Tony Jones has a new book coming out in March 2008. Tony was gracious enough to send me an advanced reader’s copy (in advance of an upcoming podcast) and I devoured it in 3 sittings. While I’m prone to hyper-active spurts of exaggeration, in this particular instance I’m afraid I’ll understate things. I think The New Christians is the most important book since A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren.
I’m really not prone to kissing someone’s butt (unless of course it’s this guy’s), but I was literally engrossed in this book from the first page until the last. I raced through it because I couldn’t put it down. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in sort of a sensitive/soft place about possibly entering back into an intentional community of people but I was actually inspired to want to go out and be a part of creating a space again for a gathered community.
The book was part personal memoir, part history, part theological framework, and part travelogue. At times it felt like I was listening to a father-type figure reflecting back on his life and looking forward to the life ahead. And at other times it felt like was truly reading a letter from a pioneer in some far away land reporting back the signs of life that he was discovering.
The strongest portion of the book are the metaphors that Tony develops to articulate this nexus and transition in culture that we are experiencing. He waxed poetic with metaphors about phone booths, chickens, and wikis.
Far from being soft, Tony talks at length in deep theological terms about the trinity, the art of hermeneutics, and politics. But despite wading into these heady theological waters, these topics get addressed and explained simply and honestly. But Tony is doing more than trying to articulate what Emergent’s “is” . Instead he is building a framework for an entirely new/old/third way of doing Christianity. I have a suspicion that in the same way Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christian was so instrumental in helping people put their frustrations in to words, that The New Christians will be instrumental in helping people put their hope into action.
I don’t think this is a book that could have been written 7 years ago like A New Kind of Christian. ANKOC helped many people articulate what they were feeling. Which was a beautiful and freeing thing for many people. But it also left many of us (and maybe it’s just me) on the outside looking in, feeling at times like we were on an island, albeit joined by a few of our friends.
Tony’s book has the potential to be one of the final (or first) steps towards many of us reclaiming our role as leaders and visionaries by giving us some sort of closure for the past few years and some sort of hope for the years ahead.
Plus any book that calls Al Mohler and Paige Patterson “bishops” on page 6 is solid by my definition of pwnage. To be fair, he also pushes back on Marcus Borg and John Piper to name a few. Tony appears way more moderate than the “heretic” label that his critics want to put on him.
My only complaint is that I didn’t get a G.I. Joe action figure to accompany the cute little figure on the cover.
DISCLAIMER: I know my review may appear as quite biased. Partly because I consider Tony a friend (albeit an extended one) and I consider myself thorougly emergent (although I understand the hang-ups with labels). This is an understandable assumption. However, I didn’t write a glowing review because of my appreciation for Tony or Emergent. I wrote the glowing review because it’s a freaking good book. And if you’re a critic of Emergent (you know who you are) then I can’t think of another book that would be my greatest hope to get you to give us the benefit of the doubt more than The New Christians.
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14 Comments
Josh, this has a tiny, tiny bit to do with your post. But not much.
Over the last couple years I’ve read your complaints against the established church. I definitely feel ya on a lot of it. Anyway, since I’m going to be planting a church one of these days… what are some things you’d be drawn toward in a gathering of believers?
It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, as part of an answer to another question I asked myself: why am I in “ministry”?
well i’ll have to be sure and grab it when it comes out. sounds pretty good. as bad as this may sound, i’ve yet to read mclaren’s “claim to fame.” may have to pick that one up too. looking forward to the podcast interview as well.
i’m really interested in the metaphor thing you mentioned. we’re in desperate need of people (like tony and brian) to forge new metaphors and to create new mytho-poetic language for the 21st century.
sounds like that is what tony is doing.
joe. let me send you an email in a couple of days. that’s something i’ve been thinking about a lot actually. anna and i had a good conversation with josh and laura case about this recently and i think it helped to clarify some of those things in my mind.
blake. in all seriousness, you’re one of my favorite blog commenters. and favorite bloggers for that matter.
this is how i break down the regular commenters. nick is the asinine one. corey is the snarky one. eric is the geek one. britt and derek are the fox news ones (no offense). nathan is the academic one. kagi is the designer/oregon duckie one. kingsley is the canuck. bouma is the new guy.
and you and wess are the normal ones.
why no “regular” girls? am i too driscoll-ian?
any other regulars i’m missing? i’d love for some of the lurker ones to become regular ones for what’s it worth.
snarky, eh? i’m down with that label. funny thing is i’m not that way on my blog (usually).
I loved when you wrote, “I was actually inspired to want to go out and be a part of creating a space again for a gathered community.” I’m all about creating space for community (even if it is in the context of a Christian community, which i’m assuming is what you were referring to).
I always find it interesting that the blog i read the most (yours) is often times about something i know little to nothing about (the Emergent church). I work for, live next door to and have many friends in what is considered an Emergent church.
And while I choose to remain clueless as to what “being emergent” is all about i can tell you that the people i have met through working for Church of the Apostles (in Seattle, no affiliation with the big church on the side of the highway in Atlanta) are some of the most amazing folks i know.
They have loved me deeply and created a space for me to be myself, even if i dont know who the hell i am.
I think Tonys “New Christians” might be the people i live next door to. Oh yeah, they also pay my rent.
thanks josh. i’m usually pretty distrustful of “normal,” (whatever it means, i haven’t quite figured it out yet) but i can roll with that.
Quick question (and I’m seriously not trying to jump in to the asinine category that Nick so proudly holds, I actually want to know the answer):
Is the reason that you use the phrase “an intentional community of people” instead of “church” because you associate alot of baggage with the latter term, and you don’t want people to mistakenly assume you mean you’re thinking about joining a group that meets at a large brick building that generally has a big cross or steeple on it?
i think i’m a regular girl.
Thanks for this review, Josh – I’m interested to see how enthusiastic you are about Tony’s new book. Yes you’re biased – but aren’t all reviewers?
Emergent Christian books are hard for me to read these days because of the Christian beliefs they presuppose. (They all presuppose some beliefs I don’t currently have even though they may strongly oppose some conservative Christian beliefs) I do read some of these books anyway, just to be informed about where the movement is at, and I often like a lot of what they say.
I like Tony because when I met him last year he took me seriously and treated me with respect. How a person treats me one-on-one has more impact on me than all the words they’ve ever written.
By the way – for those who are interested there’s an excerpt of Tony’s new book in Next Wave.
why no “regular” girls? am i too driscoll-ian?
Thankfully no. I don’t recall you saying anything that would alienate female bloggers (well, except, possibly, calling them ‘girls’
)
eric. yes. i know it’s pretty shallow. but it’s the easiest way i know how to describe it. because in many ways i still feel like i’m doing “church”, just not in organized, gathered ways.
cindy. henceforth, you are a regular.
helen. i’m sorry for calling you a “girl”. and thanks for sharing.
No worries, Josh – I know you didn’t mean anything disrespectful by it.
Josh Driscoll. Sounds about right.
Oh snap Dave! No you din’nt!
i forgot about dave!
edit: dave is the political one.
Glad to know i am memorable.
I should change my link to you to something like “Driscoll-lite.”
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