Curious Christian

I heard via Kay Paris that Peter Enns has been dumped by Westminster over his book “Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament”.

Humph. I haven’t read the whole book yet but what I’ve read so far seemed well written and thought provoking. I guess I have to take that as further evidence that many evangelicals are having a hard time digesting more incarnational approaches to Christian scripture and ministry.

At the risk of pointing the bone, here are some other books grounded in more incarnational approaches that I have found quite helpful and would recommend:

“Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach” by Irving Hexham, Stephen Rost, and John W. Morehead II

“The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church” by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

“Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith” by Richard J. Foster

“The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1” by J. Richard Middleton

“Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ’s Continuing Incarnation” by Gerrit Scott Dawson

And here are a few more that I would like to read and sus out:

“Incarnational Ministry: Planting Churches in Band, Tribal, Peasant, and Urban Societies” by Paul G. Hiebert and Eloise Hiebert Meneses

“The Word Made Flesh: Towards an Incarnational Missiology” by Ross Langmead

“The Word Became Flesh: A Contemporary Incarnational Christology” by Millard J. Erickson

“Revitalizing Theological Epistemology: Holistic Evangelical Approaches to the Knowledge of God” by Steven B. Sherman

“The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone (Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective)” by Samuel Escobar

“Ministering Cross-Culturally,: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships” by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter and Marvin K. Mayers

“The Incarnation and the Church’s Witness (Christian Mission and Modern Culture)” by Darrell L. Guder “Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (American Society of Missiology Series)” by Stephen B. Bevans and Roger P. Schroeder

“The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God” by Stephen Davis, S.J., Daniel Kendall, and S.J., Gerald O’Collins

“Beyond Cheap Grace: A Call to Radical Discipleship, Incarnation, and Justice” by Eldin Villafane

“Christology from Within: Spirituality and the Incarnation in Hans Urs Von Balthasar (Studies in Spirituality and Theology)” by Mark A. McIntosh

“The Eucharist in the Reformation: Incarnation and Liturgy” by Lee Palmer.

“Towards Liturgies that Reconcile (Liturgy, Worship and Society)” by Scott Haldeman

“Liturgy and Justice: To Worship God in Spirit and Truth” by Pastoral Liturgy Conference 2001 (University of Notre Dame) and Anne Y. Koester

Punters will note that few of these are explicitly “emergent” books. The truth is, while I appreciate where emergents have explored incarnational perspectives and practices, I draw my inspiration from well beyond the emergent fold and I think it should concern all of us that voices like Peter Enns are being silenced.