Recently the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary held a panel discussion regarding Brian McLaren's latest book, "A New Kind of Christianity." I want to briefly offer my response. The first part of the discussion was pretty straightforward and offered a definitive rejection of McLaren, his theology, and his book. At times I found myself thinking that the discussion was more of an attack than a discussion, but after several minutes, the panelists begin to interact with McLaren's argument in a more substantive manner.
There were a couple of things that I found helpful with the discussion. First, the panelists correctly identify McLaren's caricature of his critics as subject to a Greco-Roman worldview and hermeneutic. By setting up this straw man, McLaren can conveniently say that people who question him are stuck in the past without actually having to deal with the critiques.
This is common within the Emergent, postmodern church. Whenever they are attacked or critiqued negatively, they can easily write them off as saying that such critics are stuck in modernity, fundamentalism, or Greco-Roman world.
What we must see at this point is that the straw man can work both ways. If we affirm a transcendent gospel then we should write McLaren and the Emergent Movement off as subject to postmodernity and thus limited to this generation or until we change our hermeneutic approach to Scripture and theology. If modernists are unwelcome to critique the Emerging Church, then postmodern Emergents are unwelcome to critic modernism.
Another important point (in their critique of McLaren's Greco-Roman straw man) the panel raises is how sophomoric such a straw man is. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, points out that when we see a road sign that says that the speed limit is 55 miles per hour, that sign was put there for a reason. That sign is meant to be taken at its word. Likewise, instead of seeing the Bible as a conversation among people on a quest, we should take the Bible at its word when it intends to. If the Bible condemns something, then so should biblical Christians.
McLaren doesn't want it that way, because that creates a "us vs. them" mentality. McLaren hates appearing narrow minded and not letting some in the quest. The problem with this is that the Bible is very clear on most subjects. Subjects like sexuality, sin, the gospel, God, the Bible itself are laid out clearly in Scripture. McLaren offers a convenient hermeneutic that denies Scripture's clarity in order to make Christianity into a bigger tent.
Near the end, Dr. Bruce Ware, the theologian on the panelists, offers a helpful critique of Evangelicalism itself. We must understand that the reason McLaren has an audience is because of the reaction against contemporary Christianity as being legalistic. Ware rightly calls on the Church to not abuse the gospel by making it legalistic. We Christians must realize that on this point, many postmoderns and Emergents have a point. Legalism is not the gospel.
But on the other end, responding to legalism by rampant licentiousness and abusive Christian liberty is just as wrong. We see this in the New Testament. On of the first written book of the New Testament (Galatians) is an attack against Legalism. By the end of the New Testament (see 2 Peter and Jude especially) the Church is having to confront abusive Liberty.
Emergents have traded in one false gospel for another false gospel. Yes, we should critique Legalism, but we should also critique and reject abusive Liberty. Emergents are missing this completely. What we need is the gospel.
Overall, I thought the panel discussion was good. It started out slowly but eventually picked up. Unfortunately, there was no discussion about the gospel's transcendence and until we discuss that issue, we fail to critique McLaren and the Emerging Church head on. It is easy to get distracted by things like homosexuality, hermeneutics, theology, politics, the Kingdom of God, pluralism, original sin, etc., but at its heart, postmodern liberalism and the Emerging Church is an attack on the gospel's transcendence and thus an attack on God's immutability. Does the gospel evolve with the culture? If so, then it is no saving gospel.
For more:
Audio - Panel Discussion – A New Kind of Christianity? – Brian McLaren Recasts the Gospel
Towers Online - McLaren’s new book is merely a fresh take on an old lie, SBTS panelists say
0 comments:
Post a Comment