Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions
Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
Crossways Books, February 2008, 256 pp., $19.99,
www.vintagejesus.net
Mark Driscoll is known in evangelical circles for his reactive statements that attempt to say something provocative. Perhaps that controversial aggressiveness could inspire groupies and critics to pick up his first book, Vintage Jesus. Written with complementary insights from mentor Gerry Breshears, this book aims to articulate soundly a specific theology about Jesus and generate “many profitable discussions.”
Overall, Driscoll tamely stays after his task of explaining classic Christian theology through cultural examples and personal analogies. He occasionally works against himself, though, distracting fans and foes through unnecessary negativity (disguised as humor) and jabs against other Christians. Driscoll attempts to excuse this by leaguing himself with Jesus whose humor he believes, “was often biting and harsh,” adding “the best response [to anyone self-righteous] is to just make fun of them.” Thankfully, Breshears’ Q&A sections at the end of each chapter insightfully glue everything back together.
