relevant books

Book Review: The King Jesus Gospel

bo.white — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:03:49 -0700

At times, I fear the evangelical world acts like the U.S. Congress where party lines are drawn up and there’s much preaching to already-convinced choirs. And rarely do people seem to be able to cross the proverbial aisle with any credibility or at least enough to be heard on their own merit. Are you in the restless/reformed camp or the emergent one? Are you traditional or postmodern or some of both? Are you for or against denominations? If we can take a break with the labels a moment, there are some people whose works are getting a hearing (or should) across denominational lines. Tim Keller’s A Reason for God, N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian, and Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy come to mind in the past decade, as books that have been able to gain some appreciation inside and outside their ‘normal’ audiences.

A new book, entitled The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight will admittedly not please everyone, but it should be read across many traditional lines. The thesis and exploration done within the book could foster truly robust discussions that could not only enlarge one’s view of the gospel, but also drive people back to their Bibles for the discussion which isn’t a bad thing at all. First, I must confess that I have been blessed by McKnight’s work in the past. His books Jesus Creed and One.Life were helpful to me in practical ways. Secondly, I must also confess that I think it’s important to read widely and to appreciate the fact that denominationalism and divisiveness common in some areas of the blogosphere is often a luxury found in the West, not necessarily as prevalent in the global south or what Philip Jenkins has called The Next Christendom. I don’t have the space to expand on this latter point here, so I will simply leave it as an observation for now.

McKnight’s book aims to rearticulate the gospel for people who have reduced the good news of Jesus to ‘personal salvation’ bullet points. The first two chapters introduce McKnight’s line of thinking, setting up the discussion concerning the gospel itself in chapters three and following. I found the second chapter and parts of the third chapter a bit confusing at times due to the fact that McKnight introduces labels and phrases that are key to his book, but that are not necessarily common to the everyday lexicon of evangelicals sitting in the pew. The ordo salutis (order of salvation) which McKnight also calls the ‘Plan of Salvation’ is not a common phrase to laypeople, but seminarians and pastors will recognize it. I, for one, recalled B.B. Warfield’s The Plan of Salvation often as the phrase came up. I would be interested in McKnight’s thoughts on Warfield, since he uses the exact phrase.

A key line for the book comes on page 39, where we read: “this Plan of Salvation is not the gospel. The Plan of Salvation emerges from the Story of Israel/Bible and from the Story of Jesus, but the plan and gospel are not the same big idea.” A few lines later, we read “what I hope to show is that the ‘gospel’ of the New Testament cannot be reduced to the Plan of Salvation”. McKnight goes on to make the solid observation that many believers today act like they don’t need their Old Testament to articulate the gospel story. Since about 70% of the Bible is the Old Testament (not counting the OT quotes in the NT), it is a good reminder that we take the context of the world and story of Jesus seriously.

I was surprised at the attention given to 1 Corinthians 15, by McKnight, as I felt set up for a robust discussion of Genesis 3:15 or Genesis 12 before jumping to Paul (we get to Genesis 1-3 on pg. 137). With that said, I benefited from the time McKnight spends in explaining the context of 1 Corinthians 15 followed by the evangelistic sermons in Acts. On page 93, McKnight summarizes “the gospel is to declare something about a Person, about God in his revelation in Jesus Christ and about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.” McKnight affirms justification by faith and then lays out these points beginning on page 153.

First, “we have to become People of the Story” (p. 153). In other words, read the whole Bible and not just certain colored letters or summaries of the Bible. This is timely counsel in a world of sound bytes.

Secondly, “we need to immerse ourselves even more into the Story of Jesus,”(p. 153) which means truly soaking in the texts and teachings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Again, this is a good word. My own pastor is teaching through Luke’s gospel as I write this and I have been invigorated again at how Jesus is coming alive in his person and passion. Thirdly, “we need to see how the apostle’s writings take the Story of Israel and the Story of Jesus into the next generation and into a different culture, and how this generation led all the way to our generation,” (p. 155). Again, it’s a good word to not only know your Bible, but know your history. I have often wondered if some evangelicals would be helped by doing a sort of ‘family tree,’ or ancestry.com version of their own faith journey.

Fourthly, “we need to counter the stories that bracket our story and that reframe our story,” (p. 157). The brief discussion on hidden worldviews in this section (pg. 157-159) was particularly helpful to me. Finally, McKnight advocates that “we need to embrace this story so that we are saved and can be transformed by the gospel story, (p. 158).

There is much to agree with, though McKnight claims to reframe a discussion and drive the discussion about the gospel to a wider lens view of Scripture. His final point of embracing the story will take time as people come to understand and read the whole story and this counters much of the ‘hurry up and get saved’ language common to some wings of evangelicalism. With that said, there’s some controversial elements in the book and McKnight understands this.

