Gordon Lynch, in his analytical and easy-to-read study, Losing My Religion? Moving on from Evangelical Faith, makes an observation that I wish to address briefly in this post. First, a brief introduction. Lynch is a former British Evangelical, now professor of practical theology at the University of Birmingham (not Alabama) and author of at least two other books, and After Religion and Understanding Theology and Popular Culture. Losing My Religion? is written in a matter-of-fact tone with fair and sometimes... Read more

In this series of blogs on “post,” today’s post concerns what it means for postmoderns to deny certainty. On this topic I am reasonably convinced that those who are criticizing those who are denying certainty are talking right by one another. I’m not sure listening has taken place. It is common for some in the Emergent movement, and a good source for this is Middleton and Walsh, to claim that we can’t have certainty and it is quite common to... Read more

Some in the Emerging conversation, and perhaps more than some, would call themselves “post-Evangelical.” This raises a question: In what sense are they “post” Evangelical? I will give four possible meanings, suggest that not all are using the term the same way, and see if maybe we can help shed some light on this issue. By the way, we had one of the “plane trips from the rhetorically functional” place last night. Got to the airport plenty early, got to... Read more

We have been looking at the meaning of “post” in “post”-evangelical, “post”-liberal, “post”-fundamentalism, and the like. Today I want to explore with you the significance of looking at this term “post” in the context of the telos, or goal, of the emerging conversation. In some ways, one would hope that every Christian would have the same ultimate, final goal in mind, but one of the foci of the emerging conversation has been “teleological” thinking. One of its complaints, sometimes not... Read more

This morning does not permit a lengthy post, but I will combine today’s idea with today’s particular vocation, of “performing the gospel” with the “Lord’s Day.” I’m also struggling with my son’s Safari browser as it does not appear to enable me to edit much on this post. The “post” in the “post”modern and the Emerging movement among Christians all over the world is a “post” that says they want to get beyond a kind of evangelicalism that is rooted... Read more

When the emerging generation of Christian thinkers and leaders claims that it is “post-evangelical” and “post-modern” and “post-liberal” and “post-fundamentalist,” in fact “post” a lot of things, it means among other things the following: First, it does not necessarily mean that is is “anti” any of those things in a radical sense. I can’t speak for anyone else and especially for “all” of any group, but my sense is that the “post” of the emerging conversation is the protest within... Read more