Another great book I read in 2005 is Embracing Grace by
In Embracing Grace, McKnight tackles the question that I’ve asked here repeatedly: What is the gospel? In the introduction he lists three typical answers to the question.
1. The gospel is that Jesus came to earth to die for my sins so I could be forgiven and go to heaven to be with God in eternity.
2. The gospel is the Good News that Jesus came to liberate us from oppression, from systemic evil, from slavery, so there would be justice and peace.
3. The gospel is being a part of the Church.
Mcknight says, “The most important thing I have to say in Embracing Grace is this: each of these groups is trying to say the same thing, each of these groups is right in what they do say about the gospel, and each of these groups needs the definition of the other.”
I love this both/and approach and the vision of an integral gospel that it gives us. Rather than picking one definition over the other, why not take the best from all of them and integrate them into a more complete whole. The future belongs to the politicians, theologians, and leaders who can do this instinctually.
McKnight goes on to provide his own definition of the gospel, which he spends the rest of the book unpacking. “The gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of community, for the good of others and the world.”
One of the things McKnight does very well in both Embracing Grace and The Jesus Creed is to pull in biographical sketchs from a variety of people, some well-known and others not. He uses each of these sketchs to illustrate the particular facet of the gospel he’s hightlighting. In other words, his theoretical discussion of the nature of the gospel is accompanied by practical images of what the gospel looks like in real life when it’s lived out by real people. This ability is rare in a New Testament scholar of McKnights caliber.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Good stuff, that McNight. I like “real life, real people” theology.
“Instinctually”?
Thanks Wade, I was looking for some pointers on this emerging church stuff. Marcus Borg had made reference to it in his recent book, “The Heart of Christianity”. I believe the future of the church lies in transcending liberal/evangelical silo thinking.