{"id":5385,"date":"2010-01-30T12:05:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T12:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html"},"modified":"2010-01-30T12:05:22","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T12:05:22","slug":"saturday-afternoon-book-review-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/ThyKingdom-11029.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/120\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/ThyKingdom-thumb-250x229-11029.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"229\" alt=\"ThyKingdom.jpg\" class=\"mt-image-right\" style=\"float: right;margin: 0 0 20px 20px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0.3in;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal;text-indent: -0.3in\">   Chris Ridgeway, the reviewer of this book and my former research assistant, is the national Staff Program Manager for Great Commission Ministries, and blogs on theology from a digital context at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theodigital.com\">www.theodigital.com<\/a>&#8230; And Chris wrote a thesis on internet and Bible, and I&#8217;m thinking we&#8217;ll be hearing more from his insightful thought. [One other point: Dwight Friesen, author of the book below, was a student of mine in a former life &#8212; back when I was at TEDS.]<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0.3in;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal;text-indent: -0.3in\">Friesen, Dwight, <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0801071631?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0801071631\">Thy Kingdom Connected: What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0801071631\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em>.<i>&nbsp;<\/i><span>&nbsp;<\/span>Grand Rapids, MI:<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>Baker\/Emergent Village, 2009.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\">Remember those high school biology textbooks that featured glossy photos of yeast proteins and other microscopic wonders?<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>What we thought was snow or hair turned out to look like raspberries&#8211;molecules as big as our head and represented in [Figure 15] by dots and lines and symbols we were expected to know (and subsequently forget).<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>These things may have fallen out of my head (I&#8217;m not even sure if I&#8217;m talking about biology or chemistry), but Dwight Friesen is chock full of them.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>An Emergent Village conversation partner and pastor (he was featured in Gibbs and Bolger&#8217;s 2005 survey&nbsp;<i>Emerging Churches<\/i>), Friesen is now part of the Mars Hill Graduate School faculty in Seattle, the next-generation seminary noted for its founder Dan Allender and sometimes-association with Brian McLaren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0px;margin-right: 0px;margin-bottom: 0.75em;margin-left: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-right-width: 0px;border-bottom-width: 0px;border-left-width: 0px;border-style: initial;border-color: initial;padding-top: 0px;padding-right: 0px;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-left: 0px;font-size: 1em;font-weight: normal\">Friesen&#8217;s new book, entitled&nbsp;<i>Thy Kingdom Connected:<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>What the Church can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks,<\/i>&nbsp;grabs those micro-biology metaphors and updates them for a social networking world.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>Terms like &#8220;network,&#8221; &#8220;hub, &#8221; &#8220;node,&#8221; and &#8220;hyperlink&#8221; flow thick and fast in what essentially scales down to Friesen&#8217;s ecclesial proposal&#8211;his vision for the identity and function of church in today&#8217;s world.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<!--StartFragment--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNoSpacing\" style=\"margin-left:.3in;text-indent:-.3in\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Friesen might want to say that his proposal is wider than<br \/>\njust church-thought; he is demonstrating a broad theological hermeneutic&#8211;a<span>&nbsp; <\/span>lens&#8211;for looking at just about<br \/>\neverything:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>theological<br \/>\nanthropology, Trinitarian theology, and of course, Kingdom.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>But his audience (pastors of a<br \/>\nmissional\/emergent bent) and language (lots of &#8220;reimagining&#8221;) orbit most evidently<br \/>\n(and practically) on the church herself, so this is where <i>Thy Kingdom<\/i> probably fits most snugly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Friesen groups his thoughts into five &#8220;Clusters.&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>We&#8217;ll squish them to three.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>Seeing Connectively<br \/>\nand God&#8217;s Networked Kingdom (Clusters<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>One and Two)<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The first 50 pages of <i>Kingdom<br \/>\nConnected<\/i> begin with familiar territory&#8211;a Christianity caught up in modernism<br \/>\nand individualism and the need for something new.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>System problems like global warming and the sex trade<br \/>\nneed networked solutions.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And the<br \/>\nkingdom&#8211;like microscopic yeast through dough&#8211;gives a &#8220;loaf theology&#8221; that<br \/>\nprovides the relational answer.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>&#8220;Simply connecting while living the way of Christ is how the kingdom of<br \/>\nGod transforms the world,&#8221; establishes Friesen.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>This is his consistent thesis throughout the book.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Friesen&#8217;s strengths here are his even<br \/>\napplication of the world&#8217;s newest and most pervasive metaphor&#8211;the Internet&#8211;to a<br \/>\nwholistic gospel.