The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier (Hardcover)

by Tony Jones (Author)
Key Phrases: dispatches from the frontier, emergent church movement, emergent churches, True Biblicist, Holy Spirit, Solomon's Porch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Jones (The Sacred Way) provides the single best introduction to the Emergent Church movement, of which he is a prominent leader. The mainline denominations are dying, and the hyperindividualism of evangelicalism is unsatisfying, so many young evangelicals, Jones explains, have decided to recreate church for postmodern times. Jones credits Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christian with raising important questions about sounding the Gospel in an era beset by questions about foundationalism, epistemology and how to read Scripture. He passionately defends the emergent movement from criticism. In particular, critics are wrong to claim that emergents don't really believe in the Bible; emergents passionately love the Bible, says Jones, but also know that finite human beings cannot definitively articulate truth. The strongest sections put flesh on these theoretical bones by taking readers into actual emergent churches, like Jacob's Well in Kansas City, Mo., where the pastor draws on Catholic practice, engages the visual arts and sees the church's job as assisting people on their pilgrimage of faith. Jones's writing is brisk and conversational, but the book gets poor marks for design. Call-out boxes, pull quotes and frequent font changes, which might be thought to appeal to a younger audience, in fact make for distracting and disjointed reading. (Mar.)
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Product Description
What the "Emergent Church Movement" is all about-and why it matters to the future of Christianity

Following on the questions raised by Brian McLaren in A New Kind of Christian, Tony Jones has written an engaging exploration of what this new kind of Christianity looks like. Writing "dispatches" about the thinking and practices of adventurous Emergent Christians across the country, he offers an in-depth view of this new "third way" of faith-its origins, its theology, and its views of truth, scripture and interpretation, and the Emergent movement's hopeful and life-giving sense of community. With the depth of theological expertise and broad perspective he has gained as a pastor, writer, and leader of the movement, Jones initiates readers into the Emergent conversation and offers a new way forward for Christians in a post-Christian world. With journalistic narrative as well as authoritative reflection, he draws upon on-site research to provide fascinating examples and firsthand stories of who is doing what, where, and why it matters.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass (March 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787994715
• ISBN-13: 978-0787994716
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,745 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History & perspective, February 21, 2008

By	Rick Stilwell "Coffee, Books, Mini" (Cayce, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This has been a fun, challenging, insightful read for me. As one who's been reading and thinking and messing people up with "emergent" dialog, Tony Jones' The New Christians (copyright 2008, Jossey-Bass Publishers) gets into the nitty gritty history and thoughts behind the movement in a way that's accessible and personal.

I found "the emergent church" folks about ten years ago, reading some of their forebears and thinking new thoughts that scared me, to be frank. I attended a couple of seminars, traveled to Maryland for one of the Off The Map conferences, and read through alot of books. I put this new work right up there with the most meaningful of my library - good for anyone looking for someone "on the same page as me", and detrimental for anyone wanting to just keep the status quo religiously.

It's into this mess of paradox, oxymorons and mystery that Jones and others have sought to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling".

What I like about Jones' prose is that he doesn't water anything down. There are problems on both sides, there are misunderstandings all over, and there's a need for forgiveness and mercy and grace from each corner. He does this with the historical potions of the story, and then does much the same with the theological discussion of truth, the Bible, interpretation, missiology. There's a flow that's working for me, like a primer on what I've been reading from my own vantage point that's developed over the same passage of years.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, April 15, 2008

By	S. Fox (Salt Lake City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was looking forward to reading this book, but ended up terribly disappointed! This book was a painful read. Not because it challenged my thinking, but because of the tortured reasoning, incoherent conclusions, and an utterly ridiculous portrayal of the modern church that left me wondering if Jones' real intent was to parody Emerging Church (EC) beliefs. For example:
1) Because the roots of the Southern Baptist denomination is the American Pilgrims and "Jolly Old England" therefore, at least genealogically, Albert Mohler (President of the SBC Southern Seminary) is in fact a Bishop of Southern Baptists (pg. 6).
2) Evangelical churches determine their theological and missiological priorities under pressure from conservative radio show hosts (pg. 18).
3) The claim of biblical authority as the Word of God is demonstrably untrue, and portrays those that think otherwise as irrational and unsophisticated.

