Mar 1, 2010
A Jarring Encounter: Meeting Myself from Two Years Ago
I’m leading a small group study of my book Coffeehouse Theology, and since I wrote the book two years ago I’m reading through a few chapters before leading the discussion each week. While the ideas are quite familiar, there are times when I’m jarred by meeting myself from two years ago.
There are two things I’ve noticed.
1. I’m a bit rough on other perspectives.
No matter how hard my editor tried to tone things down, I still made some strong statements that failed to capture what I really meant to say. In fact, I ended up sounding a bit angry or at least very frustrated at times in my sweeping, unqualified statements about other perspectives.
For example, in the Bible Study Guide, which I’m using for discussion questions in our group, I made a terrible blunder by saying, rather point blank, that the church ruins Easter for me. Ouch! Did I mean that? Well, not quite.
I meant to say that I and other Christians sometimes miss the forest for the trees when we lose sight of the significance of the Resurrection and spend our time on Easter Sunday preaching at the “unsaved Easter people” who show up at church once or twice a year and when we preach the mechanics of salvation, how each piece of redemption fits together. I’d much rather focus on the bigger message of the coming of God’s Kingdom and the significance of the resurrection itself. I meant to say that I made this mistake, but instead I come off as a smug theology student with an axe to grind.
I’m working on getting rid of my axes, but you never know when they may come up again…
2. I Covered Too Much Nonessential Information
I wrote Coffeehouse Theology wanting to not only explain everything behind my method of theology but also to give all the major thinkers I referenced their due—like a good seminary student. While I deleted the section on Nietchze, I can now see that even my pared down chapters on philosophy, theology, and culture were too much in a book that was supposed to make theology accessible.
I probably should have reworked the material to give a basic overview of where I’m coming from and then focused more on how to do theology with more information in an appendix at the end. I clung to so much nonessential information because I feared leaving gaps in the book’s progression. Unfortunately my measures to fill in gaps created some walls in the process.
In summing up…
It’s easy for a writer to forget his tone and to become lost in the importance of his information—thereby including more than is necessary. While I’ve heard from many readers who thought I hit the right balance of information, I think the average Christian reader, my target audience, will feel a bit overwhelmed by what I included. It’s always humbling to encounter yourself from a point in the past, but I’m also encouraged that I’m learning, growing, and hopefully taking steps that will ensure I don’t repeat those same mistakes again.
Based on my experiences teaching introduction-level university classes in New & Old Testament, I completely see your point about making the concepts in your book accessible. Almost without exception, every textbook advertised as “basic” or “beginner” shoots way too high and tries to cram 20 pounds of seed into a 10-pound sack. Perhaps it stems from passion for your subject?
It must be instructive to read your completed work after a two-year absence!
Thanks Ray. I think you’re absolutely right. I’ve read a lot of those same books that are supposed to be for lay readers and thought to myself, “Yeah right!” So I tried to tone it down a bit, and I still wrote for an academic audience.
Someone asked me if I was familiar with Beth Moore because she seems to be hitting lots of folks where they’re at.
And you’re right, it is both instructive and humbling. I didn’t even get into the fact that I’d like to revise at least one thing per page I read!
I think that it is really good that you are so reflective about your own writing and able to see how you could improve your book.
However I debate your comment about writing for the ‘average Christian reader’. I am not sure there is an average Christian reader and the run of the mill, mainstream Christian books leave me cold. The reason I subscribe to your website is because it is more thought through and thought provoking than many, without ‘easy’ answers. Please don’t try and be ‘average’, that would be selling yourself short.
Jo
Thanks Jo, I appreciate your kind words. There is a point where we can water ourselves down so that we say little of value to anyone.
I think part of my struggle is to extract myself from the world of seminary where theology is generally a good word and positive concept. It’s been hard to realize that it either means nothing or even something negative to many Christians. So while I don’t want to necessarily say something substantively different, I think I need to change some of my assumptions about where people are coming from.
The way I’ve been saying it lately is that I tried to say “Theology is fun and relevant!” in Coffeehouse Theology, but to many folks that sounds like “Fun Neurosurgery!” or something like that…
[...] years after writing Coffeehouse Theology I can see that I made a few mistakes, but as I read other books on theology and culture, I find that I’m still very satisfied with [...]