Placing practitioners like Erwin McManus and Brain McLauren in the same room with with thinkers like Andy Crouch and Leonard Sweet should make for very interesting dialog. On top of that you introduce an Oxford trained, reformed theologian like Mike Horton and a former NPR commentator who has converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in Frederica Matthewes-Green. Sadly the book didn't deliver like I thought it would. It would have been better to have the audio or video of their conversation. They seem to talk past each other and spend the majority of their time critiquing each others points rather than putting forward any clear perspectives as the title implied they would.
 A mixed bag December 13, 2007
The Church in Emerging Culture was generally unremarkable. Each of the five essays contained thought-provoking ideas, but overall they lacked coherence. The points brought out by one author were so unrelated to the points brought out by the next that the reason that any two essays were collected together was a mystery to me. The format of the book was a mixed bag as well. Comments by other authors inserted directly into the essay seriously broke the flow, even though it was fun to see the "immediate" reactions of other authors. All of the authors, except maybe McManus, made much stronger points in their responses to others' essays than they made in their own.
I was relatively unmoved by the first four essays, but I was pleasantly surprised by McManus, with whom I was unfamiliar before reading this. My theology lies more along the lines of Horowitz (I was appreciative of his comments to the other essays), but I thought that McManus's essay really addressed the issue at hand. He made some powerful statements ranging from affirmation of our unambiguous knowledge of God to practical evangelical issues like the need to change the passions of people, not simply their beliefs. His essay was clearly the crème de la crème and the only one that I think really addressed the relationship between the Church and culture.
 Great resource for information on the Emergent Church May 22, 2007
I have greatly enjoyed this book. The conversation format provokes thought and adds a level of depth and clarity that is rarely experienced (especially in books concerning the Emergent Church). Moreover, the contributors approach the topic from different views, which allows the reader to see different sides of the issue and make a decision for him/herself. If you are curious as to what the key issues are for this topic/discussion, this is the book for you!
A needful, if confused and quite unfinished, conversation April 11, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Andy Crouch. Skeptical of postmodernism, Arminian, (but curiously) open to the New Perspective of Paul & Law, seeks recovery of baptism and eucharist as the enduring means of grace. "Postmodernism is encroaching consumer culture which we must overcome via service and sacraments".
Michael Horton. Reformed, dismissive of postmodernism as a determinant of Christian thinking, critical of 'low-church' theology, believes that justification by faith is Scripture's key question. "Postmodernism is the next bad thing in secular modernism which we must resist with truth and tradition".
Brian McLaren. Emergent, path-finder for a storied, multi-layered, 'refreshed' Gospel centered in Christ. "Postmodernism is the new world in which we must embody and communicate God's message."
Frederica Mathewes-Green. Eastern Orthodox, practical, down-to-earth in a mystical kind of way, offers a relational kind of atonement theology. Postmodernism is irrelevant to our role as God's healers and questioners."
Erwin Raphael McManus. Metropolitan, multi-cultural, urban jungle orientation, pitching an all-out-for-Jesus, never-give-up, all-it-can-be church. "Postmodernism is a radical God-starved jungle we must love and serve!"
The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives - a book examining different views on the relation between church, world, gospel and discipleship, in no particular order.
After a good introduction from Leonard Sweet (which some say was worth the price of the book alone - I'd agree, if the price was lowered...), Crouch and Horton locked horns from the start with McLaren on the issue of what postmodernity/ism is and much space was spent clearing the misunderstandings surrounding the word (McLaren even claimed Crouch was paying 'rhetorical hardball'). Crouch virtually ties postmodernism to consumer culture and Horton can't seem to take his eyes off postmodernism's negatives (labelling it 'most-modernism' given the impossibility of there truly being a radical break with the supposed modern past).
Crouch is non-Reformed evangelicalism at its 'safest' i.e. neither too liberal to earn Horton's wrath or too stiff to have his books shunned by pro-emerging folk. McLaren, as one might expect, took the postmodernism challenge best to both Horton and Crouch with his creatively worded 'yes-but' subversive poking at their (largely traditional) strongholds.
