parables of a prodigal world

Don 't get me wrong; I loves me some Rob Bell. Velvet Elvis . Sex God . All of it. Rob's like the 21st century Origen...kinda out there, but you get a sense that God is speaking to this guy in a deep way. Having said that, this piece from The Door had me rolling. Here's an excerpt: An exclusive excerpt (including footnotes!) from Rob Bell's groundbreaking new book Oingo Boingo: Rediscovering Realness In Authentic Realitude : I was counseling a man and woman the other day. He was very angry. And upset. And she was too. They. were. upset. I looked at the man. He was so upset because he was quite displeased with the whole situation. And that reminded me of Jesus. “Jesus” is this man, who is also God, who is talked about in the Christian holy writings called “The Bible.” In this “Bible,” there are many “stories” about Jesus in things called “gospels.” Anyhoo, one day “Jesus” became “upset.” So upset that he turned over tables. Tables people changed money at. Tables where ...

OK, I'll admit it. N.T. Wright is my theological hero. The 4 of you who read this blog regularly will know that I would unabashedly admit that my Christian understanding was woefully inadequate before I started engaging with Wright's work (not that many would say it is much farther along now, but anyway...) Having said that, I don't swallow whole every aspect of Wright's theological vision. Many of his ideas, I'll admit, I either can't get my head around, or I disagree with, or some combination of the two. One example comes to mind, touching on perhaps the most significant of Wright's theological categories. Isaiah and the Eschatological Framework One of Wright's favorite tools for framing his eschatological vision is the use of Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 11 to highlight the present and future senses of God's glory. Isaiah 6, of course, contains the Seraphim's exclamation that "the whole earth is full of [the Lord's] glory," while Isaiah ...

The Post-Evangelical Manifesto seems to be reaching a few ears and making some waves. Thank God for that. Thank you especially to the people behind Nuance and Conservative Reformed Mafia for helping spread the word, as well as countless comments on the issue in various posts in the blogosphere. But one blogger was especially engaging, and I sensed in his word a genuine yearning to understand where all this is coming from. Tim Wilson at Christ-Centered Blogging challenged me with some very tough and insightful questions . I have no doubt that Tim vociferously disagrees with my overall position, but I am as fully convinced that his questions were posed is love and in the true spirit of Christian engagement. As such, they deserve a response in that same spirit. So I will try to give one here. Tim's Question (On the Title "Post-Evangelical"): My first question is, if evangelical means “Gospel person” why would you want to be post-evangelical? You may want to reform the w...