The Post-Evangelical (EMERGENTYS) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Talking about the "post-evangelical" may seem strange when others are talking about an evangelical renaissance..." (more)
Key Phrases: postmodern imagination, many evangelicals, Holy Joe, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Dave Tomlinson describes a workable new place, a theology and practice of Christianity that holds to essentials while acknowledging the excesses and unfortunate cultural influences of our recent past.

From the Back Cover

You believe in the God of the Bible—but you cringe when church leaders oversimplify, trivialize, and absolutize the faith.

You’re not alone. You’re likely among an increasing number of post-evangelicals: Christians growing restless within the bounds of the evangelical orthodoxy they were raised in or trained in—especially its culturally-influenced precepts and mores—and thirsting for something deeper. Something that makes sense.

Author Dave Tomlinson encountered these same issues in Great Britain as he approached the writing of The Post-Evangelical. He quickly discovered that many in the church are hungering for a safe place to express their questions, doubts, and insights without being branded "liberals" or—worse yet—"heretics."

Far from skewering its subject, The Post-Evangelical actually endorses steps toward rather that away from the roots of evangelicalism—while stridently challenging its man-made rules and regulations that have, for all intents and purposes, become "gospel."

A best-seller and paradigm-buster in the U.K. for several years, we now present the expanded and updated North American edition of The Post-Evangelical. It includes:

• A forward by Dallas Willard and an updated introduction.

• Sidebar commentary from Mark Galli, Timothy Keel, Doug Pagitt, Mike Yaconelli, and Holly Rankin Zaher.

• A completely new chapter on the history of evangelicalism in the U.S.

If you’ve wandered from the evangelical fold—publicly or privately—you’re not necessarily a backslider. Spend some time with The Post-Evangelical and be encouraged.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan; Revised edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310253853
• ISBN-13: 978-0310253853
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #782,151 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest and important book for today, June 16, 2002

By	Bron Mitchell "bronm" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Post-Evangelical (Paperback)

I had never heard of the term "post-evangelical" when a friend gave me this book, but reading it has helped me articulate a lot of the confusion I had been feeling regarding my faith. For some time I had been uncertain about various aspects of evangelicalism and the experience of church, although I found it difficult to express my concerns, partly because I wasn't sure what it was that just "didn't seem right", and partly out of fear that I would be branded "unbelieving" if I openly questioned aspects of my faith. Although the church I belong to is fairly moderate on the evangelical scale, there are quite a few people for whom faith is an all-or-nothing matter: if I didn't believe everything that was said, I might as well not believe anything. As I'm sure many others could testify, this is a discomforting and isolating experience, and one that made me feel things would probably be OK as long as I just kept my mouth shut and didn't publicly disagree with anyone.

The Post-Evangelical has helped me put my experience in context, looking at the history of the church, the rise of the evangelical movement, and the subsequent disillusion with this movement as we move from the "modern" to the "postmodern". Granted, these are amibiguous terms that tend to be overused and underexplained, but I believe Dave Tomlinson does as good a job as anyone at defining them. In the same way that postmodern is not a rejection but a continuation of the modern, post-evangelicalism is an attempt at rethinking and questioning evangelicalism without callously throwing it aside.

This book has been of invaluable help to me in understanding where I have come from and why I am finding it problematic. It has helped me give voice and expression to my confusion without rejecting my faith in God, like so many other people I know who decided that there was too much hypocrisy and contradiction in the church and, sadly, gave it all up. There is wonderful debate to be had by free-thinking, intelligent Christians after reading this book.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strong Book, Weak Edition, June 1, 2004

By	Matt Benzing "Librarian" (Troy, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read the British edition of Tomlinson's book a while back and can recommend it without reservation. He points out the many weaknesses of modern Evangelicalism for thinking persons (or even deeply feeling persons) and tries to plot a course toward something greater and more in tune with the Spirit. I liked the fact that he was not afraid to go after sacred cows like inerrancy, a modern attribute forced onto a premodern text, while so many other 'postmodern' Christian authors seem caught up in worrying about worship and preaching styles: the problem goes much deeper than the hipness of your pop culture connections, whether you have video screens in your church, or whether you preach in a relational style.

The American edition, however, has been published by Zondervan, a very conservative, borderline fundamentalist publisher. While Zondervan can be congratulated for having the nerve to publish the book at all, they end up handicapping Tomlinson's arguments by adding a running commentary in the margins from several figures in the American emergent church movement. Some of these commentators, like Timothy Keel and Doug Pagitt, have some interesting things to say about how the British Post-Evangelical movement relates to the US Emergent movement. Others are less helpful. Mark Galli, an editor for Christianity Today and Leadership, gives stock 'Christianity Inc' answers for many of Tomlinson's observations. Galli is often offensive in his attitude toward those of us fed up with the easy answers and cosy compromises of his brand of faith: at one point he argues that people leave conservative evangelical churches not because of the rampant anti-intellectualism or the cultural irrelevance, but rather because they want to avoid discipline and tithing. In another marginal comment he claims that since conservative churches in the US are growing they are obviously on the right track. In the sense that megachurches are providing a product that many consumers seem to enjoy, he is right. Many of us would like to believe that their is something more to Christianity than that.

