Adventures in Missing the point - How the Culture Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel

Brian Mclaren, Tony Campolo

Zondervan

2010

272 páginas

9h 4m

ISBN-10: 0310253845

Co-authored books, where either the authors alternate chapters or the authors write a chapter and the other responds, are among the most enlightening books to read, especially in the area of theology. Dialog between two authors who have different viewpoints allows the reader to arrive at his or her own conclusions, sort of like "Point-Counterpoint". While McLaren and Campolo are sometimes in agreement, they often disagree on some fundamental issues. McLaren is becoming (along with Leonard Sweet) the poster-boy for postmodern Christianity, while Campolo camps out on the left edge of evangelicalism. When McLaren takes his flights of fancy into his new kind of Christianity, Campolo is there to keep the subject grounded in a slightly more traditional interpretation (excluding a few areas, such as homosexuality, in which his views would be rather troubling to the more conservative reader).
This book brought to my mind the fact that, although the world and parts of the church seem to be moving towards postmodernism, the transition is far from complete, and, in fact, may take a few hundred years! McLaren's final essay on postmodernism, while probably the most difficult passage in the book, gives a great overview of epochs of history and how different eras and transitions have played out. All in all, I find myself having more of a kinship with Campolo than I do McLaren (McLaren's view of absolute truth being relatively unimportant is totally wrongheaded, in my view, but once again, Campolo brings some sanity to the issue with his reply), but, whichever author strikes one's fancy, this is still a terrific read.