Tony Jones’ at Wheaton Theology Conference

Tony Jones is the National Coordinator for Emergent Village. He recently gave a talk at the Wheaton Theological Conference. The talk and PowerPoint have been posted here (includ link). While reading and some of the conversation around it I thought I’d put down some thoughts of my own.

I feel like the Emergents are accusing the Evangelicals of being too static and inflexible while the Evangelicals are accusing the Emergents of being disconnected from the true roots of the Gospel.

 

It seems to me that both charges have a fair measure of truth in them. I can’t help but feel that both parties are missing the point in their discussions.

They each depart from a different epistemology and are defined, when one takes a step out of the conversation, by their lack of willingness to distinguish between medium and message (where medium includes epistemology as one element).

I feel that both parties contribute much – I consider myself an Evangelical and Emergent.

Neverthless, I feel that what comes across in conversations between both parties is not necessarily what they’re contributing. What I hear when listening to them speak to and about each other is a sense that Evangelicals feel they’re beyond deconstruction, i.e. that they’re attained a level of perfection, and the Emergents feel they’re not sure why they’re deconstructing, i.e. they don’t know what they’re trying to retrieve and repeat through deconstruction.

We shall see what the conversation holds in future.

Adoption is not for everyone

While Bev and I were chatting Monday morning she said, “Adoption is not for everyone.” I loved the ambiguity of the phrase, it’s double meaning – not everyone should adopt a orphan; not every orphan should be adopted.

We’ve recently decided (again) to adopt. After settling on not being able to have our own kids we fell pregnant and had our own son, Jethro. I’d love to say “We’ve been doing a lot of research about adoption” but the truth is that she’s been doing a lot. Bev’s been going through a variety of emotions, looking at various children’s faces and stories and reading up about adoption in South Africa and abroad. This process has provoked a lot of my own feelings and memories around my own childhood. I grew up as a “ward of the state” in South Africa’s child welfare system.