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A review by vincederr
Revelation for the Rest of Us by Scot McKnight
3.0
My church spent a quarter of the year preaching through the book of Revelation. I like many people can find the constant predictive reading to be tiring. So, I picked up this book. I enjoyed McKnight's "A Church Called Tov" and thought I'd check out more of his work. There are parts of this book that are chef's kiss five star. On the other hand there are parts that are bad. Let me start with the good. When it says "for the Rest of Us" it means it. There is a sanity to McKnight's approach that will be a balm to those weary of fundamentalist readings. McKnight shows us a different way of reading the book without diving into rank speculation. That part of the book is fantastic and the appendices are great snapshots.
This issue comes in for me in what I call getting too cute. McKnight has a tendency to invent a new term or phrase for a concept and then beat it like dead horse. If I never see the phrase dissident disciple again I'd die a happy man. I swear there was a stretch where it seemed every sentence had "dissident disciple" in it somewhere. Some of the writing is prone to hyperbole and mischaracterization. His points about hymns vs spirituals was overstated. The spirituals point was apt, but it did not necessitate a hit and run of hymns. His point of militarism perhaps isn't fleshed out enough or simply doesn't rest in reality. He list all of these massive casualty numbers for wars going back to the American Civil war and decries the carnage. Then he seems to suggest no real solution other than war is bad. Is the suggestion that bad actor should simply have free reign and Christian civil authorities should willing off up their populace as martyrs? It just seemed like such middle school reasoning of war is bad with no real solution for the here and now. At times he seems to discredit the inspiration of the book, but then he'll reaffirm it. I think he overstates his points on reading Revelation like a fantasy novel to the great degradation of the scriptures. Part five of the book is highly political and while he does take some shots at progressives its about a 99 to 1 split. Which he has some very valid concerns for conservative Christians, but seems blind to the ways in which his cultural politics has shaped his entire reading of the book of Revelation.
I could go on and on. In many way this was a very good book, but the issues just started to stack up for me. The approach was a breath of fresh air, but started to stink as he got closer to application.
3.5 out of 5
This issue comes in for me in what I call getting too cute. McKnight has a tendency to invent a new term or phrase for a concept and then beat it like dead horse. If I never see the phrase dissident disciple again I'd die a happy man. I swear there was a stretch where it seemed every sentence had "dissident disciple" in it somewhere. Some of the writing is prone to hyperbole and mischaracterization. His points about hymns vs spirituals was overstated. The spirituals point was apt, but it did not necessitate a hit and run of hymns. His point of militarism perhaps isn't fleshed out enough or simply doesn't rest in reality. He list all of these massive casualty numbers for wars going back to the American Civil war and decries the carnage. Then he seems to suggest no real solution other than war is bad. Is the suggestion that bad actor should simply have free reign and Christian civil authorities should willing off up their populace as martyrs? It just seemed like such middle school reasoning of war is bad with no real solution for the here and now. At times he seems to discredit the inspiration of the book, but then he'll reaffirm it. I think he overstates his points on reading Revelation like a fantasy novel to the great degradation of the scriptures. Part five of the book is highly political and while he does take some shots at progressives its about a 99 to 1 split. Which he has some very valid concerns for conservative Christians, but seems blind to the ways in which his cultural politics has shaped his entire reading of the book of Revelation.
I could go on and on. In many way this was a very good book, but the issues just started to stack up for me. The approach was a breath of fresh air, but started to stink as he got closer to application.
3.5 out of 5