These are the last three days for Time Travelers, a great local record shop in Kent. The big, unfeeling, greedy corporate giants are taking over (well, maybe not quite that big). It’s a shame they have to close the store – they were going to be forced into another much smaller store with a substantial rent increase. Dave, the proprietor, is an honest-to-goodness music aficionado. He will be moving to their lone other store in Cuyahoga Falls.
So, I bought two CD’s today.
Listening: Harold Budd – she is a phantom and Marc Anthony

I was reading a book review in Christianity Today yesterday. The book deals with post-modernism and the Evangelical/Fundamentalist side of ChristianityÂ’s inability or difficulty in dealing with the fundamental worldview change. The review talks about the authorÂ’s contention that the E/F ChurchesÂ’ are stuck in a modernist understanding of Christ, Christianity, the Bible, etc., and a good portion of those beliefs need to change because they are incorrect. Here is a long quote:
“In a conversation with Christianity Today, McLearn (the author) said our current approach to the age reminded him of a friend who worked in Washington as a spy. ‘He saw everything through the lenses of the Cold War – who was good, who was bad, and what his mission was,’ McLaren said. ‘When the Cold War ended, he was lost. His worldview no longer served him well in a new climate, and he didnÂ’t know how to adjust. We evangelicals tend to be that way at the death of modernism.’
“At the same time, contemporary evangelicalism is deeply steeped in and shaped by the modernist mindset – Christ molded by modernity. We are far more acculturated to modernity and shaped by its values than we appreciate. We run our churches with the efficiency of the industrial age. We market our messages and conduct our services in the spirit of capitalist consumerism. In the modernist exaltation of knowledge, we teeter on a biblicism that sees the Christian faith as a religion of a book rather than a relationship with the Triune God and our neighbors. We often make the Bible the foundation and center of our faith. But, as Neo tells Dan, ‘the Bible never Speaks of itself this way.’ It speaks of Christ as the foundation of the Church; thus we are historically know as Christ-ones.”
I think this will be rather groundbreaking for many evangelicals and almost impossible to consider for fundamentalists. The enculturation of the Church is so evident, but we Americans just donÂ’t understand that. Especially for evangelicals and fundamentals who must believe that their view of things is God’s view of things.
I think I want to buy this one. The book is entitled – “A New Kind of Christian: A Take of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey.” By: Brian D. McLaren. Jossey-Bass publishers.