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Incarnate: The Body of Christ in an Age of Disengagement
The story of Christianity is a story of incarnation―God taking on flesh and dwelling among the people he created. God appointing and sending people as his body, his hands and feet. Disciples of Jesus bearing the good news even as they bear the marks of his passion. Whatever Christianity is, it is at least a matter of flesh and blood and the ends of the earth. And yet so much of contemporary Christian culture is rooted not in incarnation but in escape―escape from the earth to heaven, escape from the suffering of this world, escape even from one another. Christianity is increasingly understood as something personal, conceptual, interior, private, neighborless. If Jesus was God incarnate, the church is in danger of being excarnate. Michael Frost expertly and prophetically exposes the gap between the faith we profess and the faith we practice. And he offers new hope for how the church can fulfill its to be the hands and feet of Christ to one another and to our neighbors, to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age.
239 pages, Paperback
First published February 10, 2014
19 people are currently reading
200 people want to read
About the author
Michael Frost
61 books100 followersMichael Frost is the founding director of the Tinsley Institute at Morling College. He is an internationally recognised Australian missiologist and one of the leading voices in the missional church movement. His books are required reading in colleges and seminaries around the world and he is much sought after as an international conference speaker. Michael Frost blogs at mikefrost.net
See also other Michael Frosts.
See also other Michael Frosts.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 3, 2014
Excarnation denotes the ancient practice of removing flesh and organs from the dead. Author Michael Frost uses this term to connote a set of practices in late modernity which cause us to life ‘disembodied lives.’ This is evident in the problem of Internet pornography or a contemporary fascination with Zombies, but it is more widespread than even these phenomena. Our lives are increasingly transitory, screen-mediated and morally disengaged from community. We objectify others through our language (saying ‘action will be required’ rather than ‘let’s act’). Richard Sennett has claimed that the primary architectural symbol of contemporary life is the airport departure lounge–a bland, liminal space full of people who belong and long for somewhere else (15-16). There is no sense of shared community in an airport lounge! People spend hours staring at a screen (either overhead or their own personal devices) and consciously minimize their interaction with those around them. Zygmunt Bauman says that the primary metaphor for modern living is tourism. We are marked by mobility, impermanence and loose ties with others and therefore are endlessly sampling experiences but have little firm commitments to ideology or beliefs (17).
Unfortunately the Church–the community formed around the Incarnate One–is to often shaped by our modern excarnate tendencies. A hyper-dualistic theology which focuses on eternal reward (great pie-in-the-sky when you die) impacts our practice. We know more about God than our actions demonstrate. Our worship focuses on our private heart experience. We close our eyes, oblivious to those around us, and sing sometimes indecipherable lyrics. Ethically, our involvement with those on the margins is increasingly mediated. We give to missions organizations and charities. We engage in click-activism by signing online petitions. Yet our daily lives are disengaged from those who are suffering and we know little of what it means to give our lives sacrificially to a cause for the good of the community.
This problem is the focus of Frost’s new book, Incarnate: The Body of Christ in an Age of Disengagement. Frost, whose previous books include Exiles and The Shaping of Things to Come is an Aussie missional guru and one of my go-to guys when I want to read something which tells me how to live a compelling, creative, missional life. Here he offers an incisive analysis of our current Western context and draws on the insights of the likes of Charles Taylor, N.T. Wright and James A. K. Smith and a number of thoughtful missional practitioners. I read and underlined a lot, flagging many quotations and references to research further.
But the impact of this book is what Frost says for what our lives should be like. What does it mean that we follow an Incarnate Christ? What are the implications for the church’s mission? Frost suggests and prods us to a more embodied approach to life and ministry through out this book and has profound things to say about the character of our mission, the formative nature of our communal practices, and reflective re-engagement with our communities. It is clear that Frost sees the church as an alternative to our dualistic, excarnate culture. But this does not drive us remove ourselves from culture. It gives us a framework for holistic mission that infiltrates every aspect of the wider culture with an embodied spirituality which calls us all to abundant life.
As I was reading this book, I wondered if Frost was overstating the current church’s ‘hyper-dualism.’ Certainly the church culture I grew up in was guilty of the sort of theological, anthropological and religious dualism he warns of, but I feel like the conversation has changed and holistic mission is much more ‘mainstream.’ Yet dualism still pervades many contexts (and certainly the wider culture). I set this book alongside similar critiques (such as Jamie Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom). Frost has lots to teach us, and writes compellingly about how excarnate we’ve become and what we need to change if we are to walk in the way of Jesus. I am still processing this book but I recommend it highly to anyone who cares about what it means for us to be in the world and not of it. Frost will help you do both! I give this book five stars: ★★★★★
Unfortunately the Church–the community formed around the Incarnate One–is to often shaped by our modern excarnate tendencies. A hyper-dualistic theology which focuses on eternal reward (great pie-in-the-sky when you die) impacts our practice. We know more about God than our actions demonstrate. Our worship focuses on our private heart experience. We close our eyes, oblivious to those around us, and sing sometimes indecipherable lyrics. Ethically, our involvement with those on the margins is increasingly mediated. We give to missions organizations and charities. We engage in click-activism by signing online petitions. Yet our daily lives are disengaged from those who are suffering and we know little of what it means to give our lives sacrificially to a cause for the good of the community.
