Comments on The Rebel God: Being Post Evangelical

One of the tenants of the Reformation was that tha...

2011-11-06T05:53:55.956-08:00

One of the tenants of the Reformation was that that Reformed Christianity was always REFORMING..........

hi Paul,

Yeah I think my theology has been ...

2008-07-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

hi Paul,

Yeah I think my theology has been just as influenced by musicians like Switchfoot, Charlie Peacock, and the Alter Boys as it has been by McGrath or Moltmann, if not more!

I like the idea of spelling Evangelical with a big E since it recognizes it as something specifically rooted, which seems more humble.

Michael Toy you old salt! We were just speaking ab...

2008-07-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

Michael Toy you old salt! We were just speaking about you and wondering what you were up to. I heard "Muse" by Picture Atlantic and was blown away. They are amazing! I'm guessing that Undignified Labs had its fingers in that soup...

I could agree with you about not wanting to reduce others to a label, but I think that when one is speaking of themselves as I was, this changes everything. It is of vital importance to understand who we are in our context and history. Labeling others is bad, but labeling oneself is vitally important. To divorce our own self-understanding from that context would greatly inhibit self-awareness.

I also do still embrace all of those "rules" I think. I embrace the fundamental core doctrines of evangelicalism, but at the same time see that they have been applied without grace making them null and void from a biblical perspective (1 Cor 13, 1 Jn, etc... note that like a true dyed in the wool evangelical I unapologetically quote the Bible here to prove my point). So that puts me in the awkward place of being an Evangelical, but also seeing that there is a lot of need for reform here.

I think it is very similar to how I felt living abroad. From the distance gained from living overseas I could see a lot of the problems with my own country. I could see how we looked from the outside, and it was not pretty. But I also found that like it or not, I was an American and always will be. That puts me in the funny position of being not quite at home anywhere. In the same way I am an "expatriate Evangelical".

I'm a first-time reader, but I will be back. Ya g...

2008-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a first-time reader, but I will be back. Ya gotta like someone who quotes both Alister McGrath and Jon Foreman from Switchfoot.

I think you've articulated here what a lot of people are feeling, but finding it hard to put into words. I think we who grew up Evangelical -- I'm adopting the recent encouragement to spell it with a capital E -- are grateful for a heritage that introduced us to the ways of God and the person of Jesus Christ.

But there's no denying that there was a certain simplicity to those times; so many things were either black or white; there were so many superficialities. Thankfully, we are moving forward. I like the Church -- another capital letter -- the way it is today. I prefer local churches run by 20-somethings than those that are locked in tradition. I wouldn't turn back the hands of time for anything.

So like you, I'm definitely post-something!

i somehow want the freedom be as stupid as the peo...

2008-07-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

i somehow want the freedom be as stupid as the people who made the rules, yet at the same time get some benefit from watching the game those rules created and learning from it.

i think you lose the chance to gain the benefit by labeling yourself "post".

what's weird for me is that we have the have a name for what we are. that way we don't have to actually listen to each other, we can use what little listening we have accidentally already done, over and over again. saves a lot of time i guess.

"Keep it pithy, son," God sed to Jesus before His ...

2008-07-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

"Keep it pithy, son," God sed to Jesus before His descent; and, believe-it-or-not, Satan HAD to bow TO Christ after His Abyssfull journey in OUR humility --- I'm just a dude who loves Jesus. Que cera cera. Eye know where I'm going 'apres la mort', after this woeful, lifelong demise. Are you? If you ain't sure, due to the superSILLYous vanity which we all fall into, take the gorgeous, magnanimous invitation.