Hey friends, Alisa Childers here.

Very excited to bring you a discussion today that deals very specifically with the theology

of some progressive Christian leaders such as Brian McLaren and Tony Jones.

We're going to talk about it with a special guest on today's podcast.

My guest today is Dr. R. Scott Smith, a professor at Biola University in the Christian apologetics program.

His master's is in philosophy of religion and ethics from Talbot School of Theology at Biola.

His PhD is in religion and social ethics and that's from USC.

He's written several books and most recently he's written a book that has really helped me in my research

and it's called authentically emergent in search of a truly progressive Christianity, which is a bit of a provocative title there.

It's a very thorough and gracious yet critical look at the theology of progressive Christian leaders like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones,

and Doug Padgett.

Scott, I want to thank you so much for being on the show today.

This is particularly exciting for me because there just isn't a lot out there that is addressing this topic.

I'm seeing more and more as time goes on, but I'm just really thankful for your contribution to this conversation.

What was it that first interested you in the theology of the emergent church?

How did that come together for you?

Well, my first book on the topic was called Truth in the New Kind of Christian and came out late 2005.

It started because I was trying to come up with a book on addressing postmodernism's influences in the church.

I was shopping the manuscript one time at the Evangelical Theological Society's National Meeting.

I was talking with a publisher there, a representative, and he said, let's talk about this.

When he called me, he asked me, do you know who's the number one seller of all these writers who are writing as Christian postmodernists?

Let me guess. Maybe Stanley Harrowas, Stan Gravens, you know what? I didn't know.

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