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>&#8220;Network<br \/>\nthinking&#8221; links self, God, and community&#8211;the creation modeled after the &#8220;open<br \/>\nWe&#8221; of the triune God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Particularly evident is Friesen&#8217;s native understanding of<br \/>\ninformation culture.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>If we have<br \/>\ndiscovered that the autonomous individual is actually an imaginary modernist<br \/>\ncreature&#8211;how do we now think of personhood without it becoming like a website<br \/>\nburied under millions of networked hits?<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>&#8220;You are both more and less important than you ever imagined,&#8221; Friesen<br \/>\ndeclares pastorally.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>His<br \/>\n&#8220;theology from a digital context&#8221; affirms what classically might be seen framed<br \/>\nas the imago dei&#8211;the equilibrium of both &#8220;God&#8221; and &#8220;image.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>Connective Leadership<br \/>\n(Clusters Three and part of Five)<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">If the Kingdom is a vast reparative-connective force, then<br \/>\nthe Kingdom Leader is a link repair-person.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>This is not an Amway Rolodex collection, but is<br \/>\nothers-oriented in the model of Jesus, who bridged human and God and human to<br \/>\nhuman by self-emptying (kenosis).<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Because life is orderly chaos, the connective leader has no hope or<br \/>\nchance of controlling the network, but doesn&#8217;t need to. <span>&nbsp;<\/span>Nobody controls the internet either.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Making connections neither eliminates<br \/>\nchaos nor succumbs to disorder.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Here<br \/>\nis where the ecosystem\/life sciences metaphors return. <span>&nbsp;<\/span>The life-cycle itself shows us that<br \/>\ndeath is part of a natural environment, and the connective leader understands<br \/>\nhow removing nodes or hubs is not defeat, but simply &#8220;releases kingdom<br \/>\nnutrients that allow for new life to blossom.&#8221; [ch9]<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">But Friesen&#8217;s most helpful note to leaders is his<br \/>\ndescription of closed-systems (<i>autopoises<\/i>)<br \/>\nand open-systems (<i>disapative<\/i>).<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The connective leader must navigate<br \/>\nbetween these two realities.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Our<br \/>\nchurches must not only be open organically to the world, but also maintain<br \/>\ntheir self-defining identity, like a cell membrane which interacts with<br \/>\neverything around it but has a distinct border.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Pastors must be &#8220;conservative&#8221; in this sense, writes Friesen<br \/>\n(which he still places in scare quotes, understandably worried about his<br \/>\npost-conservative audience).<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And<br \/>\nit&#8217;s clearly this burned-by-institutions group he has in mind when he<br \/>\ndescribes:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>The Networked Church<br \/>\n(Cluster Four and parts of Five)<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">This is possibly Friesen&#8217;s best contribution&#8211;especially if<br \/>\nimagined as a speech to a room of disillusioned emerging<br \/>\npost-evangelicals.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Two terms are<br \/>\nintroduced:<span>&nbsp; <\/span><i>Christ-Commons<\/i> and <i>Christ-Clusters<\/i><br \/>\n(the latter brings to mind Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal, but that might be just<br \/>\nme).<span>&nbsp; <\/span><span>&nbsp;<\/span>The Commons is the institutional (yes, he said it) structure<br \/>\nof the church, and his point is that, though it can be reimagined, it cannot be<br \/>\neliminated.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Clusters are the soul<br \/>\nof the church&#8211;the dynamic, fluid, and contextual work of the believers.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The Clusters inhabit the space created<br \/>\nby the Commons, like living people in a public park.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Said yet another way, Church denominations and leadership<br \/>\nstructures are the party planning committee, and the Commons are the life of<br \/>\nthe party.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>You gotta have both,<br \/>\nFriesen insists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Emerging is growing past its hippie stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Also of note:<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Friesen returns to Missional&#8217;s common use of the &#8220;bounded set\/centered<br \/>\nset&#8221; distinction most often harped on by Alan Hirsch, but originally from<br \/>\nevangelical missiologist Paul Hiebert.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Hirsch decries bounded set definitions of the church (creeds, baptismal<br \/>\nformulas, card-signings) that define who is in or out, offering instead that<br \/>\n&#8220;insiders&#8221; be directionally focused towards Jesus, no matter their current<br \/>\nmembership status.<span>&nbsp; <\/span><i>Kingdom Connected&#8217;s<\/i> take, though, is the<br \/>\n&#8220;Networked Set&#8221;&#8211;theologically preferring the everywhere-presence of the Holy<br \/>\nSpirit to the &#8220;Christ as center&#8221; picture.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span><span>&nbsp;<\/span>The woman who attends bible<br \/>\nstudy at work, a Lutheran church on Sundays, and elsewhere for small group<br \/>\nshouldn&#8217;t be thought of as scattered, but a picture of the networked Christian<br \/>\nfor tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>A Digital Theology<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I&#8217;ve spent my last few years insisting that all theology is<br \/>\ncontextual, all contexts are not geographical, and the digital context is the<br \/>\nmost influential coming transformative voice in theology that theologians don&#8217;t<br \/>\nsee.