{"id":48,"date":"2005-04-18T18:42:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-18T18:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2005\/04\/da-carson-and-the-emergent-mov-2.html"},"modified":"2005-04-18T18:42:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-18T18:42:00","slug":"da-carson-and-the-emergent-mov-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/04\/da-carson-and-the-emergent-mov-2.html","title":{"rendered":"DA Carson and the Emergent Movement, Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

No one who reads Brian McLaren or who finds him to be a significant theologian can afford not to read the seventh chapter of DA Carson\u2019s book. Here\u2019s what I mean: if DA Carson is right, McLaren\u2019s book is seriously problematic and not just in a pedantic or miniscule way: if DA Carson is right, McLaren is seriously wrong. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s DA Carson\u2019s essential conclusion: \u201cEvery chapter of this book [Generous Orthodoxy] succumbs to the same elementary analysis. Every chapter has some useful insights, and every chapter overstates arguments, distorts history, attaches excessively negative terms to all the things with McLaren disagrees (even when they have been part of the heritage of confessional Christianity for two thousand years), and almost never engages the Scriptures except occasionally in prooftexting ways\u201d (180). My friends, this is no small charge.<\/p>\n

DA Carson takes McLaren to task for what he says about the Seven Jesuses we can know (the views he likes are snippets rather than the substance of that tradition \u2013 and DA Carson is right here, as I am a specialist in these sorts of things and I thought McLaren was out to lunch here), for what he means by \u201cevangelical,\u201d for what it means to be \u201cbiblical\u201d \u2013 and here Carson seriously trots out problems for McLaren\u2019s views about the atonement, about hell, and about ethical issues, for what it means to be \u201cprotestant,\u201d and for what it means to be \u201cfundamental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then DA Carson devotes just six pages to Chalke\u2019s \u201cThe Lost Message of Jesus\u201d (which I haven\u2019t read). Similar issues; similar problems. It is not important (so far as I am concerned) to get into what he has to say about Chalke.<\/p>\n

Let me express where DA Carson ends: \u201cI have to say, as kindly but as forcefully as I can, that to my mind, if words mean anything both McLaren and Chalke have largely abandoned the gospel\u201d (186).<\/p>\n

DA Carson more than once now has said that McLaren is guilty of \u201cthe angry young man syndrome\u201d (though to my knowledge, such a diagnosis is not a part of DSM IV). What he means, whether a diagnosis or not, is that McLaren is a reactionary against his (Plymouth Brethren) past and has overreacted into imbalanced views.<\/p>\n

#1: When DA Carson says on p. 157 that \u201cmost emergent leaders regard as their preeminent thinker and writer\u201d is he accurate? I know of five major leaders: McLaren, Tony Jones, Andrew Jones, Doug Pagitt, and Dan Kimball. I don\u2019t know if DA Carson has asked them this, but I suspect Carson is speaking for the leaders here. Too bad. But, it is the case that McLaren is the one emergent writer who is most read \u2013 unless you start reading the bloggers, and then I suspect Andrew Jones plays the main game. So, the question becomes one more time: Is McLaren to be seen as the leading light of the Emergent movement?<\/p>\n

#2: Is DA Carson fair to McLaren\u2019s \u201cGenerous Orthodoxy\u201d? Let me tip my own hand so you can see a portion of my own cards here: I read McLaren immediately when it came out, or when I first saw it, and I can say that he often humored me and just as often made me think this one thought: McLaren knows more of what he \u201cdoes not\u201d believe than what he \u201cdoes\u201d believe. Which means he is disaffected and in a stage of reaction. Now that was my read; I could be wrong. And it does not matter one bit that I had this impression because McLaren could be right about everything and be a reactionary. I didn\u2019t like his introduction, and his stance that everyone is against him, and that you might not like the book and if you don\u2019t toss it away or take it back and get your money back. I don\u2019t find this sort of thing anything better than churlish and even silly. That may say something about me, though. Still, I found him engaging and worthy of reading. I disagreed often.<\/p>\n

#3: Now the biggie: if the Emergent movement finds McLaren\u2019s theology its heart and soul, we are entitled to ask this one simple question: is this theology orthodoxy? is it biblical? is it evangelical? I am pleading with Emergent leaders to ask these questions and to ask, along with them, another one: how does one make knowledge claims about theology? That is, if you say you \u201cknow\u201d something to be theologically true (or whatever word you might want to use), how do you come to such conclusions? Do you just \u201cthink\u201d it and because you think it find yourself right? Or do you process what you think on the basis of the Bible and in light of the Great Traditions of the Church? And if you are \u201cevangelical\u201d (as McLaren says he is) then how do you define an \u201cevangelical\u201d? Can one take the by-pass around the great reformers and the 17th-18th theologians (and I\u2019ll put Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley and their like in the loop) and still claim to be evangelical? Well, these are important questions, my friend, wherever you find yourself lined up in this debate.<\/p>\n

#4: Finally, what is an Emergent Christian? Are there all kinds?<\/p>\n

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No one who reads Brian McLaren or who finds him to be a significant theologian can afford not to read the seventh chapter of DA Carson\u2019s book. Here\u2019s what I mean: if DA Carson is right, McLaren\u2019s book is seriously problematic and not just in a pedantic or miniscule way: if DA Carson is right,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nDA Carson and the Emergent Movement, Part 6 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2005\/04\/da-carson-and-the-emergent-mov-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DA Carson and the Emergent Movement, Part 6 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No one who reads Brian McLaren or who finds him to be a significant theologian can afford not to read the seventh chapter of DA Carson\u2019s book. 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