Customer Reviews

Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church

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The postmodern worldview is growing and Dr. Smith's thoughts address well the concerns that the Church should have regarding its coherence and practical influence.

Unlike the previous review, I found this book to be an excellent representation of the views held by many in this camp.

The chapter on Christian Postmodernism clearly lays out what many of the mainstream Christian Postmoderists are advocating. Dr. Smith uses various movies and TV shows as examples, which are very interesting and help to both explain Christian postmodernism and to capture the reader's attention. Overall, I found the discussion on the views, and especially the summary of the four common points, of Hauerwas, Kallenberg Grenz & Franke very helpful.

I also really enjoyed the chapter on youth ministry. This is where we see the practical implications of Christian postmodernism - many young Christians who have been influenced by the ideas of their generation, namely relativism, are dismissing the importance of Truth. For advocates of postmodern Christianity, there really is no need for proof or truth. Yet, without Truth how does anything one believes matter?

I enjoyed the chapter "Addressing Postmodernism" the most. I thought it was an extremely well articulated and fair criticism of Christian postmodernism. Dr. Smith lays out an argument for perhaps the most foundational point in the debate, that postmodernists make all their claims (i.e. that we cannot know truth) yet "they seem to be written in such a way as to indicate that they have found the truth". Great point! Furthermore, he uses this point to demonstrate that they must "presuppose that they can get out of language" while arguing that one cannot get outside of language. This is particularly insightful.

I also think he makes some great points in the "Addressing Issues for Christian Theology" chapter, but I'll save that for the reader.

It has always been a temptation for the Christian church to slavishly copy the latest trends of the day. While there is a place to present an unchanging message in new forms and expressions, it is decidedly unwise to simply seek to be relevant, at the expense of truth and good doctrine.

One new movement in American Christian circles is the emergent - or emerging - church movement. While a relatively new and somewhat diverse group, this movement can be described as a critique of the traditional way of doing church, and a call for the need to embrace much of postmodernism in order to be more effective.

One of the main books by a leading figure in this movement, Brian McLaren, is the 2001 book, A New Kind of Christian. Thus the title by Smith. He offers here a critique of the emergent church movement in particular, and postmodernism in general.

In short, argues Smith, while we have made mistakes in the past, and while postmodernism is not to be totally rejected, we pay too heavy a price in uncritically accepting and adopting postmodernist ideas.

Especially of concern is the postmodernist attack on the very concept of truth. Smith argues that the Christian community dare not give up on the concept of objective, propositional truth. To do so would be to abandon the distinctives of the Christian gospel altogether.

While there are a number of good Christian critiques of postmodernism, and at least one excellent book-length treatment of the emerging church movement (D.A. Carson's 2005 volume), this is one of the few books to nicely bring the two subjects together in a single, readable volume.

Smith is to be commended for his irenic yet forceful critique of the dangers of this latest trend to bewitch the Christian church.

The strength of this book is the way that Scott Smith interacts with his various interlocutors. Smith does a better than average job at representing his sources well. While not agreeing 100% with his sources, he still spends much of his book seeking to articulate his sources with care and charity. This enables the reader to understand what emerging leaders are trying to say before analyzing if one agrees with the points they are seeking to make.

Thanks for this book.
Tim Mills

This makes for a wonderful book if you are investigating the claims of the Emergent movement. It also turns out to be a great read if you are interested in a relatively short defense of our ability to know objective reality in light of the postmodern view that we are "stuck" inside our own language. Smith ably shows what the core philosophical commitments are for post-conservatives and leaders in the Emergent Church movement, and then shows the logical consequences of those views. Much of the debate over and with the Emergent movement and post-conservatives hinges on whether the postmodern commitments they hold have orthodox or heterodox consequences, and after a great deal of survey, explanation, and philosophical explication, Smith comes down squarely on the side of heterodoxy.

Smith, in the midst of what I think is overwhelming critique, maintains an irenic spirit and does his best to present the other side fairly and clearly, quoting often not only from published works, but email correspondence as well.

This is a wonderful addition to a growing and critical trend in evangelical theology and praxis, and deserves to be read not only as a sound piece of philosophical work, but as an example of helpful, even friendly, critique.

I had the pleasure of having Dr. Smith as my last professor while at Biola University. He taught two classes, one on organization ethics and another on moral decision making. Besides teaching in the Organizational Leadership program Smith is also an Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics. I really enjoyed my time in class with him, he was very articulate, affable, and always took a Christ center approach to his teaching. During the class I learned more and more of his background and his interest in postmodernism the emergent church movement.