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/span>Friesen gets this.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>His work is not about how we do church<br \/>\non Facebook or youth ministry on Twitter.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Instead, he is producing the first genuine piece of digital theology<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve read&#8211;using the unique metaphors, categories, and processes of digital life<br \/>\nto reflect on God, God&#8217;s people, and God&#8217;s leaders.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And he does it with the near fluidity of a digital native, a<br \/>\ncategory most often used to define those half his age.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>We can expect much, much more of this<br \/>\nas our junior high generation&#8211;currently texting three to five thousand times a<br \/>\nmonth&#8211;finishes their theology PhD&#8217;s (while those last) and begins writing whole<br \/>\nseries of new reflections on the God who interconnects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I do have a few pokes for Friesen, and they fall briefly<br \/>\ntowards his evaluation of digital culture and more significantly towards his<br \/>\ntheological presuppositions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>A Near Misstep:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Misclassifying Facebook.<\/b><span>&nbsp; <\/span>Early on, Friesen introduces Martin<br \/>\nBuber&#8217;s categories of inter-personal relationships:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>the &#8220;I &amp; You&#8221; being the most intimate and personal and<br \/>\nthe &#8220;I &amp; It&#8221; being objectifying but necessary to life<span>&nbsp; <\/span>(e.g. your relationship with the<br \/>\ncheckout clerk).<span>&nbsp; <\/span>In this context,<br \/>\nFriesen almost <span>&nbsp;<\/span>started down a<br \/>\npopular but misguided path these days:<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>&#8220;Websites like Facebook and MySpace [&#8230;] promise an I &amp; You encounter<br \/>\nfor the low price of an I &amp; It relationship.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>All a person has to do to become your &#8220;friend&#8221; is send a<br \/>\nquick request and then wait for your confirmation.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And since I get to control my home page, displaying only the<br \/>\nimages and content I want the world to see, conversation is not necessary nor<br \/>\nis a hug or a meal or anything remotely humanizing in terms of the analog<br \/>\nworld.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Undoubtedly many would initially agree with Friesen on this,<br \/>\nbut with permission, I&#8217;ll make two short observations .<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Certainly our early use of the<br \/>\nInternet, just like our early use of every communications medium, inspired<br \/>\nsilly names like pinkpixie321 and anonymous encounters.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>But even in its childhood stage (as the<br \/>\ninternet remains), the relational focus has quickly shifted to augmenting<br \/>\nin-person relationships, not replacing them.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Facebook, the most important site on the web, is entirely<br \/>\nbuilt on this principle, using real names and providing tools to model real relationships<br \/>\nthat Mark Zuckerberg calls the &#8220;social graph.&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>It provides another layer of data and connection on top of<br \/>\nthe friends we already have.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The<br \/>\nimportant questions about social media are not about a world <i>on<\/i> Facebook, but a world <i>with<\/i> Facebook.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>How does the pace and form of digital social media modify<br \/>\nour perception of relationships with God and others? <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Commendably, Friesen barely beats this horse and veers right<br \/>\nback on track, admitting the &#8220;depth of connection I have experienced online&#8221;<br \/>\nand wondering aloud where it will go.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Given the general timbre of his work, I do hope he continues wondering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>Theological<br \/>\nPresuppositions. <\/b><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>This is<br \/>\nwhere Friesen may get some heat, from this author included.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>It&#8217;s less what he says, but what he<br \/>\ndoesn&#8217;t say that is most important.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>We&#8217;re not a fan of placing people on theological spectrums, but there<br \/>\nwill be some flags here that especially moderate to conservative evangelicals<br \/>\nmight notice.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Specifically:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>his free quoting of the Dalia Lama or<br \/>\nBarack Obama or Gaia references alongside Scripture will turn some heads.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>However, I am less concerned about<br \/>\nguilt by association (evangelicals&#8217; favorite weapon) than unsure how to read<br \/>\nthe remix of views as they are presented.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span><span>&nbsp;<\/span>Does this theology have any<br \/>\nuniquely Christian qualities?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Of more interest is his underlying definition of the Church&#8211;one<br \/>\nwe find ourselves trying to discern as <i>Kingdom<br \/>\nConnected <\/i>spends much of its time there.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>We&#8217;ve already encountered his helpful observations on<br \/>\nstructure (Christ-commons) and soul (Christ-clusters) of the church.