This is by no means a flawless book. Sometimes the writing is cluttered (see the first part of chapter four where we read these words: “a dad of a friend of a friend of my son….”), but the thesis is clear and the affirmations are noteworthy. More importantly, the application is rather practical and a welcome challenge.

I hope McKnight gets a fair hearing with groups like the Gospel Coalition and I hope that McKnight continues to reach across ‘party lines’. I am reminded of the beauty of the gospel in diamond terms sometimes. A diamond is judged on clarity, cut, and color, we’d do well to see the gospel clarity in association, not separate from, its historical layers and multi-faceted wonder. At the end of the day, a robust gospel discussion is always worth our effort as Christ followers and for that reason alone, it’s worth picking up the book.

-bo

Hello Twenty-Ten

Kristin Ritzau — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:56:03 -0800

I am a sucker for bookstores and libraries. The thought of the amount of ink that has been spilled over the course of centuries excites me. The thought of a Kindle petrifies me. I love books. Each bound page is someone's opus, thesis, or work of art. I sometimes wonder what my life would look like if I just read book after book, only stopping to eat and sleep. How many could I get through?

My family knows this about me, so every Christmas I come home with another armful of books: Cookbooks, literature, non-fiction. It's marvelous. Then a funny thing happens. I just let them sit there for weeks on end, scared to bend their crisp covers. They are pretty and untouched. Their mysteries yet to be unfolded. I don't want them to be over with so quickly or to disappoint. Someone's life work gobbled up in a matter of a month. I want to appreciate it longer.

As 2009 came to a close I felt the same apprehension about 2010 -- not "oh ten," it's now "twenty-ten." The end of decade, the dawning of the throws of the 21st century. It's shiny and new and I don't want to blink and miss it.

I love January 1st. The promises, hopes, and resolutions -- this time it will be different. There is an overwhelming amount of expectation, especially at the start of a new decade. For what? I'm not sure yet, but it's alive inside of me too. Like a new book I want savor it, not just throw it on some shelf only to toss it into the Goodwill pile come 2012. I want to appreciate it because Someone went to a lot of trouble to create it. That Someone is already at the end of 2010. They know what happens. Is it a thriller? A comedy? Tragedy? Romance maybe? It could be all of the above, but there is trepidation in finding out. It means we must live it. We must choose the story we want to write.

Of course there are always edits and typos we never saw coming, but just as I pick up a new book, I want to choose how to read it. As I write, I want to be proactive in how I use my pen. In this new year I want to live with intention in the page of each day. Some days will flip faster than others, but I want it to be a story worth telling. So here you are 2010. Bring what you will -- may the stories that come out of this year draw a tear, draw a laugh, and draw many smiles.

Pocket Guide to the Hilarious

Cara Davis — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:14:21 -0700

Jason Boyett is hilarious. If you met him in person, you'd never know it; he's quiet and unassuming, which I assume is rare for a Texan. But his pen packs a punch. I first met Jason over email as he was one of the original writers who contributed to RELEVANT magazine. When I worked there, RELEVANT launched a line of books, and we knew we needed Jason on our roster. Thankfully, he took us up on our offer and has been writing books ever since.

His newest endeavor is a trinity of titles packaged by Jossey-Bass: Pocket Guide to the Bible, Pocket Guide to the Afterlife and Pocket Guide to Sainthood. If you're a fan of religious humor at all, you'll appreciate Jason's witty insights into a variety of topics like near-death experiences, saintly fashion and old-fashioned smitings.

And you'll learn a thing or two as well. So much for my college Old and New Testament classes. These should be required reading for students of the Bible – at least those with a sense of humor.

In Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, Jason tackles historical and contemporary beliefs about what happens after we die. Like each of the pocket guides, the book is structured in bite-sized chapters that make reading fun. Instead of straight narrative, we read through glossaries, timelines, geographical tours and fun lists like "Eleven Highly Attractive Synonyms for Heaven" or "Twelve Activities That May Be Signs of an Impending Death Should They Occur in Your Dreams, According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead."

In Pocket Guide to the Bible, we meet a holy cast of characters, get a history of scripture's events at breakneck speed and learn about smitings and translations of the Bible (otherwise known as perversions). Fun facts are sprinkled throughout including random biblical phrases taken out of context: "Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces" (Mal. 2:3, KJV).

Pocket Guide to Sainthood introduces those of us who are less familiar with Catholicism to the myriad and many saints in that tradition. It includes a glossary of terms, an alphabetized list of saints and who they were and a run-down of patron saints and their causes. Learn how a saint is canonized (it's as painful as it sounds) and catalog trivial information through lists like "Six Superhero-Like Abilities Claimed by Saints but Not Related to Levitation."

With pop culture references a-plenty, Jason marries today's worldview to yesterday's tradition to create a match made in heaven.