Interview with Michael Wittmer (pt. 2)

Here is the conclusion of my interview with Dr. Michael Wittmer. Don't forget to pre-buy his new book, Don't Stop Believing: Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough.

(Click here for pt. 1 of the interview).

ZB: Who was more of an influence on the content of this book: Barth or Machen?

MW: Neither directly, though after I finished surveying the present theological landscape I found that Machen had encountered similar issues in the early twentieth century. So I included him in my last chapter, showing that what some are saying today sounds uncomfortably close to what Machen said his liberal opponents were saying in 1923. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.


ZB: You are careful in this book to show the strengths of postmodernism in the church as well as its weaknesses. What do you think is the greatest good that can come from postmodern influence in the church? How can that strength become a danger?

MW: By far the greatest strength is this younger generation’s focus on social justice. They care about others and the world in big ways that my generation did not consider when we were their age. The danger is that sometimes they may so emphasize our need to love and embrace the other that they neglect a corresponding emphasis on truth, or our need to hold orthodox Christian doctrines. Some say that everyone is in the family of God regardless of what they believe. Such thinking secularizes the church, for it reduces God’s people to a gathering of good people who ask good questions and do good things. I can’t think of a quicker way to lose our faith.


ZB: I understand you really went to bat for the subtitle "Why Living Like Jesus Is Not Enough." As David Livermore would say, "unpack that for me."

MW: My Barth class helped me fine tune it. We needed a subtitle that was provocative and captured the heart of the book. Its main point is that while I like what I hear from postmodern innovators about following Jesus and loving as he did, I seldom hear a corresponding emphasis on the need to believe in him. Indeed, many use living in the way of Jesus as an alternative to actually believing in him, and I thought that someone should call them out on that.

My publisher suggested the subtitle “How to think and act like Jesus.” I think that they were targeting thirty something mothers who listen to Christian radio, which is not my target demographic. After I told them that my book has nothing in it about thinking like Jesus and only a bit here or there that might help one act like Jesus, they relented and went with my suggestion. Whew!


ZB: Are we ever going to see that follow-up to Heaven Is a Place On Earth?

MW: Maybe, if I can think of an '80s song title. How about Almost Paradise? Right now I’m interested in researching a history of how Plato came to influence the church. I’d like to demonstrate historically how we came to adopt his dualism and then explain how to fix things. My working title is Separate Lives (Phil Collins), but I may be trying too hard to keep my '80s theme going.


ZB: Why should the dozens (heh) of people reading this blog buy your book right this minute?

MW: Because the first printing has a couple of typos (not put in by me) which will make it a collector’s item someday. If I were you, I’d buy as many of those as I can and then wait for me to become famous. It can’t be a worse investment than the stock market!

Seriously, if someone is wondering about the big issues of our day, such as other religions, hell, homosexuality, truth, Scripture, original sin, universalism and inclusivism, the atonement, whether one can belong to a church before she believes, and why belief in Jesus is necessary and why some say it isn’t, this book lays it out in an easy to read, humorous take that explains what the church has historically believed and why.

Those who are attracted to Brian McLaren on the left or John MacArthur on the right would benefit from reading this book.