The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World [Paperback]

John Piper (Editor), Justin Taylor (Editor), David F. Wells (Contributor), D. A. Carson (Contributor), Voddie T. Baucham Jr. (Contributor), Mark Driscoll (Contributor), Timothy J. Keller (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2007

Six of today's leading pastor-theologians-John Piper, VoddieBaucham, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and DavidWells-have joined together to offer Christians a practical,biblical vision of Christ's supremacy, so they will be betterprepared to present the undeniable truth to a searching society.After grounding readers in the important truths of Christ's deityand the gospel, The Supremacy of Christ in a PostmodernWorld strives to help believers understand how to sharethese truths in a postmodern society. As readers begin to apply thelessons from this book, they will gain a practical, biblical visionof ministry for the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Many would have us believe that life is hopelessly fragmented and truth an elusive dream. The authors of this book beg to differ and enthusiastically point us to the cohesive centrality and absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ. Having heard these messages live at the 2006 Desiring God National Conference, I'm thrilled to see them now in print. Highly recommended!"
Sam Storms, founder, Enjoying God Ministries

"Over the past decade evangelicals have been divided over how to respond to the challenges of postmodernism. The options-which have ranged from naïve denial to unquestioned embrace-tend to suffer from the same fatal flaw: putting the emphasis on culture rather than Christ. This collection corrects that error by providing a fresh perspective that is pastorally sensitive and biblically sound. A timely, well-reasoned book that should be enthusiastically welcomed by the evangelical community."
Joe Carter, blogger at www.evangelicaloutpost.com; Director of Communications, Family Research Council

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review

"Many would have us believe that life is hopelessly fragmented and truth an elusive dream. The authors of this book beg to differ and enthusiastically point us to the cohesive centrality and absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ. Having heard these messages live at the 2006 Desiring God National Conference, I'm thrilled to see them now in print. Highly recommended!"
—Sam Storms, Senior Pastor, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; author, The Hope of Glory

"Over the past decade evangelicals have been divided over how to respond to the challenges of postmodernism. The options—which have ranged from naïve denial to unquestioned embrace—tend to suffer from the same fatal flaw: putting the emphasis on culture rather than Christ. This collection corrects that error by providing a fresh perspective that is pastorally sensitive and biblically sound. A timely, well-reasoned book that should be enthusiastically welcomed by the evangelical community."
—Joe Carter, Blogger (www.evangelicaloutpost.com) and Director of Communications for the Family Research Council

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Crossway Books (November 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158134922X
• ISBN-13: 978-1581349221
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All-star lineup doesn't disappoint, December 6, 2007

By 

Mark C. Tubbs "mark-muzak" (Surrey, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Paperback)

Hot on the heels of his much-anticipated scholarly work The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright, comes this latest John Piper volume, a year in the making following the Desiring God national conference of autumn 2006. Reading like an all-star roster of missional reformed theologians, the table of contents whets the reader's appetite: Piper, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Voddie Baucham and David Wells (the theologian, not the pitcher) one by one address the issue of the Church's engagement with postmodernism.

Following the text's dedication to the venerable and newly-retired John Stott, Justin Taylor begins by providing a helpful overview of each chapter and releases the reader to plunge into the text at will, unbound by sequential chapter distinctions. Spurred on by Taylor's encouragement, I immediately delved into dangerous territory: the essay entitled "The Church and the Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" by Mark Driscoll. Only having ever listened to Driscoll for a total of ten seconds once upon a time, and never having cracked a single one of his books, I found myself pleasantly surprised by his writing style and for the most part impressed by his content (I'm not one for gritty, unvarnished sermon illustrations, nor for approbation of Ultimate Fighting from the pulpit). Driscoll begins with a whirlwind tour of incarnational thinking, outlining some of the reasons why the Emergent movement draws so many young Christians into its camp. While he never condones the movement, Driscoll claims the Emergent vision of Christ's humanity is something to learn from. He then balances the deity and humanity of Christ in postmodern outreach: "as Christians enter into their local culture and subcultures, we must also remember that it is Jesus (not us) who is sovereign, and it is Jesus (not the church) who rules over all. We come in the authority of the exalted Jesus, but also in the example of the humble incarnated Jesus...Once we have the incarnation and exaltation clear in our Christology, we are then sufficiently reader to contend for the truth of the gospel and contextualize it rightly for various culture and subcultures of people, as Jesus did and commands us to do." Driscoll then goes on to discuss the ins and outs of contending for certain inalienable gospel truths and contextualizing them - without compromising them - for the culture. Contextualization, Driscoll contends, is a gospel issue. He rounds out his essay in a surprising way by narrating the cross-cultural reality of Calvin's Geneva, which should once and for all lay to rest the assertion that Calvinism is evangelistically bankrupt.

Backtracking one chapter, Keller's essay was the next on deck: "The Gospel and the Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World." While trumpeting the same contextualization message as Driscoll, Keller begins by debunking older evangelism methods that more or less fail to bear fruit in the twenty-first century. In postmodern society, Keller argues that every time we speak, "we have to get to the core of things, the gospel." He goes on to define this gospel: "The gospel of a glorious, other-oriented triune God giving himself in love to his people in creation and redemption and re-creation." In the rest of the chapter he uses the experience of Jonah as an object lesson to highlight six ways in which the Church must change if it is to adequately and triumphantly reach out to postmodern culture.

After Driscoll and Keller successfully roused me from my evangelistic slumber, I took the first four addresses in sequence, beginning with David Wells' chapter lifted from his dense and heady work, Above All Earthly Pow'rs. In it, Wells lays out the historical, theoretical and theological foundations of the postmodern climate. Although largely abstract and sweeping, Wells successfully locates postmodernism as an ugly hybrid of ancient Gnosticism and paganism. After identifying many features of these times in which we find ourselves, Wells echoes Hamlet, declaring reality to be "out of joint with itself."

In a methodological but pastoral way, Voddie Baucham Jr. follows up David Wells' cultural analysis with a clear and careful explication of how postmodernism and biblical Christianity seek to answer life's ultimate questions: Who am I? Why am I here? What is wrong with the world? How can what is wrong be made right? Christian theism, as he calls it, offers answers, whereas postmodernism cannot.

Batting in the heart of the order are Piper and Carson, who tease out the themes of Joy and Love in light of postmodern hopelessness and meaningless. True to form, Piper builds logical proposition on logical proposition in order to arrive at his main point: that our joy is rooted in the supremacy of God in Christ. Like Piper, Carson also roots his argument in Jesus' revelations of himself in John's gospel, characteristically paying attention to the nuances of the text and making connections not apparent on first reading. It is a treat to read consecutive treatments of similar texts at the hands of such gifted and diverse expositors.

Like last year's Desiring God national conference compilation, Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, this book contains two question and answer periods moderated by Justin Taylor. Since the questions posed and the answers provided vary so widely, a summary would be unhelpful. Suffice to say the conversations serve to give the reader personal insight into the hearts of these evangelical church leaders.

It would be quite unfair, in final analysis, to compare these essays with one another. They are apples and oranges: each sets out to do something different and each accomplishes its goal in its own way. Of course each reader will have their favorites, but enormous profit waits for those who take in the entirety of this little book. You may even find yourself wanting to read some more Mark Driscoll.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collection of essays to make you think, June 17, 2008

By 

E. Johnson (El Cajon, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Paperback)

The whole collection of essays could easily be summarized in Voddie Baucham's statement on page 62: "Christ is 'before all things.' Why did you choose your last job? Was it because of the supremacy of Christ in truth as it relates to your purpose for existing? Or was it because it paid you more than the job you had before? Pastor, how did you choose your current church? Was it because of a pursuit of the supremacy of Christ in truth in all things, even as it relates to your pastoral purpose? Or was it because this position is a little more prestigious than your last one? All things were made through him and for him. That means my life, my family, my ministry--everything that makes up who I am--must be characterized by a commitment to the preeminence of Christ."

Definitely Baucham's essay was my favorite, but there were excellent viewpoints, from Piper's 10-step process of doctrinally based joy to former Emergent pastor Mark Driscoll's thought-provoking look at "Gospel Theologizing and Contextualizing." This book has a number of quality nuggets to make the reader think, and I think the journey necessitates my highest rating.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Blessed and Memorable Event, March 17, 2008

By 

A. Sutono, a.k.a., The Observer - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Paperback)

Something that still vividly sticks in my mind out of attending 2006 Desiring God National Conference, where this book is a collection of the speakers' lecture, is what Pastor Voddie Baucham spoke about. He said when asked by college students that he works with, usually in a cavalier manner, after taking intro to philosophy class, "If God is so loving, why all the evil in this world? (paraphrased)," he replied, "That's the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask is, 'Why did God, despite your sinfulness and rebellion against him, not strike you dead in your sleep?" after which I almost shouted, "Amen, brother!" I thoroughly enjoyed his unashamed, stinging, blatantly and brutally honest talk.

With this said, I by no means diminish the weight of other speakers' topic. Dr. Wells solemnly warned about diluting the gospel and treating it like a marketable commodity. What he covered seems to be the highlights of a greater analysis of the threat of postmodernity and his confidence of the gospel that will prevail in the end, in his book "Above All Earthly Powr's: Christ in a Post-Modern World."

Though I sense being the audience of the conference is more edifying than reading the speakers' texts, I believe the readers would still be greatly benefited, by the call from these evangelical leaders to persevere and not lose heart, as what Dr. Well's wrote as the closing statement in his book,

"Indeed, it is entirely unnecessary to even think about overcoming the post-modern world because it has already been overcome in its sin. It is only ours to see the victory of Christ on the Cross being realized afresh in the actual circumstances of our time. That will happen when the Church humbles itself afresh, seeks the power and cleansing of God, and asks to have its vision renewed of the victory of Christ and to see, once again, his greatness. So may it be!"