Dan Kimball: “Actually, you shouldn’t be Emergent”
Dan Kimball comments on the newish book, Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), and has some good things to say about authors Ted Kluck and Kevin DeYoung, who he describes as gracious and willing to converse. Kimball:
Kevin’s response has been so gracious, and he commented back to my comments. I can’t imagine that this type of correspondence to me, isn’t what would please Jesus. We have had some very wonderful back and forth dialog. I both disagreed with some of what they wrote and I also agreed with some of what they wrote. I personally see such wonderful, beautiful exciting things about what is happening in the emerging church world, but like the authors, I also have concerns and strong disagreements with some things in the emerging church world.
Dan Kimball also answers a question about Why We’re Not Emergent that came to mind almost immediately when I saw how and to whom the book was being promoted several months ago. Is it being billed accurately? I.e., are DeYoung and Kluck the reluctant converts away from Emergent that they make themselves out to be? Apparently not…
I am not too sure that the sub-title of the book makes sense to me. The sub-title is is “by two guys who should be” (referring to being emergent). I am not defending emergent here, but from what I understand of the authors, they are pretty hard core Calvinists. Being a hard core Calvinist means you are pretty locked into a very distinct theological system of beliefs. Also, just being a certain age or engaged in culture is not what makes one emergent - it is far beyond that. So from these things, I would not think that from what I read of these two authors that they naturally “should be” emergent at all. The sub-title maybe should have been “by two guys who shouldn’t be“. But that is petty, but it is the sub-title of the book.
Seems like Why We’re Not Emergent has its points. As Kimball says, “If I was to suggest reading through one fairly anti-emerging or emergent church critical book - so far, this is the one.” That’s a solid recommendation. I don’t think I’ll bite on this one, though, mostly because I was hoping for a more unique angle, based on that subtitle.
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