Through exposure to figures like Rob Bell, Brian McLaren and Tony Jones I had become very interested in the Emergent Conversation myself, as I learned Dr. Smith I had. During the class I read Brian McLaren's "A New Kind of Christian". I found the book to be intensely interesting, some ideas I read seemed to really make sense and open my view to God and ministry, others scared me a little and maybe even whispered heresy in the back of my mind. But either way it got me thinking, and looking for an alternate take of McLaren's views I decided to read Dr. Smith's book "Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church".

This book while being approachable to the layperson does require a quite a bit of critical thinking, and is not as easy to get into as the McLaren work is aims to respond to. A little bit of experience or knowledge of academic logic and basic philosophy would go a long way to help you get through this one.

Those hoping to see a detailed response to the ideas and approaches McLaren talks about in his book will probably be disappointed in this book. Rather then solely addressing McLaren's work Smith takes on the broader concept of Postmodernism in Philosophy and in the Church. While picking a choosing and choosing a few select ideas from the like of Tony Jones, Brian McLaren and certain postmodern Christian philosophers, Smith gives a basic overview/introduction to their worldviews and philosophies. As others have said this is probably the best part of the book as it gives a fair well balanced review of the current Christian postmodern movement.

After this, however, Smith focuses on taking apart all these thoughts and views using philosophical logic, and boiling everything down to the idea that postmodernism prevents one form knowing truth, therefore they can't know truth, therefore their ideas are faulty. I know that probably is a rough way of saying it and I may have even gotten it a little off, but that is how I interpreted it. He also spends a chapter disputing the entire characteristics McLaren find problematic with the Modern Church. Smith used his own church to disprove most of these ideas. But I felt he missed the point McLaren was making. He was talking about general overall impressions that he has (And I too) about the modern church, and I don't think presenting one church that does not match any of those characteristics does not constitute a valid argument against McLaren's statements.

Then after doing such, Smith spends a chapter pretty much calling Christian Postmodernists relativists, and then he goes on deconstructing and disproving relativism as a viable ethic, I found this to be a helpful lesson in showing how relativism is not viable, but this all hinges on his argument that postmodernism leads to relativism which I do not agree with. The final chapter deals with knowing objective truth and how modern philosophy and worldviews allow for that, which I felt is his way of saying everything is still fine and postmodernism is not needed and will not work.

I respect Dr. Smith immensely; his thoughts in this book are very well thought out and presented. But unfortunately after reading this work I think he still falls under the Modernist idea that everything has to fit the logical and philosophical standards set, I believe he misses a little bit of Neo's point that maybe we can't quite understand where and how it all works. Postmodernism allows for a bit more of that I think. Dr. Smith approaches the whole topic like a philosophy professor, and while I understand all that, I don't think that is what people are looking for today. I think Brian McLaren or Tony Jones would agree that arguing philosophical proofs with a nonbeliever today is a rather unlikely (But not at all impossible) way to lead someone to Christ. Dr. Smith brings up some interesting topics, thoughts and criticism to the conversation but I feel like his extensive philosophical training creates a modernist views that causing him to miss the greater overall postmodernist/emergent message.

This book is amazing. It is very helpful in understanding the Emergent Church and what are the positive and negative effects of it. It is very insightful and a great read!

Smith provides a well written, well thought out and reasoned argument against post-modernism thinking in Christianity, and its effects on the "emerging church." He provides the reader with an excellent survey of the theology and logic of the most prominent post-modern thinkers, including evangelical post-moderns. Afterwards, Smith systematically refutes post-modernism thinking and logic as it pertains to Christianity. At the same time, Smith recognizes critical issues that post-modernist Christian writers discuss, which the modern church needs to address. This book needs to be mandatory reading for each evangelical pastor, and those in seminary to combat the prevailing post-modern thought permeating throughout our churches, universities and seminaries.

This is an excellent and fair response to the movement that is taking over in many Christian circles. R. Scott Smith has well articulated his analysis and some correctives that he believes need to take place. This could be read by those are familiar with the Emerging Church, and I think even those who belong to this movement would have to conclude that Smith was really fair in his assessment. I really liked his last chapter, "Objective truth," where he really nailed it on the head regarding Postmodernism. Several times I found myself saying "Yes" because he said exactly what I've been thinking. Two books that I would recommend in conjunction with this are DA Carson's Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church as well as Greg Koukl/Francis Beckwith's book on Relativism. Put all three of these together and the Christian has plenty of information to think through the Emerging Church issues.

The evangelical debate on the "postmodern turn" (cf. Penner) and its implications for the church more often than not looks like "ships passing in the night." Both sides are saying important things. While there is more "conversation" evident in the approach of Smith's book, then say, D. A. Carson's important work, it is frustrating to still hear the other side misrepresented. Let the conversation continue, with careful listening.