{Book Review} The New Christians by Tony Jones

“The best primer available for the emergent movement”


If you are even interested in reading this book I guess you may be one of three people. One, you could be an “emergent” and you are just wanted to learn a little about the movement you are involved in. Two, you have heard about “Emergent’s” and the “Emerging Church” and you wanted to learn more about what it was all about. Or third, you have heard about these heretic emergent devil worshippers and you were looking for a book that could reveal all the heresies and non-orthodox practices. Well I am glad to report that this book will satisfy the needs of all three people.

A little about Tony Jones, Tony has been at the forefront of the emergence for most of its existence and until recently was the national coordinator for the emergent village. He went to seminary at Fuller Seminary and is getting his Ph.D. from Princeton, he writes like a down to earth academic. Speaking to the normal everyday Christians who have never had a class in theology class, but every now and then he likes to drop his knowledge and you will have to break out your dictionary to look up a word or you have to scribble down the name of some obscure theologian so you can look them up later. Basically I am trying to say that Tony comes across as an everyman’s theologian. A guy you could go have a beer and talk baseball just as easily as you could discuss the early church father’s views on the doctrine of atonement.

As I mentioned above I see this book as being the best primer on the book shelf to the emergent movement. In fact if you want the full treatment, get Phyllis Tickle’s book “The Great Emergence” to tell you why the emergent movement is here and then get this book to fill in the details of what the movement is.

In the book Tony starts off by giving some background on his own personal story and where he is coming from and how he got where he is now. Then Tony gives his take of the story of how the emergent movement evolved and began from a few young pastors and theologians. Then we get a description of the kind of people that are drawn to the movement and why they are attracted to this new form of Christianity. Next Tony really shines as he lays out much of the theology of the emergence, and while it is no way a doctrinal statement or comprehensive description of what the movement believes, it is more like what they don’t believe and what they are open to. He also spends a good amount of time addressing the idea of truth and dispelling the idea that this is just relativism dressed up in trendy clothing and cool haircuts. Finally we get an inside view of several church’s that Jones feels fall inside this movement, a nice cross section of what is going on in various emergent churches across the country.

All in all I really enjoyed this book. I came in as a person who has had the thoughts of an emergent for the past few years I just didn’t know it. This book helped me see the others who feel/think about Christianity the way I do and understand how others got to this place. So if you are interested in this movement, (Although I don’t think “Movement” is a good word for it) or are just looking for something new in Christianity then I think you may like this book.

Update on Raymond (And More)

Raymond: Day 10,255

So, it has been quite a while since I have written anything. And I have a few free minutes at work this morning. So I thought I would take advantage of them, and update people on my thoughts and doings.

I saw the Watchman movie the other week. I really liked it. But I think you get more from the movie if you read the graphic novel and then watch the movie. Otherwise I believe the movie assumes a little too much and leaves some holes open. But I read the whole novel about a month before the movie opened and I was pleasantly surprised and I enjoyed the film.

I also saw “I Love You, Man” this past weekend. I found it to be a really funny and enjoyable movie. The tone of the movie was light and I was kind of surprised the MPAA gave it an R rating. But it does have some language and talk about sex, which I guess may be inappropriate for some teens. But other than that, it was one of the better comedies I have seen in a while.

Work has been good, while we were slow for a while, thing have really picked up and we are doing all this work with a technician out on extended sick leave. So in an economy that is so depressed and with an unemployment rate that is reaching 11% in California it is good to see that we are doing okay, and at least turning a profit, instead of just breaking even at the end of the month.

With business doing better I am getting interested in going back to school; although everyone else and their second cousin is probably doing the same thing. I really am getting interested in pursuing an MBA. CSUN offers a MBA program for working professionals, which seems like it could work for me. Only thing is that I need to take the GMAT which is supposedly this daunting 3 ½ hour exam that you have to take to get into any MBA program. And oh yeah you have to pay something like $250 to take the test! Sheesh. So I have some study guides and I am off to the races. Reading, writing, and reasoning does not worry me at all, however math makes me break into cold sweats.

A thing that made me laugh recently was the quote “"Tracey's learning style is more tactile, kinetic." from “30 Rock”. I remember learning about all that stuff back in Freshmen English. Back when I didn’t enjoy the company of girls quite as much and they sure didn’t appreciate mine. Anyway, “Tactile-Kinetic” was a fun way of talking about the less academically tuned students. And then 10 years later to hear that applied to Tracey Jordan on a TV show. Probably the only good thing I got out of Freshmen English.

Did you know the human body is pretty much genetically limited to how long it will live? There are these little tails on the end of our DNA. And every time a cell divides you lose a little bit of that tale. So cells exposed to outside air can divide about 52 times, and cells inside the body can divide about 70 times, crazy.

Enough for now, although I do wish to blog more and more often, I have a tremendous amount I want to write about Theology and the Christian Life, and the infighting that occurs in the North American Church. I am just fascinated how so many people think they have all the answers. And while I do believe me are blessed with God’s words in the Bible, I am sorry the Bible does not have all the answers. The same way early Christians did not have all the answers, you had to look for truth. The Gospels and the letters of Peter and Paul certainly do help but don’t apply to every situation today. And it is not that I don’t have a high view of scripture, but I just don’t think the scripture is to be our only source of truth.

Well, this all belongs in future posts, more later.