This problem is the focus of Frost’s new book, Incarnate: The Body of Christ in an Age of Disengagement. Frost, whose previous books include Exiles and The Shaping of Things to Come is an Aussie missional guru and one of my go-to guys when I want to read something which tells me how to live a compelling, creative, missional life. Here he offers an incisive analysis of our current Western context and draws on the insights of the likes of Charles Taylor, N.T. Wright and James A. K. Smith and a number of thoughtful missional practitioners. I read and underlined a lot, flagging many quotations and references to research further.
But the impact of this book is what Frost says for what our lives should be like. What does it mean that we follow an Incarnate Christ? What are the implications for the church’s mission? Frost suggests and prods us to a more embodied approach to life and ministry through out this book and has profound things to say about the character of our mission, the formative nature of our communal practices, and reflective re-engagement with our communities. It is clear that Frost sees the church as an alternative to our dualistic, excarnate culture. But this does not drive us remove ourselves from culture. It gives us a framework for holistic mission that infiltrates every aspect of the wider culture with an embodied spirituality which calls us all to abundant life.
As I was reading this book, I wondered if Frost was overstating the current church’s ‘hyper-dualism.’ Certainly the church culture I grew up in was guilty of the sort of theological, anthropological and religious dualism he warns of, but I feel like the conversation has changed and holistic mission is much more ‘mainstream.’ Yet dualism still pervades many contexts (and certainly the wider culture). I set this book alongside similar critiques (such as Jamie Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom). Frost has lots to teach us, and writes compellingly about how excarnate we’ve become and what we need to change if we are to walk in the way of Jesus. I am still processing this book but I recommend it highly to anyone who cares about what it means for us to be in the world and not of it. Frost will help you do both! I give this book five stars: ★★★★★
March 14, 2016
Summary: Frost explores what it means to be incarnational people in an "excarnational" world, one marked by increasing focus on disembodied, virtual experience, and disconnection from physical community.
We are becoming a culture that increasingly disengages from embodied experience, that objectifies others and encounters the world via a computer or smartphone screen. This has significant implications for the church, which is also shaped by this "excarnate" culture. Michael Frost explores this "excarnate" world we are increasingly fashioning for ourselves, how excarnate life has unhelpfully shaped Christians and the Christian community, and what it we can learn from Jesus about becoming truly incarnational people.
He explores the fascination of this culture with zombies, and the morally ambiguous state of being the walking dead. All this stems from a mind-body dualism that detaches what we think and experience mentally from what we do through our bodies. It explains how people can embrace immoral behavior and not think it affects anything about their spirituality.
True Christian faith is different in that the central figure was an embodied Messiah who calls people to follow and for whom believing and behaving walk hand in hand. Because we are desiring creatures (drawing on the work of James K. A. Smith) the central matter in discipleship is not merely believing certain things but the ordering of desires and our behaviors along the lines of our beliefs. We become what we worship, for better or worse. Mission then, which is a big focus for Frost, becomes a move beyond click activism to embodied presence. The challenge is not growing bigger churches, but Christians living out faith in all the dimensions of "silos" of life--economics, agriculture, education, science and technology, communications, arts, politics, and family life. This is aided by living as "placed" people, who settle down in a physical community and become part of its life for a long time.
The concluding chapters focus on the missional, communal, and spiritual practices that nourish an incarnational life. At the same time, Frost includes some important warnings about the difference between healthy and unhealthy religion, using the Jim Jones cult as an object lesson, because in fact at the start they were pursuing an incarnational ministry, first in Indianapolis and then San Francisco. What is chilling is how often unhealthy ministries are organized around "taking a stand" rather than training people to think for themselves, inviting us to be humble about what we think we know, focuses on what we are for, and stays in tune with reality. The epilogue concludes with the rhythms of life of a community, the value of liturgies and embodied practices of life together.
