My Week as a Tarheel
I'm sitting here in the MicroTel (not the best name for a hotel) in Lillington, NC, at the beginning of a week here in NC. Tuesday and Thursday, preaching at Campbell University, then DEBATING Scot McKnight at UNC-Greensboro on Friday and Saturday (no wagering, please).
I'm really looking forward to joining Tim Conder's community, Emmaus Way, for their Ash Wednesday gathering tomorrow night. That will be excellent, I'm sure.
I've been asked by another entity to blog about Mitt Romney, and I've asked, in turn, if it's allowable for me to be honest about my deep ambivalence about Mormonism. We'll see what they say...
I'm really looking forward to joining Tim Conder's community, Emmaus Way, for their Ash Wednesday gathering tomorrow night. That will be excellent, I'm sure.
I've been asked by another entity to blog about Mitt Romney, and I've asked, in turn, if it's allowable for me to be honest about my deep ambivalence about Mormonism. We'll see what they say...
posted by tony at 5:17 AM
14 Comments:
my money is on Mcknight
Any chance there will be audio posted of this "DEBATE" with Scot McKnight?
May your extended stay at the Microtel bring you many joyous experiences... seriously, check out the waffle house after midnight
I am one of the hosts for the tony\scot event and will be recording the event and converting it to MP3. I will let scot and tony know when I convert them so they can share, well as long as Tony doesn't demolish Scot so he wants the files kept on the DL.
Enjoyed the tarheel time today in chapel. Keep us posted regarding your post-graduate work.
I'm looking forward to hearing you in Greensboro, Tony!
Tony, i had a conversation in class today and thought you'd be the person to talk, since you were brought up in the conversation.
how much influence does derrida, foucault have on the way you are viewing the task of emergent?
the reason i brought this up, is because I thought that voices like Newbigin, Bosch, van gelder, and guder were voices that were heavily influencing the Emergent conversation.
The point being, if the deconstructionist perception is the main influence, and not the missiological then (as my friend was arguing) it would be hard to stand behind, or even near Emergent. I wanted to respond, from what I've read and the little I know that Emergent is more interested in missional ecclesiology, and production (of a church contextualized in the west) than deconstruction.
His case, is build on the fact Emergent is hosting Caputo this year. he believes that emergent is moving in the direction of deconstructionism.
just thought you could clear up somethings, and help me understand where deconstruction fits in and influences, as well as the importance of Caputo's voice for the church and why its positive.
Joe
I'm not tony, but I would point you to Peter Rollin's book "How (not) to Speak of God." While Caputo is a real philosopher and loves some Derrida he is has not deconstructed himself out of his faith. In fact his philosophy informs his own theological reflection. I have had friends question the ability to be a Christian committed to the the mission of God, while learning from non-christian philosophers (or non-christians in general). This seems odd, but I could understand someone misunderstanding Caputo and being worried. I bet this could be fixed by going to the conversation or reading some Rollins.
thanks bro. yeah, rollins is on my list of "one of these days" books. and i wish i could go to the caputo conversations, its just not feasible now.
i've been trying to learn a little about caputo, and it seems he has a strong faith. I guess the worry is that he is more than just interested or informed by derrida, he studied and is the man when it comes to derrida.
Caputo has a real short and super book called "Philosophy and Theology" which you can read in about 2 hours. It would be an easy way to see how he negotiates those boundaries.
Being an expert on a non-Christian philosopher has lead to some of the greatest theologians in Church history. Take Aquinas' overwhelming love for Aristotle. For Aquinas he was 'The Philosopher' and informed his entire system in both shape and content.
thanks for the recommendation, i'll put that on the list too.
i think this is what my friend is arguing though. I mean, if we could of had foresight into the effects of aquinas' theological system based so deeply in greek philosophy, then we might have opposed it.
so i think he's afraid that Emergent is adopting deconstructionism too much.
so, i would ask, where does forming a missional church fit in with caputo, and deconstruction philosophy?
I would say engaging deconstruction is being intellectually missional. Engaging and understanding it does not require swallowing it, but today deconstruction is very important to the terrain of the church's missional movement. Much of Derrida is the unknown but present epistemological assumptions of people and so some people in the church should know it and know it well. We have that in Caputo, so regardless of agreement he is a gift to the people of God who want to engage the world as it is. I am not a big Caputo fan and am attracted to a more confident philosophy like that of Philip Clayton, but he does help make clear the mind of many in a world we are called to love. Hope this helps.
I agree that the baptism of Aristotle into Christian theology was a bad idea. Aristotle's "Unmoved Mover" is not the God revealed in Christ. I think "Most Moved Mover" is more Christian sounding. Then again he remains one of the most influential theologians in church history.
http://leronshults.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/02/deconstructive_.html
shults answers the question.
I'm jealous of you in NC both to be able to hang out with Tim Conder and be so close to Chapel Hill.
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