The Post-Evangelical – Index of Posts

Here’s an index of my chapter-by-chapter entries on The Post-Evangelical, by Dave Tomlinson:-

Emerging church as a protest movement

New Testament scholar Scott McKnight is a friend of the Emerging Church, but not in an uncritical way.  He sees the movement as in part a protest movement.

Its primary target is evangelicalism, and McKnight identifies ten items of concern.  I quote at large:-

First, it protests too much tom-fakery in traditional churches. This generation of Christians is not as capable or interested in putting up fronts when it comes to “church” or when it gathers. Instead, it prefers a higher level of honesty. (Now the older generation would contend that hanging out dirty laundry is not advisable, while this generation is not so sanguine about the desire to protect.) Let me give one example: most evangelical Christians don’t pray. (Stats show this.) Neither do they read their Bibles as often as they claim. (Stats also show this.) The Emerging Movement doesn’t want this hidden in non-confession but wants it out in the open—and then it might even ask if reading the Bible is making a difference or if praying “works.” It likes to ask these sorts of questions.

‘Maximal Conservatism’

It occurs to me that theological liberalism reached the height of its influence in the period leading up to 1977.  In fact, Alister McGrath makes a comment to this effect in his biography of J.I. Packer, To Know and Serve God, p212.  In that year two books were published by SCM Press which seemed finally to demonstrate that liberalism was, in the end, an impoverished, negative, destructive influence that was incapable of serving the purpose of Christ in this or any other generation.  (This is not, of course, to tar all liberals with the same brush: happily, many and are were inconsistent liberals and hold on to elements of orthodox biblical faith despite themselves.)

The Post-Evangelical – 10

[Index to this series of posts]

Nine down, one to go, in this chapter-by-chapter review of Dave Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical.  Even though the book has been out for some time (published in the UK in 1995) I’ve gone back to it because it seems to have had a seminal importance in the ‘movement’ now known as the ‘emerging church’.

The Post-Evangelical – 9

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 9 of Dave Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical discusses ‘positive worldliness’.

The author informs us that he was brought up to have a deep distrust of ‘the world’.  The Christian was not to feel at home in the world.  It was there to be evangelised, but not to be enjoyed.  Of course, things have loosed up in more recent years, but the legalistic prohibitions have been replaced within the sub-culture by christianised alternatives.  We have Christian festivals, Christian theatre, Christian computer games, and Christian aerobics set to Christian music.  Beyond the world of entertainment, we have Christian businesses, Christian schools, Christian law practices, and so on.

The Post-Evangelical – 8

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 8 of the The Post-Evangelical, by Dave Tomlinson, asks a ’straightforward’ question: what is a post-evangelical view of the Bible?

First, Tomlinson feels that there is a need to ‘exorcise’ the ghost of inerrancy.  He finds it incredible that anyone thinks it even plausible to believe in such a thing.

The Post-Evangelical – 7

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 7 of Dave Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical is entitled, ‘The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Something Quite Like the Truth’.  It’s about epistemology – how we come to know things.

The Post-Evangelical – 6

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 6 of Dave Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical is entitled ‘Let Me Tell You a Story’.  This chapter deals with the failure of modern, and the rise of the postmodern, ’stories’.

What is the new postmodern world that is emerging?

The Post-Evangelical – 5

[Index to this series of posts]

In chapter 5 – ‘Woolly Liberals?’ – Dave Tomlinson informs us that he shares with evangelicals a rejection of theological liberalism.  But what he does not share are evangelicals’ reasons for opposing liberalism.

Indeed, he expresses amazement at ‘how paranoid evangelicals are about liberalism’.  Evangelicals are constantly patrolling their boundaries, lest one of their number should trespass into liberal territory.

The Post-Evangelical – 4

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 4 of Dave Tomlinson’s The Post-Evangelical is entitled ‘Longing to Grow’.  In this chapter, an attempt is made to explain the evangelical ‘problem’ in terms of a couple of psychological models.  ‘The problem’ for Tomlinson, as is becoming increasingly clear as the book develops, is that evangelicals are way too sure of themselves and need to grow up and start doubting things.

The Post-Evangelical – 3

[Index to this series of posts]

Why are many people irritated by certain aspects of ‘evangelical culture’?  This is the question addressed in chapter 3 of Dave Tomlinson’s book The Post-Evangelical.  A summary and a brief comment follow.

Even in New Testament times, people were arguing that Gentile believers must submit to the Jewish law in order to be real Christians.  Throught the Christian era, the missionary enterprise has been dogged by similar problems – requiring indigenous peoples to adopt not only a change of heart but also a change of culture.  So it is that within evangelicalism has adopted, and seeks to impose, ‘conservative’ middle-class values on its members as if these values belonged to the essence of the Christian faith.  This has an alienating effect on those who do not share those values, including ‘working-class’ people and many young people.

The Post-Evangelical – 2

[Index to this series of posts]

Chapter 2 of The Post-Evangelical, by Dave Tomlinson, is entitled, ‘We’ve Never Had it so Good!’

Here, the author asks why, if evangelicalism has experienced such a resurgence over the past 30 years, many people have become dissatisfied with it.

Tomlinson notes a very considerable transformation that took place in British evangelicalism between 1980 and 1990.  This was due to a considerable extent to the ‘charismaticizing’ of mainstream evangelicalism.  Whereas the charismatic movement in its early days in the last 1960s and early 1970s was seen by many as a threat to evangelicalism, the former has been assimilated by the latter to a remarkable extent, so that much of the energy of current evangelical activity derives from charismatic believes and practices.  Even the earlier hostily between the house church movement (now known as the New Churches) and evangelicalism has given way to positive co-operation.