The Crazy Gay-Hating Minister, Generational Hating, & Tony Jones’ Love of Nothing

Hi Bo and Tripp,

Would love to hear you go head-to-head with JKA Smith on the podcast if he'd be up for it. Two very different perspectives, but he's an intelligent guy, so perhaps something constructive could come out of it. I think the conversation between the two options represented over the question 'where does the Church go from here?' or 'do we or don't we try to correlate with the world's concerns?' is one which will always be around (Tillich v Barth, Chicago School v Yale School etc. etc. - essentially the same issue in different guises).

I went and read JKAS's original post and found it confused/confusing (the cocktail of factors that he quotes re. the malaise of the millenials really doesn't mix well). There is something strangely frustrating about RadOrthodoxy: on one hand they do at least have a creative concept, there's no doubting the formidable intellect of Milbank and co., and there are some useful things in the project on an academic level (e.g. the genealogy of modernity). But on the minus side the centre of gravity really appears to be in the metaphysic of participation rather than the Gospels, linked to a weird nostalgia for Christendom and a relative lack of engagement with reality on the ground. I'm not surprised that youth pastors such as yourselves who are down in the trenches react as you do ... 'Popular' religion (i.e. 95% of Global Christianity) is something on which RadOx just can't deal - or at least hasn't done so yet.

I appreciated Barry Taylor's take on JKAS: a pretty nuanced assessment avoiding over-simplification that stays charitable while being critical, which is not an easy thing to do.

Peter B.

Typical stuff from Smith. What if the church is wrong about multiple issues? What if radical orthodoxy is just another way for evangelicals to feel better than other evangelicals by being hip with ancient church and some sort of pseudo-Catholic theology that smuggles in Christian superiority/imperialism through the backdoor? What if millenials are pissed off because the church consistently fails to preach the gospel of Christ, which calls for a radical prophetic Christianity that calls into question the powers of this world?

May Tony Jones hear the Deacons' prayers and repent from his love of 'Nothing'

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