Eric Fesmire-Reading #4

In Scot McKnight's "King Jesus Gospel" Mcknight is looking to reframe the Christian church's understanding of the word Gospel. In doing so, Mcknight is emphasizing the importance of the word gospel while also criticizing a lot of material that is out there today about the subject.  Mcknight wants the gospel to be part of the story of the scripture and not separated from it. He is doing this in response to a lot of evangelistic outreaches today that rely on fear and motivational tactics as their "gospel." Mcknight instead  promotes a story based gospel that has less to do with "me and my salvation" and more to do with the completed story of Israel in Jesus.

I don't really know what I think about this yet. I think I agree with the basic premise, but mostly I think Mcknight is making an intellectual distinction to respond to people he doesn't agree with on other topics. This is his way of separating himself unnecessarily. This is something that scholars do sometimes, fight over semantics for semantics sake. It isn't something that really belongs in a community that is supposed to be built on grace and love, not intellectual distinctions. Although I appreciate Mcknight's heart for the Bible and his desire to stick to it through and through, and I DO agree that evangelism in America today is terrible, I don't think such an intellectual distinction really goes far in helping us out of the muck we are in.