I've found something that Rowan Williams and Mark Driscoll (from the very little that I've read) agree on. Williams, that a good deal of twentieth century theology has been characterised by bewilderment and agnosticism about the figure of Jesus, sitting next to a hugely popular devotional 'idiom' that s uncomplicatedly focused on the worship of Jesus."The late twentieth century has witnessed an extraordinary explosion of devotional song, whose popularity seems to cross an unprecedented range of cultural and linguistic boundaries; in a way curiously reminiscent of the Middle Ages, there is now an international language for worship - not literally a single tongue, but a strongly unified style. Its roots are evangelical and charismatic, but it has conquered great tracks of the Roman Catholic world as well. Some of it, perhaps much of it, has a solid theological basis, and can be strongly evocative of the paradoxes of 'meekness and majesty' (to allude to the refrain of a well-known example); much of it is utterly unadorned and often deeply moving adoration of Jesus. But there is a disquieting element in a good deal of this literature.; it is not just that devotion to Jesus can often be expressed in a way that detaches it from the Trinitarian dynamic of the New Testament, it is also that the erotic idiom of medieval and Counter-Reformation spirituality can reappear with fewer checks and nuances than in early centuries. Jesus as object of loving devotion can slip into Jesus as fantasy partner in a dream of emotional fulfillment. To avoid sentimental solipism, there needs to be either a strong and self-critical theological environment or (which is often the same thing in other guises) a clear orientation to the world's needs and the action of Chris in the whole social and material environment."
Similarly, in The Radical Reformission, Driscoll talks about being a members of churches (pre Mars Hill) where the minister was a manly man (i.e. a former NFL star), who taught the Bible 'verse by verse' and didn't make Driscoll view Jesus like a life long prom date.
Can you think of any songs that have the problem Williams speaks of? Or can you think of any songs that meet the standards of the Archbishop? Write and let me know.
