Customer Reviews

Postmodern and Wesleyan?: Exploring the Boundaries and Possibilities

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First let me say that this book contained very, very relevent thoughts. With that in tact, some of the articles needed more thought and did not consider the full theological implications of their conculusions. The book was easy to read and very "postmodern", no chapter was more than four pages long! Overall I would strongly recommend this book for an overview but would caution you to think through each of the conculusions, especially those refecting on truth and Biblical truth.

Good read!

I am all for change in the Church. I don't believe that the Church is meant to simply be an organization and not the Bride of Christ, His living organism as He moves through His people by His Spirit and through His Word (1 Corinthians 12:27-31; Ephesians 4:11-16). Yet I believe that the way to transformation in the Church is not found in the broken words of postmodernism or any other human traditions. I believe the answer for true, radical, and lasting transformation is found in the preaching and teaching of the Bible to the people of God in truth.

Therefore, based on my views I knew that I would not enjoy reading another postmodern view of the Church but I was intrigued since the writers were appealing to Wesleyan tradition and though I am not a Nazarene or Wesleyan, I am Arminian and I do agree with much of what Wesley wrote and lived for. I was wondering what emergents would have to say to conservative Arminians. Yet once again I was disappointed by the direction that this book believes the Church should take.

As typical with emergent books, the book attacks the organizational church but instead of correcting the modern church through the Scriptures, the writers believe that the Church should avoid the Scriptures. No doubt the writers believe the Bible has its place but they believe that since truth is not knowable, we should not defend the inerrancy of the Bible or try to hold to a literal six-day creation as found in Genesis 1-2. The writers believe that the main problem with the Church is that we have come to "worship" the Bible instead of being a loving community. Perhaps but I found their arguments weak for casting aside the Bible in favor of postmodernism or infallible science.

Overall this was simply another typical emergent work. Nothing new. Same old story lines are found here: the Bible is okay but not special, science holds promises, and we should move away from conservative thinking toward being more postmodern and liberal. I would not recommend this book. It would be a waste of money.