Reviews

Church in the Present Tense: A Candid Look at What's Emerging by Kevin Corcoran, Scot McKnight, Jason Clark, Peter Rollins

ryberst's review against another edition

4.0

In Church in Present Tense the editor brings together four authors (three and himself) of the Emerging Church movement to discuss four topics: philosophy, theology, worship, and scripture. Each author writes two chapters. Views of each chapter differ (particularly in philosophy), but it is not a response and critique, but rather, in typical emergent fashion, a coexistence of difference. The book had high and low points throughout the book. Corcoran offers a decent overview of "chastened realism." However, he only offers very simplistic, caricatures of other views. Rollins' essays are exactly what one would expect: Heidegger-via-Derrida-via-Caputo plus some medieval Christian mysticism. It was good, but nothing unexpected. Scot McKnight offers two very good essays, one on scripture as wiki-stories (open ended miniature stories about the transcendent "the Story"). He also offers a discussion on atonement theory in the emerging church. By far the greatest contribution of this book was Jason Clark's discussion of liturgy. Spanning two chapters, Clark traces the corrosive nature of consumer liturgies on the Christian life, and traces examples of how to counter these liturgies with ancient Christian practices such as the Church calendar, and a "short-term catechism." It should also be noted that included with the book is a cd with interviews and overviews of the emerging church movements which is an extremely helpful resource for those working in church settings. Over all, I would recommend this book if you are interested in post-modern or emerging Christianity. I would recommend parts of this book more broadly. Christians not interested in the emerging movement will still benefit from reading Clark's essays.