I assume that Zondervan added the commentary in order to protect its reputation in the evengelical/fundamentalist community. It is possible to read the book without reading the margins, but if you are a footnote/endnote reader like me you will find yourself drwn to the commentaries; and if you are passionate about finding a more meaningful faith than what you can find in the American megachurch some of those commentaries will drive you crazy. Get the book in any case, but get the British edition if you can find it.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Catalyst for Further Thought & Discussion, August 2, 2004

By	Cameron B. Clark (Bristow, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This book should be viewed as a catalyst for further thought and discussion on the topics raised. It touches the heartbeat of a growing "in-house" trend of dissatisfaction with contemporary evangelical culture as organizationally, and in some cases doctrinally and practically, expressed that leaves some "evangelicals," including myself, feeling that they have strayed from the flock when, in fact, they may have discovered the vital bloodstream of the biblical faith that has been clouded over with trivialities and, in some cases, error throughout the years. Dallas Willard states in his forward to the revised North American edition, "post-evangelicalism is by no means ex-evangelicalism... post-evangelicals are evangelicals, perhaps tenaciously so. However, post-evangelicals have also been driven to the margins by some aspects of evangelical church culture with which they cannot honestly identify." With that said, however, Tomlinson points out that some who strongly identify with what the book discusses "may not all be evangelicals" although they certainly are post-moderns.

My own alienation with certain aspects of contemporary evangelical culture as well as Dallas Willard's forward to this book is why I read it. And although some reviewers disliked the supplemental comments by the book's contributors, I felt that several of them provided good clarifications and critiques whereas others were off the mark. Also, some readers would not consider Tomlinson as the principle representative for their brand of "post-evangelicalism" which is general and vague enough to allow for different brands among those who identify with it. Additionally, post-evangelicalism should not be confused with what was once called "the new evangelical theology" or neo-evangelicalism (as Mark Galli seems to do in one of his comments on pg. 27) which is an evangelical reaction against the fundamentalist branch of evangelicalism. See page 73 and Robert P. Lightner's "Neo-Evangelicalism" (if you can find a copy). To be sure, post-evangelicalism is against a rigid and legalistic fundamentalism, but it is more than that.

Among other flaws, I personally consider the discussion on truth inadequate and think Mark Galli's commentary on page 94 valid: "Post-evangelicals will admit to using propositional statements, but they seem to have a hard time admitting how utterly dependent they are on such reasoning" (cf. his other comments on pg. 82, note (e)). However, what I find overlooked by critics like Galli (and Christian apologists in general) is the tendency to under-appreciate the important subjective/objective distinction between being sincerely right, sincerely wrong, and insincere. Does God respect sincerity, even if one (Christian or non-Christian) is "objectively" or "propositionally" wrong? I would say that he does (apart from any possible but temporary negative consequences for being wrong) and such popular sayings as "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" as used by many evangelicals miss the mark. Is the road to heaven paved with bad intentions? One area that needed emphasis in the book is how post-evangelicals are more generally "inclusivist" than "pluralist" when it comes to HOW "salvation" occurs than most evangelicals who are primarily "exclusivists" (who believe that if you don't have a volitional [and propositional] "faith in Christ" before you die, then you're going to hell.). [As an aside, although most Christians are inclusivists when it comes to infants where divine grace alone is sufficent for the salvation of dead infants, there is less tolerance for adults which raises the rarely-analyzed question of exactly how a person is ultimately "damned". Many evangelicals pessimistically believe that everybody is on the road to hell until they have "faith in Christ" instead of believing more optimistically that Christ's atonement puts everybody on the road to heaven until they commit the sin that damns which puts the responsibility of damnation primarily in the individual's hands, not solely in God's.] Also, there is a growing emphasis among Christians (thanks to authors like Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, etc.) that salvation is primarily about a relational discipleship to Christ IN THIS LIFE (not just salvation from hell [however defined] in the next). As one walks with Christ through the Spirit and the Word, one is personally and progressively saved from sin and deception.

Another trend I've noticed that some post-evangelicals will support but isn't emphasized in the book is the rejection of monetary tithing as a biblical mandate to fund organizational churches. Non-tithing books like "Beyond Tithes and Offerings," "Should the Church Teach Tithing?," and "Tithing and Still Broke" are becoming popular and hard to refute which will require a reformation to the contemporary Christian understanding of giving to meet people's needs. "Grace giving" is the wave of the future. There is so much more that can be said but, again, consider the book (and this review) a catalyst for further thought and discussion.