Frost provides an insightful glimpse into contemporary culture and the ways it leads to disembodied, excarnate expression in the church. It even made me stop and muse about blogging on books rather than simply getting together with some friends over beverages and good food to talk about what we are discovering. Actually, I do that as well, and so don't feel so bad about sharing the riches online. But I do find myself wondering about online community supplanting the particular place and space and people I live among. He also challenges the kind of click activism that makes you think you've done something simply because of what you've done online. And yet these tools have aided recent political revolutions that have resulted in embodied change. It seems the challenge is how to use these tools incarnationally rather than to eschew them altogether, and how to lay them aside when we need to do so.
Thanks, Michael Frost, for this reminder that we are incarnation people and the difference this can make in an excarnate world.
We are becoming a culture that increasingly disengages from embodied experience, that objectifies others and encounters the world via a computer or smartphone screen. This has significant implications for the church, which is also shaped by this "excarnate" culture. Michael Frost explores this "excarnate" world we are increasingly fashioning for ourselves, how excarnate life has unhelpfully shaped Christians and the Christian community, and what it we can learn from Jesus about becoming truly incarnational people.
He explores the fascination of this culture with zombies, and the morally ambiguous state of being the walking dead. All this stems from a mind-body dualism that detaches what we think and experience mentally from what we do through our bodies. It explains how people can embrace immoral behavior and not think it affects anything about their spirituality.
True Christian faith is different in that the central figure was an embodied Messiah who calls people to follow and for whom believing and behaving walk hand in hand. Because we are desiring creatures (drawing on the work of James K. A. Smith) the central matter in discipleship is not merely believing certain things but the ordering of desires and our behaviors along the lines of our beliefs. We become what we worship, for better or worse. Mission then, which is a big focus for Frost, becomes a move beyond click activism to embodied presence. The challenge is not growing bigger churches, but Christians living out faith in all the dimensions of "silos" of life--economics, agriculture, education, science and technology, communications, arts, politics, and family life. This is aided by living as "placed" people, who settle down in a physical community and become part of its life for a long time.
The concluding chapters focus on the missional, communal, and spiritual practices that nourish an incarnational life. At the same time, Frost includes some important warnings about the difference between healthy and unhealthy religion, using the Jim Jones cult as an object lesson, because in fact at the start they were pursuing an incarnational ministry, first in Indianapolis and then San Francisco. What is chilling is how often unhealthy ministries are organized around "taking a stand" rather than training people to think for themselves, inviting us to be humble about what we think we know, focuses on what we are for, and stays in tune with reality. The epilogue concludes with the rhythms of life of a community, the value of liturgies and embodied practices of life together.
Frost provides an insightful glimpse into contemporary culture and the ways it leads to disembodied, excarnate expression in the church. It even made me stop and muse about blogging on books rather than simply getting together with some friends over beverages and good food to talk about what we are discovering. Actually, I do that as well, and so don't feel so bad about sharing the riches online. But I do find myself wondering about online community supplanting the particular place and space and people I live among. He also challenges the kind of click activism that makes you think you've done something simply because of what you've done online. And yet these tools have aided recent political revolutions that have resulted in embodied change. It seems the challenge is how to use these tools incarnationally rather than to eschew them altogether, and how to lay them aside when we need to do so.
Thanks, Michael Frost, for this reminder that we are incarnation people and the difference this can make in an excarnate world.
February 28, 2015
Frost is really smart and makes interesting points. I liked the book. But I had two nagging ideas throughout. 1) I wondered if this was much ado about nothing. Certainly, our culture is more "excarnate" than it has been before in many ways, but he failed to convince me of the importance of this. Certainly, we are screwing up issues that are much more central than this one. 2) I don't have any idea how to fix it. It doesn't seem that Frost does either. Every time he starts to condone a certain form of liturgy, he pulls up short or gets cross with himself. I like Michael Frost, but I think he's sometimes too smart for his own good. Or for mine, at least.
January 10, 2022
In an era of social distancing and online meetings, working at home and wearing masks that hide away our identity, Michael Frost’s words on Ex-carnation carry a new resonance he probably never imagined. Making our understanding of God and spiritual life, a dis-embodied faith, made sense to me- people do intellectualise God - it is part of our desire to control God, rather than let the unknown control us. It is actually our bodily experience of God that enables us to know we are loved and valued and thus may welcome the mystery of faith, through trust. Don’t get me wrong - trust also invites boundaries- and faith in a Saviour.
June 17, 2022
I always enjoy reading a book by Michael Frost. Ever since the book EXILES, I am willing to read anything he writes and has learned and thought about so many of the ideas contained within his pages. He is an excellent writer and is an even better read. He knows books, he knows authors, and he knows ideas. He is also able to bring them together in powerful ways. This book is no exception and helps imagine a more embodied spirituality which is where the Christian movement is headed if it is to continue becoming healthier. This was a great book, the only thing I was MEH about was the epilogue, it just didn't seem to fit.
