Resources on Deconstructionism
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Kreps:
Hey everyone. And welcome to the Mark Prater podcast where our aim is to connect our global family of churches with our Executive Director. Mark, right now, as you all know, and I'm sure pretty much everybody who's watching this podcast or reading it, you know that there are a number of buzzwords that are floating around evangelicalism right now that carry some significant baggage behind them: exvangelical, and especially deconstruction. Deconstruction is difficult to get your hands around because it can mean, I think anything from someone being circumspect and wanting to deconstruct potentially legalistic beliefs about the Christian faith, all the way to somebody ending up as an atheist. So it's a real phenomenon. It's going on around us. We hear about it pretty much every day, someone else deconstructing. You have some resources though that you wanted to recommend to serve us as pastors.
Mark Prater:
I do have a couple of resources that I've read recently on the topic of deconstruction. And they're helpful partly because in both of the articles they do define deconstruction, in a way they're using it, in a very helpful way. So let me mention those two resources. The first is from the new 9Marks journal. I think the title of this particular edition is "Sound Doctrine", but Jonathan Leeman has an article in there entitled "Editor’s Note: Defending Sound Doctrine Against the Deconstruction of American Evangelicalism". And then in the most recent Eikon journal, a journal for biblical anthropology published by the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: Neil Shenvi has an article entitled "Sociology as Theology: The Deconstruction of Power in (Post)Evangelical Scholarship".
And I'd recommend both of those articles because I think they can be really helpful for our guys. To mention just Leeman's definition, which I found very helpful in his article, he defines deconstruction this way. He calls it the deconstruction project. So what is the deconstruction project? The basic charge of the deconstruction project is that evangelical doctrine, or what we might even call Christian doctrine, is more culturally conditioned and self-interested than we evangelicals realize that it is, that is how deconstructionists are approaching the issue and even defining it. And typically what that means, as Shenvi's title mentions, is that it does step into the issue of power and who has power, and who's trying to hold on to power, who might be under power, you know, all of those categories. And you see it played out in different issues right now, whether it's complementarianism so he mentions DuMez's book, for example, or it could be in the race issue, the ethnic harmony issue. It can be actually in the sexuality issue and gender identity issue. It can also be in politics and Christian nationalism in particular, and Shenvi speaks to Christian nationalism in his article.
So I really highly recommend that our guys, whoever's listening to these podcasts, read both of these resources. The thing is they take a little different approach. So in Leeman's article, he defines the issue, sets it up and then he just gives several recommendations for what a pastor should do. What does a pastor do with the deconstruction project? And I think he just gives some really very helpful recommendations that I would encourage our guys to read without dropping into them. Whether you have members of your church that are being impacted by this or not, it's good to be prepared in case that does happen in the church. And I think it's just good to be prepared and be informed on the topic overall, given what's happening, not only in our culture, but in evangelicalism right now.
Benjamin Kreps:
Yeah. That's helpful. I'll certainly be taking a look at that. And certainly in those areas that you described, it's wise for each one of us to make sure that we have biblically based convictions about these kind of cultural issues. They talk about that a little bit in those articles, don't they?
Mark Prater:
They do. Yeah. Shenvi takes a little bit more of an approach where he's dropping into the evangelical scholarship world, but he has some very practical helpful categories, including some discussions I mentioned on Christian nationalism. But what was interesting in reading both of these, and I read these in fairly close proximity together, is they end with a very similar admonition to the reader, which is a good one for us as pastors. And that is to remain rooted in sound doctrine, to remain faithful to a biblical exegisis, as we think about these issues. They're basically saying, hold onto your Bibles and process this with good sound doctrine. And you know, that's not surprising that is something we can do at the same time. We have to be intentional to do it. And it's one of the reasons I wanted to mention these resources and just put that reflection out there for anybody that's listening. Let's remain tied to scripture as we think about these cultural issues.
Benjamin Kreps:
Amen. Standing firm on our theological convictions, also Jude 1:22, "have mercy on those who doubt" as pastors, and approaching those who are struggling in that way, I think is appropriate as well. So thanks Mark for thinking about us and the way we're navigating through these kinds of issues in our culture right now. And thank you all for watching. We'll see you here, Lord willing, next week. Bye for now.