Here’s one for the theologs. Guess the person behind the black rimmed glasses? Answer at the end of the post.
From the fantastical mind of Todd Heistand, Karl Barth has a beer and a smoke and a chat with emerging church leaders. Nice post, although I cant imagine a room full of emerging church leaders hanging in a German pub with Karl Barth WITHOUT the majority of them being German and not American. And I say that from being in many of those meetings in Germany, hanging with the Germans, although without Karl Barth.
And if I was blogging it, as I was in Todd’s dream, I would no doubt discuss Barth’s impact on missiology more than theology, in particular his understanding of ‘missio dei” that would later inform the idea in its current incarnation as “missional”. More on that here. Besides, that, good post Todd!
Who’s behind the glasses? Tony Jones, Rob Bell, and, you guessed it . . . Karl Barth.
Andrew – Rob Bell does not self-identify as being emergent. He strikes me as a cooler version of Rick Warren. For those who like hearing an evangelical megachurch pastor who inspires and entertains, he’s the gold standard.
Also at least here in NYC said glasses were identified with hipsters. For a while, they were selling non-prescription thick black rimmed glasses for those with 20/20 vision who wanted to seem with it.
And according to Dave Walker, it’s sunglasses not black rimmed glasses that define the emergent male.
http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2006/07/11/my-emerging-church-credentials/
Andrew, great point about the American/german thing. Just goes to show how easy it is to only see the world through my black framed glasses! Also, you are right on Barth wanting to discuss missiology. His work/though in CD 4.3.2 is some of the best missional thinking i i have ever, and probably will ever, read.
So, you’ve uncovered my secret to hipness. I may as well come clean: I get my glasses for $39.
http://blog.tonyj.net/2009/12/hipster-emergent-eyeglasses-my-secret/
I’ve used glasses since 4, and for most of school I thoygh the automatically made me a geek (I’m certain kind of it). Then I went to university to study biology, and glasses were much more common. Although mine are not black rimmed, may I be a cool-hipster emerging*)
* I don’t agree at all with mainly postmodern emergent villagers, but I prefer them over conservative-patriotic evangelicals. (I’m more on the way of jesusradicals.com)
How funny – any time I meet a Christian for the first time w/ glasses like that I think to myself…”I bet they love Rob Bell”
I don’t know why Barth would have trekked over the border to meet the EC boys in a German pub, when the view from his home in Switzerland would be so much nicer.
to get a decent BEER, of course! Sorry if you are Swiss. You have great CHEESE and CHOCOLATE!
heres a conference i imagineered earlier in the year ‘Qnoomaharvestf’ http://www.twitpic.com/49huw and the end of conference toga party http://www.twitpic.com/4am9o