It's clear, though, that - unless Crouch and Horton don't mind rethinking their ingrained definitions (let alone value-judgments) of postmodernism - a lot of work still needs to be done to even get pomo emergent and 'modern' conservative evangelicals on the same page. To really 'connect' with people like McLaren, McManus, etc., folks like Horton/Crouch have to empathise far beyond what their present suspicions and arms'-length repudiation of postmodernity are allowing them. Criticism and the use of what's "tried and true", undoubtedly the favorite tool of theologians, isn't going to be very helpful here.
Naturally, Horton isn't pleased at the slightest shift away from established Reformed doctrine. He continuously red-flags (what he sees to be) false dichotomies and liberal theology by the others (especially McLaren and McManus). Horton's write-up, IMO, embodies precisely what many are frustrated about in the church : People are exploring new directions, asking new questions, even seeking new experiences but not only are the responses by conservatives not very different from decades ago, it seems like one could reprimanded for not thinking traditionally(!).
If you've not read McLaren before, his essay should be a good first blush with his thinking (although maybe 'questioning' could be a better word). Via questions and reflections, McLaren came to (tentatively, I'm sure) conclude that the Gospel is narrative-formed, multi-layered, cumulative, performative, catalytic i.e. so much more than what tradition and churches have extolled it to be (hence, the annoyance many have with church). Typically emergent, McLaren counsels a spirit of inquiry, continuous seeking, asking, trial-and-error and rethinking as a way of proclaiming a Christ-centered Gospel in ever-changing situations.
In the midst of the Horton vs. McLaren encounters, Mathewes-Green and McManus were more or less cheer-leaders, questioners and one-line provocateurs (especially the former).
Interestingly enough, I found Mathewes-Green's write-up to be the most relaxing and inspirational. Hers was a good break, done in a subversive Q&A format, from the standard 'pop-academic cum evangelical' style of the first three. I'll never forget her line which went, "What might real rebellion look like? Standing outside an abortion clinic on a cold Saturday morning wearing really uncool sneakers and an uncool cardigan, praying."
McManus' essay read more like an inspirational for church growth and ministry and less a theological for-or-against towards postmodernity. Nevertheless, it's clear he's on the left of McLaren with statements like, "In modern times, Scripture have been demeaned into God's comprehensive encyclopedia...we have moved from a missiological hermeneutic to a theological hermeneutic and have lost the power of the Scriptures in the transition."
When all is said, though, this is a book whose gist I find hard to "grasp" and say I've truly understood. The novel format - where comments and questions from the co-authors are inserted within a presenter's essay - was both boon, as it depicted a 'real' conversation, and bane, as it was distracting. Tip: IGNORE the addendums until you've finished reading each section on its own.
Read Crouch and Horton for the best in time-tested theology and if you want some material for a largely cerebral "Intro to Postmodernism" lecture. Read McLaren and you could be quietly inspired to do something new, although you could have more questions than answers. Read Mathewes-Green and you'll want to pray. Read McManus and you feel like jump-starting the next urban crusade.
With such a spectrum of slants and priorities, this book is both a mindtrip and a minefield for learning - you'll learn a lot, but you may not be sure where to step next: Welcome to the new church/world(?)
Decent introduction of topic January 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book gives five different perspectives, from five different authors, on how the church should respond to an increasing post-modern culture. It is in a sense a modern day discussion of H. Richard Niebuhr's classic text Christ and Culture. The five perspectives are introduced by Leonard Sweet with a four quadrant matrix. The matrix represents the church's response to cultural change on two axes, change in method/form/style and change in message/content/substance. The four quadrants are then described with the following four phrases: preserving message/preserving methods, preserving message/evolving methods, evolving message/preserving methods, and evolving message/evolving methods. The five perspectives then deal with each of the four options (with two taking up the first option of preserving message and preserving methods.
List strengths of book.
The main strength of the book is that it covers the topic very well, with good dialogue going back and forth between the five authors. The topics are discussed with great thoughtfulness and insight. I especially liked the use of the matrix mentioned above, in the introduction by Sweet.
List weaknesses of book.
While the book was very interesting to read it shared little practical advice for the church to actually engage the culture. The book would certainly have been strengthened with examples of theory that was shared by each author. Additionally, I found the chapter by Erwin McManus to be the weakest of the five perspectives, it seem almost incoherent at times.
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