Comments on: Book Review: "The New Christians" by Tony Jones

By: Does the Ooze have any standards at all? « Bruce Reyes-Chow

Does the Ooze have any standards at all? « Bruce Reyes-Chow — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:56:24 +0000

[...] will never be as sweet of a reviewer as Mr. Copeland, See his most excellent review of Tony Jones’ New Christians, I will do my best to give you some reason to buy it now, wait until later or [...]

By: Bruce Reyes-Chow

Bruce Reyes-Chow — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:49:22 +0000

Adam – Good stuff. Your affirmations and critiques seem to be what I expected and have heard from the previous conversations, presentations, etc.

By: David

David — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:50:36 +0000

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for saying what I’ve suspected. As a former conservative evangelical who now attends an Episcopal church, and now have been reading emergent stuff, I too have gotten the sense that what is groundbreaking and revolutionary is the very same thing that most mainliners have been doing and are trying to do now.

I look forward to reading Tony’s book, but would suggest to him and many others in the conversation that perhaps they should spend a little more time attending mainline churches before they use such lofty terms as “Total re-examination,” particularly because there are a lot of things they aren’t and won’t reexamine.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:13:55 +0000

I need to read this book…and need to buy my next three books for class…will it ever end?

One thing I’m intrigued about is the “young” tag you bring up, Adam. I started to “get” things Emergent as soon as I started to be aware of them (thanks largely to classmate/colleague Troy B) and I am chronologically older than that “young” crowd. I tend to think there are more of us over 50s who do/can/will “get it” than we imagine at present.

GREAT post and very helpful – I’ll keep it in mind when I do get to read the book.

By: adamjcopeland

adamjcopeland — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:20:44 +0000

Thanks Tony, and Jim. I wondered how long it would take Tony to find the review–I’d say about 12 hours is pretty darn good!

Jim: that’s a really good way to put it, “emerging” from the traditional liberal left. I’ve certainly done that more than I realize.

And I didn’t mean to suggest everyone, or even many, of the traditional liberal left would agree with many of the dispatches. Just that several mainline churches I know–particularly liberal, perhaps–are all over much of what emergent is about. I take Tony’s point, though, that many would be thrown by plenty of his message.

By: jbonewa

jbonewa — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:01:43 +0000

Adam, I agree with this critique, but with one exception: the book would be strengthened by more thought on what it looks like for people to ‘emerge’ from the liberal left, by that I mean ‘traditonal’ liberalism.

I’m not sure that ‘everyone’ on the left, would in fact agree with all of the dispatches Tony highlights. The hope of emergent, as I see it, is sort of a melding of both the left and the right at some sort of center point.

By: Tony Jones

Tony Jones — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:31:46 +0000

Great review, Adam. Thanks.

Though I attempt to be an equal opportunity offender, I probably spent a little more time criticizing evangelicalism because of how much cultural sway it’s had in the last 30 years. I think that if I had a conversation with your traditionally liberal church members, they’d not particularly like some parts of my message.