I recommended to Boyd the book of my former professor at CUME and former CCFC pastor, Soong-Chan Rah, who now teaches at North Park Seminary in Chicago and just released The Next Evangelicalism (IVP, 2009; found here). I suggested there may be at least one more reason why Kingdom people should not mourn the demise of Americanized Christianity:
This "demise" seems to only be descriptive of white American Christianity.
While predominately white churches and denominations are shrinking and closing their doors, ethnic minority, immigrant, and multiethnic churches are expanding and thriving. For years (possibly over 20) the Emmanuel Gospel Center has been researching and charting the growth of churches in Boston and discovered that while the perception of the church in Boston was one of decline and stagnation, they found vitality all around them. It was true that white congregations were declining, but church-planting and church growth was exploding in Haitian, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, Brazilian, Korean, Chinesse congregations (to name a few). Boston's "Quiet Revival" has even been discussed in Christianity Today here.
In The Next Evangelicalism, Rah argues that the church in America more accurately reflects the values and characteristics of Western, white culture than those descriptive of the Kingdom of God from Scripture. I am 120 pages into Rah's book and hope to have it finished and a review written soon. Be on the look-out for that!
In Boyd's latest blog-post, he recognizes Dr. Rah's book and gives me a much-appreciated shout out for the suggestion: Only WHITE American Christianity is Dying!
I am excited that I was able to connect these two brilliant and prophetic scholar-pastors. I truly believe their research will be vital to Kingdom people in this century. Greg Boyd's ministry is exposing the theological and political captivity of the American church and Soong-Chan Rah's ministry is exposing it's cultural captivity. Both are advancing a radical return to a Jesus movement that more accurately reflects the Kingdom of God. That's the type of Jesus movement I want to be a part of!
Posts
3 comments:
That's pretty sweet that Boyd gave you a shout out. Funny thing is, I read his blog post and didn't even put 2 and 2 together.
Ya, I was really excited when I saw it. I hope he reads the book and writes a review.
That Molinist-Anabaptist sys theo looks fascinating. That's not a combination I would expect. However, in God of the Possible, Boyd presents the Open view as a "Neo-Molinisim" and he definitely identifies with Anabaptist tradition. So maybe there is something to this connection. What do you think?
I like that you are going by "D. C." now ...did you do that just for me :)
I actually think that adding "post" or "neo" to positions can be misleading. OT certainly has some formal similarities with both Arminianism and Molinism, but it has some major dissimiliarities as well. The major thrust of Molinism is "middle knowledge" in which God foresees what humans will ACTUALLY (though contingently) do in any circumstance in which they are placed. As far as I can tell, Boyd and other OT proponants don't only think middle knowledge is false, they think that it is logically impossible (i.e., to know the actualities of future contingents). So I would want to quibble with Boyd on adopting such terminology. Of course, that's not to say that I agree with Molinism per se, just that I don't believe OT is best understood as neo-Molinism.
But in as far as Boyd identifies with the Anabaptist tradition, he's good with me!
Yes, I copied the use of initials from you! Hope that's okay. :)
Post a Comment