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>But for Friesen, there is not much more<br \/>\nto the definition.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I think we spy<br \/>\na Baptist free-church ecclesiology here&#8211;the church is no more than the free<br \/>\nassociation of believers.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Regarding God&#8217;s purposes in the world, the church may provide a venue<br \/>\nfor Kingdom connectedness, but for the most part, Friesen sees God&#8217;s redemptive<br \/>\nwork as located through Christ-imitating actions in all of Creation.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>&#8220;The good news of Christ invites us to<br \/>\nwholeness, united body and soul, sacred and secular, male and female, Jew and<br \/>\nGentile, even God and humanity:<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>one God, one creation.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>It<br \/>\neven unites church and world in such a way that releases the gospel from the<br \/>\ncontrol of the church,&#8221; he writes.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>For Friesen, the church is not particularly the hope of the world.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>In fact, it&#8217;s not entirely clear to me<br \/>\nthat he would find it necessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>The Missing Piece. <\/b><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>In this case, the missing piece of<br \/>\nFriesen&#8217;s is the Christological one.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Paul&#8217;s metaphor of the Church as <i>body<\/i><br \/>\nis well-expanded by <i>Kingdom Connected<\/i>&#8211;providing<br \/>\na rich new insight about our interconnectedness using new cultural<br \/>\nmetaphors.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>But is there<br \/>\nsignificance that this is <i>Christ&#8217;s<\/i><br \/>\nbody?<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Christ and the church are<br \/>\nmore wholly connected than is allowed here:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>in their sufferings, in their presence in the world, in<br \/>\ntheir soteriological function. <span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span>To say that the Church is the Body of Christ must mean<br \/>\nmore than its interdependent nature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">For Friesen, Jesus Christ is exemplar extraordinaire&#8211;our<br \/>\nGod-example for how to make connections and therefore bring redemption.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Yet while life is emphasized, death,<br \/>\npower and sin are conspicuously absent.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Death appears only as an ecological metaphor that keeps networks from<br \/>\nbeing stale and spurs new connections.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>We are to follow in Jesus&#8217; example, but the power and path to do so<br \/>\ncomes from little more than awakening to our call.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The work of Jesus Christ&#8211;the atonement&#8211;(even widely<br \/>\nconceived) appears unconnected to the theology of <i>Kingdom.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Friesen undoubtedly can speak to these concerns.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Would he better imagine for us how 1)<br \/>\nthe church as Christ&#8217;s body and the 2) atonement as Christ&#8217;s work appear in the<br \/>\ninterconnected Kingdom?<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><b>Summary.<\/b><span>&nbsp; <\/span>But this is a step forward for a new genre<br \/>\nin theology that understands digital technology as not simply a youth ministry<br \/>\nconcern or malevolent force but the cultural setting of a new generation.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Friesen&#8217;s fresh eyes begin with where<br \/>\nwe actually are and skillfully lift us into genuine reflection on the nature<br \/>\nand work of God.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>This is digital<br \/>\nfaith seeking understanding.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And<br \/>\npossibly that chemistry diagram with all the dots and lines.<\/p>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Ridgeway, the reviewer of this book and my former research assistant, is the national Staff Program Manager for Great Commission Ministries, and blogs on theology from a digital context at&nbsp;www.theodigital.com&#8230; And Chris wrote a thesis on internet and Bible, and I&#8217;m thinking we&#8217;ll be hearing more from his insightful thought. [One other point: Dwight&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway - 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\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Ridgeway, the reviewer of this book and my former research assistant, is the national Staff Program Manager for Great Commission Ministries, and blogs on theology from a digital context at&nbsp;www.theodigital.com&#8230; And Chris wrote a thesis on internet and Bible, and I&#8217;m thinking we&#8217;ll be hearing more from his insightful thought. [One other point: Dwight&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-30T12:05:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/ThyKingdom-thumb-250x229-11029.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Chris Ridgeway, the reviewer of this book and my former research assistant, is the national Staff Program Manager for Great Commission Ministries, and blogs on theology from a digital context at&nbsp;www.theodigital.com&#8230; And Chris wrote a thesis on internet and Bible, and I&#8217;m thinking we&#8217;ll be hearing more from his insightful thought. [One other point: Dwight&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-01-30T12:05:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/ThyKingdom-thumb-250x229-11029.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/saturday-afternoon-book-review-2.html","name":"Saturday Afternoon Book Review: Chris Ridgeway - Jesus 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