Another example is Jones' effort to demonstrate the irrationality of believing in Biblical authority, To accomplish this Jones presents a rhetorical conversation between someone with the more sophisticated view of Scripture and an Evangelical:
-"I believe because the Bible says so."
-"How do you know the Bible is true and accurate?"
-"Because the Apostles died for it, and people don't die for a lie."
-"What about the 911 terrorists?"
-"They were deceived; they didn't know that what they died for was a lie. The Apostles had seen Jesus and lived with him so they knew he wasn't a lie."
-"What about the followers of Jim Jones and David Koresh?"
-"Well the Bible is really true because of the original manuscripts."
-"Do we have the original manuscripts?"
-"No, but we some old ones that are close to the originals."
-"How do we know they weren't changed?"
-"Because we have faith in the historical process by which early manuscripts were copied and distributed."
-"So your faith is in history..." (pg. 19)

The presentation continues on, but anyone that knows anything about the issue understands that Jones completely misrepresented the evangelical position. Either Jones is intellectually dishonest or he doesn't understand the issues. His inability to accurately portray the beliefs and practices of conservative evangelicals raises the question of whether or not emergent objections to modern Christian doctrine and practice have any real substance? If so, then why not accurately portray that which they seek to criticize? If EC theology is correct, then why is it necessary to misrepesent their opponents to substantiate their conclusions? Whether it is misunderstanding or misrepresentation, the result is same: Jones is disqualified as a legitimate critic of the modern church; for the reader cannot hope to gain any worthwhile insights from the critique of a belief system that either doesn't exist, or that the critic simply doesn't understand.

I have been researching the EC full time for more than two years. A primary practice of the Emerging church is deconstructing (critiquing) the doctrines and practices of the modern church. Let me assure you that if your desire is to learn about the Emerging Church's construct and theology, there are other books written by other authors who can explain the EC and who - even though their theology is fraught with error - possess the intellectual capacity to offer a critique of modern Christianity that will, at least, challenge your thinking. This, however, is not that book, and Jones is not that author. Save your money!

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Needed Perspective, February 25, 2008

By	Julie Clawson (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In my opinion The New Christians is a needed and welcomed contribution at this stage in the emerging church conversation. This is the book to read to understand the history of this thing called emergent and the passions of those of us drawn to it. To list a few of the reasons why -

First, to be completely narcissistic, I enjoyed reading Tony's story of his journey into Emergent because it echoed so much of my own experience. I know that he has received criticism for not being inclusive enough of various forms of emerging thought in this book, but he makes it clear in the book that he is telling the story of his own experiences, the groups he has encountered, and the friends he has made. He gives snapshots of where he has encountered the conversation and summarizes the trends he is witnessing. Some people may not see themselves reflected in this book, but for those of us who have trod similar paths as Tony, it is affirming to have part of our story told. This book represents our reality - from the questions, to the conferences, to the online emphasis, to the conversations.

I also like that Tony isn't afraid to tell the truth about the messy parts of Christianity and emergent. The messy parts exist and many in this conversation have experienced pain because of them. So I appreciate Tony's willingness to say that yes Emergent has critics, yes there have been falling outs, and yes some people have refused to play ball with us. It's reality and hiding from it won't help resolve differences. And it's high time, imho, the truth was told that its not just emergents causing the problems.

I appreciated the way Tony dealt with the issues of homosexuality and women in ministry. Instead of dealing with each as "issues," he just told the stories of real people. He was inclusive and affirming in practice while not alienating in dogma. Of course this could just mean he pisses off everyone on both sides of these issues, but I thought he was fair in how he approached such controversial topics.

I enjoyed his affirmation of how popular culture shapes our reality. There are streams in the emerging church that refuse to condescend to popular culture. One often feels like one needs to apologize for watching TV or for listening to mainstream music around other emergents. I liked how Tony used popular culture as metaphors and as keys to understand the forces shaping the conversation. I prefer this thoughtful engagement to the snobbishly turning up of the noses I often expect in emergent circles.

There were of course other stories and ideas throughout the book that I enjoyed, just as there were a few things I questioned and a couple of things that I found annoying (the layout). But this is a good book, well worth the read. If you want to know more about emergent, understand where it came from, or just hear the stories of real people who are a part of it - read this book.