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 PrintableVersion MetavistaCan sociology rescue the churches?METAVISTA The background to this book is the steep decline in church membership and influence in most of the West and our current cultural setting of postmodernity. The book is an attempt to define a ‘new model of mission based on radical cultural engagement’. At some point in the 1960s, the ‘Christianity narrative’ ceased to persuade; and re-using our old methods to try and reverse the slide simply won’t work. |Metavist|a is a description of the postmodern world where new narratives have the opportunity to emerge and convince. Thus this is the sort of book that makes the following statements: ‘The metavista world we now inhabit… is an extended hyperspace that awaits legitimisation’ (p.88). You have been warned! From a purely sociological point of view, the authors’ assessment is actually convincing enough, and on that front the book has some interesting evidence and stimulating analysis to offer. But the question is, how far do we base our response to this ‘day of small things’ on sociology and methodology and how far on our confidence in a God who is sovereign and whose Word is unchanging? The best insight in the book sees the Bible as God’s totalising story which strips the pretensions from every other narrative while making them part of its own. It is the story about reality. The problem, however, is that if ‘dwelling in the narrative’ is the primary way we are to engage with Scripture (and we are told it is), we must at minimum understand the story properly and in its proper balance. This the authors fail to do. They also seem to miss the crucial point that, insofar as we do engage with Scripture in this way, we do so with the benefit of hindsight — we are not the Israelites emerging from Egypt precisely because we live after the cross and the resurrection of the true Passover Lamb! EN readers will find all kinds of problems with the authors’ approach. For a book which includes the word ‘Bible’ in its subtitle, there is astonishingly little engagement with Scripture except in the most general terms. And, for all its claim to be radical, it embraces a very politically correct notion of Christian culture which takes for granted much of the contemporary liberal consensus. Doctrinally, the authors display a weak view of sin, which leads them to excessive optimism about culture and the value of other religions (apparently the delightful plurality to be found in Revelation 21 will include a variety of beliefs!); and a low view of providence, which leads to an excessive emphasis on our role in God’s story and on getting our missional methods right before the Spirit can take over. This does not inspire confidence in their capacity to transform anything, let alone something as dynamic and threatening to the ‘Christianity narrative’ as contemporary culture has shown itself to be. At the end of the book I was still left wondering exactly what the authors suggested our churches ought to do, but equally hesitant to accept their advice in any event. Steve Wilmshurst, © Evangelicals Now - February 2009 |
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