Truth & The New Kind of Christian, Ch. 6 and 7

Showing us some key points in McLaren and Jones' ideas, Smith walks us through a proper discernment of the emerging church. We are, in this chapter, reintroduced to the familiar 'problem of the criterion'. I appreciate that Smith points out that we do not need McLaren's bombproof certainty in our knowledge (JTB). Instead, we can have truth that is sure but uncertain. If truth is personal as it must be in light of God being personal, the locus of our certainty is not in ourselves, but in the one who gives us Truth, Jesus Christ.

Smith then turns his sites on the idea that language constructs reality. Having just seen the movie Inception, I am familiar with this concept visually. This idea negates the power of Jesus' resurrection and his ability to forgive our sins let alone the truth we find in Scripture. I find it incredibly interesting that McLaren (as well as others) critique modernity from outside their use of language. It seems like that would be an apparent contradiction.