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http://tjx.sagepub.com/content/116/2/146.citationThe online version of this article can be found at:

DOI: 10.1177/0040571X12470050u

2013 116: 146TheologyAlison Milbank

the Present Tense: A Candid Look at What's EmergingScot McKnight, Peter Rollins, Kevin Corcoran and Jason Clark, Church in

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Scot McKnight, Peter Rollins, Kevin Corcoran and Jason Clark, Church in the

Present Tense: A Candid Look at Whats Emerging, Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Brazos Press, 2011; 176 pp.: 12.99/$21.99 (pbk)

One of the speakers on the DVD accompanying this volume compares the

attempt to define Emerging Church as nailing jello to the wall but it does

offer clarity about the movement, especially in the Reformed American con-

text. Two chapters by Scot McKnight question the dominance of Atonement

theories in driving evangelism in contrast to the Acts preaching of the narra-

tive of Jesus life, and the various models of biblical interpretation in evangel-

icalism, offering instead a structure based on Wikipedia as a form of midrash.

Peter Rollins, rock-star-style leader of the Ikon project makes extensive use of

post-structuralism in his chapter on transformance art in which participantsenact the death of God (as deus ex machina) and the resurrection of God (as

the one who dwells among us) with the purpose of transfiguring ones social

existence (p. 98). As encouraging occasional liturgies of rupture and self-

questioning, this could sometimes be quite effective; as theology, this is a

reheating of Bonhoeffers religionless Christianity, which, for this reviewer, is

a cause and not a panacea for the loss of nerve in post-war ecclesial mission.

It was a pity, however, that the DVD contained no liturgy from Ikon. Its best

example of new worship was a Coca Cola liturgy, which had some real critical

political bite, and seemed to be both communal and participatory. Otherexamples of so-called innovative liturgy were the usual conventional mixture

of prayer station, tea lights and overuse of power point.

Some of the most interesting writing is by Jason Clark, who discusses the way

that new forms of church can themselves spawn a commodified spirituality. As a

leader of Emerging Church, he is aware of the need for the liturgical year, for

patterns of communal worship, and he argues that consumer capitalism itself

involves liturgical practices. He suggests a new short-term catechism for a six-

week commitment, involving daily prayer, weekly worship and intercession, mon-

etary giving and tithing, and a meal and discussion with some real teaching. Hecalls it Flow but a thousand parishes call it Lent! I really rejoiced in these

rediscovery sections of the book as I did also in its seriousness: this is a more

sophisticated analysis than the usual mission-shaped volume. It is still, however,

not in conversation with contemporary academic theology or the tradition, even

though professional academics are included. You might feel that Scot McKnight

had never encountered hermeneutics or Narrative Theology and Corcoran would

have found Aquinas so helpful. Derrida and Z izek are not really faced head-on

but are watered down. The chapter by Kevin Corcoran on philosophical realism

is so concerned to keep analytical and continental philosophy together that agood argument becomes incoherent. It seeks to avoid knowledge as scientia

for sapientia but lacks the concept of participation, of uniting with the object

known, that would bridge the divide. The audience for this book is within

Emerging Church itself but it is none the less fascinating to eavesdrop on their

146 Theology 116(2)

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concerns. In particular, I finally understood why there is such an extreme

emphasis on kingdom over any other New Testament concept in contemporary

evangelical missiology: it is a way to escape substitutionary theories of the

Atonement.

Alison Milbank

University of Nottingham

Nimi Wariboko, The Pentecostal Principle: Ethical Methodology in New Spirit,

Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 2011; 256 pp.: 9780802866974, 16.99/$25.00 (pbk)

The pentecostal principle is the capacity to begin (p. 1). So begins NimiWaribokos philosophical-theological contribution to the Pentecostal Manifestos

series. This series (edited by James K. A. Smith and Amos Yong) aims to introduce

a new generation of outward-looking Pentecostal scholarship, committed to critical

engagement with the wider academy, wider Church and wider society. The

Pentecostal Principle is a unique engagement of Pentecostal theology with the

methodology of social ethics (p. 190), through dialogue with mainstream philoso-

phy; areas in which Pentecostal engagement is lacking.

The ethical code of each society aims to carve a path towards the actualization

of that communitys potential. These codes are fluid and it takes a change in thespirit of the age to alter them. The spirit of our age is the worship of bold, rapid,

abundant energies (p. ix). In The Pentecostal Principle, Wariboko invites the

reader to consider an alternative world guided by the spirit of Pentecost.

The first chapters outline the pentecostal principle as a natural extension of Paul

Tillichs Protestant Principle, and Wariboko roots his thesis theologically in Acts

2. It emerges that the spirit of Pentecost is a spirit of play and potentiality, demand-

ing that each end be a new beginning.

In order to develop an ethical methodology, Wariboko proposes a view of ethics

as means towards open ends (pure means) in Chapter 2 and explores an ethics ofemergence for embracing the pentecostal spirit of change and possibility. Chapter 3

highlights the diversity intrinsic in Pentecostalism, and suggests that such plurality

must be reflected. Chapter 4 asserts the pentecostal spirit as a social movement but

emphasizes that the pentecostal principle does not refer to the denomination but

rather the event of Pentecost and subsequent activity of the Spirit in the world.

Waribokos in-depth discussion of natality here is a fascinating reminder of

Pentecostalisms understanding of new birth and the unique contribution it can

bring to society (pp. 13441).

Chapter 5 finally gets to the theological crux of the matter. The pentecostal spiritof play is discussed as pure means and the radicalisation of grace, insofar as grace is

completely open (p. 173). The open-ended epilogue emphasizes Pentecostalisms

responsibility to broaden scholarship beyond the Holy Spirit to the philosophical

realms of existence and human flourishing in relationship with God.

Book Reviews 147

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