Monty Python’s The Life of Brian is turning 30, and I think it’s as fresh as ever. At The New Statesman, Nelson Jones considers the legacy of the once controversial film: [In Britain], Life of Brian remains as subversive as ever. If not an overt attack on Christianity, the film is devastating in its satire of religious behaviour. Blasphemy is parodied in the famous stoning scene. Just as pointed, in its own way, is the depiction of a would-be disciple... Read more
So says the UK’s Prospect Magazine: I have some good news—kick back, relax, enjoy the rest of the summer, stop worrying about where your life is and isn’t heading. What news? Well, on 24th September, we can officially and definitively declare that postmodernism is dead. Finished. History. A difficult period in human thought over and done with. How do I know this? Because that is the date when the Victoria and Albert Museum opens what it calls “the first comprehensive... Read more
This is part of a series based on chapters four and five of my new book, The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement, in which I look at the ecclesiology of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann and put it into conversation with the ecclesial practices of the emerging church movement (ECM). Part One Key to understanding Moltmann’s ecclesiology is to grasp his concept of the social trinity. The ecclesiology that he proposes, and that I take up... Read more
In Sunday’s NYTime, Neal Gabler surmised that we’re out of big ideas. Surprise, surprise, he blames social media and mobile technology for the sad state of how dumb we are: The collection itself is exhausting: what each of our friends is doing at that particular moment and then the next moment and the next one; who Jennifer Aniston is dating right now; which video is going viral on YouTube this hour; what Princess Letizia or Kate Middleton is wearing that... Read more
Possibly the most significant theological advancement that my dissertation, neé book (The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement) accomplishes is in chapters four and five, in which I look at the ecclesiology of German theologian Jürgen Moltmann and put it into conversation with the ecclesial practices of the emerging church movement (ECM). Further, I believe mine is the first published work to deal with Moltmann’s most recent book, Sun of Righteousness, Arise!: God’s Future for... Read more
On our 900-mile drive home from Texas yesterday, Courtney and I listened to the better part of David Carr’s riveting memoir, The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of his Life–His Own. Carr, now a famous reporter and columnist for the New York Times, spent the 1980s as a reporter in the Twin Cities. And as a junkie, a hardcore junkie. Carr is a great writer, entertaining and honest in the style of David Foster Wallace... Read more
Kinnybee has posted the first review on Amazon for my latest, The Church Is Flat: The Relational Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church Movement (which Amazon has marked down to $8.99): And for me, this is where the book shines. As a founding leader within the ECM himself, Jones readily admits that the theology of the ECM is not well articulated. But he understands that the longevity of the movement is dependent on the existence of “thorough and robust theological reflection”.... Read more
Tripp and Bo at Homebrewed Christianity have taken up the conversation here about new labels. 1) A podcast about the five labels we voted on here. 2) A tweaking of Roger Olson about why emergents don’t just join the mainline. Both, I think, are good contributions to the discussion. Read more
There’s a scene in Sideways in which Miles, played by Paul Giamatti, tastes a wine and compares it to the back of an LA school bus, tar, turpentine, and Raid. His sidekick, Jack (Thomas Haden Church) replies, “It tastes good to me.” I’m taking a break from blogging things religious today to write a bit about wine, which, I must admit, mostly tastes good to me most of the time. (more…) Read more
This just in from NPR: And Venema is part of a growing cadre of Christian scholars who say they want their faith to come into the 21st century. Another one is John Schneider, who taught theology at Calvin College in Michigan until recently. He says it’s time to face facts: There was no historical Adam and Eve, no serpent, no apple, no fall that toppled man from a state of innocence. “Evolution makes it pretty clear that in nature, and... Read more
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