Review: Untamed by Alan Hirsch (pt 1)
By Jonathan Dodson | April 1st, 2010 | Category: Missional Church | 5 comments
If Alan Hirsch wasn’t a household name among the mission-minded before the VERGE conference, he certainly is now. Alan was kind enough to lend his 6 Elements of missional DNA as the architecture of the VERGE missional community conference. Add to that the outstanding introductory videos that explain each of the 6 Elements, and you’ve got a quite Hirschian splash. As if that wasn’t enough, Alan & his wife Deb drop a new book called Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship.
Structure of Book
Those familiar with The Forgotten Ways will immediately recognize that Untamed is an expansion of one of the 6 Elements of mDNA—missional discipleship. However, the book does not assume this familiarity.
The Introduction is extremely helpful in laying out a map for reading the book. There are four main sections (Theology, Culture, Psychology, Mission), each containing four Signature Themes (Jesus-shaped discipleship, Shema Spirituality, No Mission, No Discipleship, & Of Idols and Prophets).
Recovering the Incarnational Jesus
Chapter One is a cultural exorcism of distorted American Christology, a calling out of moralistic and hypermasculine (read=Mark Driscoll critique) views of Jesus. Could Hirsch be more Jesus-centered than Driscoll?! He levels an irenic but incisive critique. Speaking of men more effeminate than Driscoll’s “caricature of Jesus,” he writes: “they are unacceptable to Jesus as they are…but this strikes a blow against the gospel itself.” Before we start defending and accusing missional leaders, let’s be sure to make this about about Jesus, not personalities, something both Driscoll and Hirsch would want.
Hirsch keeps centering on Jesus. Warning us of cultural stereotypes of Jesus, he says that Jesus must be freed to relate to all people. Hirsch doesn’t simply exorcize the demons, he replaces them with an incarnational Jesus, a Jesus who enters our humanity and empathizes with our condition as the basis and example of mission. On this incarnational note, a couple quotes are worthy of reflection:
- “It is true that Jesus is like God, but the greater truth…is that God is like Jesus!” (36)
- “Jesus holiness was compelling. Sinners flocked to him.” (46)
- “For Jesus, acceptance must precede repentance.” (48)
I love the first two quotes but have some pause on the third. I’m sincerely grateful for this book, chapters one and nine in particular, which underscore and unpack an incarnational way of following Jesus. I’ve been provoked, challenged, and encouraged. Thanks, Alan & Deb!
Just thought that part of this might seem obscure….Here’s the full context.
Let’s tease this out a bit to probe how stereotyping Jesus seriously damages the church’s life, mission, and witness. As mentioned in the introduction, our community became a home for many homosexually oriented men and women. Many of the men were more “effeminate” in their manner- isms—what Mark rather mockingly calls “limp-wristed.” Our question is, Where is the space for men who, through no fault of their own, are more effeminate than Driscoll’s adaptation of Jesus? Dare we say there isn’t any—they simply get the message that they are unacceptable to Jesus as they are. But this strikes a blow against the gospel itself! Does Jesus not love these people unconditionally and accept them into his family? Or does his love require that they should become macho and straight before they can become believers?
And by the way, the book is not a slam against Mark. We just use this as an example. Jonathan is simply highlighting this here.
At the end of this section we say this…. “To get the right view of Jesus is profoundly important both for mission and discipleship, particularly when ministering to those who don’t fit our cultural stereotypes. Jesus must be freed in order to relate to all people; if he isn’t freed, the incarnation fails to make sense. Jesus refuses to be put into any of our boxes. He doesn’t—and never will—represent one individual over another, or the majority of the population over the minority. As the Archetypal Human, the new Adam, he represents us all. And we all need to be able to identify with Jesus. That’s the whole point of the incarnation: he became a human in order to fully identify with each and every one of us.?” (p.45)
That’s the spirit I took it in, Alan. I appreciate your and Deb’s commitment to the Incarnation. It’s an interesting tension, as you point out. On the one hand, there is a certain beauty and “rightness” to the many faces of Jesus in various cultures, yet on the other hand, we must be cautious that we not syncretize the incarnate Christ with our cultures. A good word that we should all heed.
[...] This is part two of my book review of Alan and Deb Hirsch’s book Untamed: reactivating missional discipleship. See part one. [...]
[...] of the Hirsch’s very fine book Untamed: Reactivating Missional for of Discipleship. See Part 1, Part 2. If you’ve been tracking with me, I’ve had very good things to say about this [...]