Saturday, October 15, 2005

A WEEK WITH ROBERT WEBBER- day 5


ROBERT WEBBER ON THE ECCLESSIOLOGY OF THE YOUNGER EVANGELICALS:

The church is functioning in a pagan America. The notion that this is a Christian nation, or ever has been, or should be, is a notion that is really foreign to the new way of thinking. This is more of a missional model; it is a church that exists within the context of a post-Christian, a post-Constantinian, postmodern era. This era is essentially pagan in similar ways in which the church grew up or was early formed in a pagan culture. So my argument has been that if you want to know what the church should look like in today’s pagan American or pagan world, then we need to go back to the first three centuries in particular and take a look at what the church did at that particular period of history and translate that into our postmodern, post-Constantinian, post-Christian world.

2 comments:

Lenny Anderson said...

Sounds a lot like Leslie Newbiggins' analysis, "Foolishness to the Greeks." Of course he was prognosticating this development (the book was written in the 1980s, I think), but the solution is the same. A hearty amen from me on this point.

Jonathon said...

yeah, i really want to read some newgibbin. i think i'd resonate with his writings.