Argument Weary

Ted Kluck (2008) offers a very honest and surprising reflection at the close of a book filled with research, analysis, and argumentation:

“It occurs to me, coming to the end of this text, that we’ve no doubt left out a great deal. There were books that went unread, blogs that we couldn’t get to, and conferences we didn’t attend. Those who aren’t inclined to the emergent/emerging thing will probably support most of what we’ve written, and those who call themselves emergent will find a million reasons to find fault with it. The idea that people read much of anything and have their minds changed by it is less and less realistic to me. People, usually, just dig in.

And then soon, these books become nothing more than a sort of cold, intellectual pawn-pushing, in an effort to craft the most perfect argument that can then be vehemently defended for the sake of the argument itself. Responses and rebuttals will be written. Rinse. Repeat. And like D. A. Carson in an earlier chapter, I’m realizing I’m tired of it.”

(pp. 234-235)

A funny thing to say at the end of a book. But he is all too right I guess.

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” – Ecclesiastes 12:12b

DeYoung, K., & Kluck, T. (2008). Why we’re not Emergent: By two guys who should be. Moody Publishers.