International Christian Mentoring Network
I didn’t know this existed. I think it’s a good thing. The fact there also more theological reflection on mentoring in the blog is a great thing too!
Why the Church Deserves Deconstruction: A Preface to the Chinese Translation
wow . so fast a Chinese Translation. I wonder who did it? I think I will read the English Edition someday. Currently, I have some other books lined up.
When is love more profoundly love than when we are asked to love those who do not love us in return, indeed who hate us? The most paradoxical teaching of Jesus embodies the logic, or alogic, of deconstruction just as it brings deconstruction to a summit of intensity. Deconstruction is the hermeneutics of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the highest intensification of deconstruction.
Let me pick three.
- Art is the occurrence of the new; metaphysics trails in art’s wake
- The beauty of grotesqueness, fragmentation and dissonance has a special proximity to a Christian theology of the cross
- God is beauty; the crucified Christ is the beauty of God
I can’t catch up with all these new books. But this is another one I might check out in due time. A foretaste in the interview first.
-I’ve read in a recent review a concern that the books emphasis on Christology might lack adequate to a Trinitarian theology. How would you respond to this concern?
Well, it’s a popular attempt at a missional christology – that is, how the church must be shaped missionally by Jesus. I think if it was attempting a more scholarly and thoroughgoing christology a sustained discussion about the Trinity would have been more appropriate. But we are taking a more narrow focus in this book. In a relatively short book we are wanting to inflame our readers with a desire to re-Jesus their churches and their lives. Now, some would argue that any biblical missiology must be anchored in a trinitarian theology and I couldn’t agree more. But I think the likes of Bosch and Newbigin and others have made that case quite clearly. I detect a growing awareness that the primary motivator for Christian mission must be located in the character and nature of the triune God. Assuming that, we are digging a bit deeper into the gospels to explore what mission looks like when lived out by the enfleshed God. I think the review you read (if it’s the same one I read) is criticising us for what we don’t say in ReJesus rather than for anything we do say. I think that’s a bit tough. I think it’s perfectly legitimate to write a book emphasising that God is Jesus-like without providing a sustained treatment of the Trinity. The danger is that we might have ended up with some lofty high-falutin ontological discussion of the mysterious nature of the Godhead and lead our readers away from where we wanted to go – to a practical, action-focused framework for mission-in-the-way-of-Jesus.
When Is a Conservative (Evangelical) Not a Conservative?
Like it or not, what happens there will have affect us here. But then we might go with the politics and less with the deeper reflections on the matter. I do believe we can do better 🙂 We must.