The "emerging church" movement has generated a large amount of excitement and currently exerts an astonishingly broad influence within contemporary churches. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy? Who are the leaders and what are they saying? These questions signal that the time has come for a mature assessment by a respected Christian scholar. In Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, D. A. Carson gives both a perceptive introduction to the emerging church movement for those who may be unfamiliar with it, as well as a skillful assessment of its theological views. Carson addresses some troubling weaknesses of the movement frankly and thoughtfully, while at the same time, recognizing that it has important things to say to the rest of Christianity. Carson's treatment shows how we must not only interact with a fast-changing culture, but also how we must have our vision and practice of ministry shaped by biblical theology with Scripture as our norm.
A perceptive evaluation of the new “emerging church” movement showing how we must not only interact with a fast-changing culture but also have our vision and practice of ministry shaped by biblical theology with Scripture as the norm.
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars(4.5 out of 5 stars)
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5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Dan Saugstad (Costa Mesa, CA), May 02, 2008
D.A. has become one of my favorite authors and this book is one of the reasons. He is very fair and even handed, he admits that authenticity of worship is missing in parts of evangelicalism, but scrapping our history of confessions and belief of objective truth and absolutes to embrace parts of mid-evil traditions as well as jumping head long into the pool of 'post-modernism' (as hard as it is to define) is not the answer. He clearly shows the movement to be self refuting and contradictory with their belief that absolutes don't exist but they make the absolute statement "That no one can know objective truth objectively, beside one who is omniscient". Im nearly 75% done with this book and am devouring it. Get it, it is the best handling of the 'emergent problem' that I've found.
4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Vince Oblak II (Janesville, WI), September 27, 2007
This is an excellent critique of the Emerging Church for anyone interested in the subject. As only Carson can do, he gives an overview of the movement, its leaders, and its practices. He effectively shows it to be a questionable movement, not well grounded theologically or scripturally. As one who was formerly part of this movement I find his assessment of it fair and evenhanded, honest and dead on.
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