January 16, 2022
I breezed through this in preparation for a Maundy Thursday sermon. I had reached out to Byron Borger of Hearts And Minds Bookstore in PA asking him if he had anything that could speak to the oxymoron of preaching the idea of Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet as a demonstration and invitation to us to do similarly but in the midst of a global pandemic and this was one book Byron sent me. It certainly hit the mark for what I was looking for. Definitely mean to return to it more slowly sometime.
I’m also almost done with his book “Surprise The World” which is short and fantastic.
I’m also almost done with his book “Surprise The World” which is short and fantastic.
June 4, 2017
It wasn't too far into this book that I began asking my peers if they had it yet. From Frost's description of "excarnate" to "defleshing" I was thrilled to see his assessment of the current state of things in our world. His proposed responses for the Church are not just timely, they are necessary. I highly recommend this book!
May 28, 2017
This is one of the most important books of our time. It is so important that we engage with the world we live in, especially if we expect to have any say in where it is going. Yet another winner for Michael Frost!
February 19, 2019
Outstanding - as in other material from Frost, he has great insight on how followers of Jesus can live missionally in relationship and how the Church in our time can speak to people living in a sadly disconnected world.
March 17, 2020
I'm changing my life because of this book. Inspiring and challenging. Community is everything!
May 20, 2020
Very good read, especially considering I read it during quarantine.
November 1, 2022
Read this for a class on anthropology and cultural contexts in ministry. This was probably my favorite book out of the four I’ve been reading. Pretty solid!
April 20, 2014
I think I'm going to write a blog post on this book to pull out some of the bits I loved. Looking at the below review, the main difficulty for some readers grasping Michael Frost's enjoyable writing may actually be his huge scope. An authentic pioneer within the missional church movement, he also has command of pastoral theology and missiology, and pushes well into the realms of philosophy, biblical studies and leadership studies. In other words, he wields his scope deftly. As such, the book traverses many new frontiers, breaking new ground, moving seamlessly between theological and practical insights. In that respect, it is well worth the effort to immerse yourself into this integrated and embodied vision, to allow presuppositions to be challenged, and new connections to be forged. It is very usable as both a pastoral manual, and theological/missiological text, particularly within the urban environment. But better yet, it has the potential to be a new manifesto for those pursuing Christ in their vocation, perhaps in what may be considered non-traditional ways. Perhaps it is best read prayerfully, under guidance of the Spirit of Jesus, the head of the church.
May 6, 2014
I've read several of Michael Frost's previous books and been helped and encouraged by each one. Frost's newest offering, "Incarnate" was no exception. Frost's point is that western Christians have largely capitulated to what he terms a disincarnate way of life. By this we are to understand that believers have been swept away with society-at-large by the present day cultural flow towards a "disembodied" existence in which, for believers, Christian faith is reduced to a belief system mostly confined to the space between our ears rather than a wholly embodied way of life. Our dependence on and surrender to social media and other forms of virtual communication and relationship rather than honest to goodness face to face, "read my lips," "I can feel you" engagement that requires and involves real presence and on it goes. I'm not sure many of the ideas here are new but Frost puts so many manifestations of the disincarnate life on the table for consideration and he articulates very well what is lost to us.
July 8, 2016
What will be our response to the recent events? Dallas police shootings, #blacklivesmatter. Michael Frost challenges today's click activism and he challenges the way we have distanced and "excarnated" ourselves. God didn't sit on a distant throne in heaven, He came to earth and identified with our problems. He owned the problems by his death on the cross and he overcame the problems in his resurrection. God is inviting us to incarnate ourselves with the hope of the gospel. Let's not make these problems a THEM problem. Let's make this an OUR problem.
September 15, 2014
1/3 felt like stuff I had read in other Frost/Hirsch books.
1/3 felt like reading a book report as he summarized and outlined a variety of other authors books.
1/3 felt like new material that was compelling.
1/3 felt like reading a book report as he summarized and outlined a variety of other authors books.
1/3 felt like new material that was compelling.
April 4, 2014
Interesting subject matter but the author's thesis if often murky. The last three chapters save the book.
April 16, 2016
Micheal Frost has accomplished to build a system of bridges which all lead home - as in back to the missional roots of
April 26, 2017
Crucial to our times
This book illuminates the central crisis of our times. It's structured more academically than I was expecting - and Frost utilizes his breadth of reading and cultural understanding in every chapter. But think of this book as an ideological tuning fork: "Incarnate" will help you imagine your faith–and live it–in a more present way.
This book illuminates the central crisis of our times. It's structured more academically than I was expecting - and Frost utilizes his breadth of reading and cultural understanding in every chapter. But think of this book as an ideological tuning fork: "Incarnate" will help you imagine your faith–and live it–in a more present way.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews