Customer Reviews

The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World

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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.

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.

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!"

Originally conference messages, these chapters are different as far as their style, and certainly don't present any kind of developing argument about ministry in a post modern world. However, if you think of each of each of them as a kind of journal article, they each have value and are helpful in understanding a certain piece of the puzzle.

The most helpful article, for my money, was that by Tim Keller, where he summarizes a philosophy of church ministry in post-modern culture. David Wells' summarizing of parts of his larger book on the subject is also quite helpful. I was glad to see that they included the discussion/Q&A portions of the conference, which provided some good exchanges and banter.

This is a really helpful little book that I recommend to my fellow pastors and church leaders to read.

This collection of essays, articles, and transcripts is a balanced look at post-modernism and the impact of PM on the church.
I expected a bit more direct assessment of emerging/emergent, but overall I appreciated the book's tone and presentation.

This book is edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor and has some topnotch Reformed pastor/theologians contributing: David Wells, Voddie Baucham, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, and John Piper.It is a great addition to the library of anyone who wants to put Christ above all things in this postmodern world. At the end of the book there are two different discussions lead by Justin Taylor that help even more to flesh out their theology particularly in regards to the emergent church. The book has good insights and though deep it is very readable and not just pie in the sky but gives practical insights into how to transform our culture.

This book is amazing. The collaboration of the top theologian-pastors that wrote for this book is stellar. It is very helpful learning how very different people, form all over the U.S. have come to the same conclusion about the current state of U.S. culture. Each author offers useful perspective and strategy for reaching people here, particularly in urban settings, with the gospel. Read it and become more prepared to share the truth with people in your everyday life.

How can the church teach the gospel of a man who claimed to be "the Truth" to a world that hates truth claims? That was the topic being addressed at the 2006 Desiring God National Conference. This book is basically transcripts of the plenary sessions from that conference.

Each chapter corresponds to the message presented by each of the speakers at the conference: David Wells, Voddie Baucham, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, D.A. Carson, and John Piper... not a bad lineup! There is also a chapter titled "A Conversation With the Pastors", containing a transcript of a discussion moderated by Justin Taylor.

The contributors each addressed a different aspect of the relationship between the church (and individual Christians) and the world. Each of the essays is thought-provoking in its own way. One thing John Piper always does well at his conferences is assigning the speakers topics which they are particularly suited to address (for instance, Keller's focus on reaching urban intellectuals, Driscoll's focus on missional contextualization, etc). Even in book form, the unique voice and focus of every author really shines through.

This is a book highly recommended, particularly for college students and others who are constantly bombarded with postmodern philosophy. Also recommended are the audio/video recordings of the conference sessions from which this book was derived, available for free from the Desiring God Resource Library.

YOU NEED THIS BOOK!!! Wish I had cases of this book to give away.