INDEX - EMERGENT CHURCH ERA
OF THE 1990s to 2010s,
Part II
In Part 1, I've pretty much have figured out emergent Christianity for that stage of my life and concluded I wanted to be a part of its early movement even as I continued to examine and compare its doctrine and faith outcomes with mine own past experiences and education. Mostly I felt a deep pull to stay with it's nascent movement and make it my own.
Here, in Part II, is an earlier stage of my life where I had just joined Google blogger, was cautious about using my name by using an alias, skinhead, to indicate my de-constructing mode, and wrote around 72/73 articles before deciding it was ok to identify myself on the Internet and the disruption I was profoundly experiencing. That the faith I was questioning needed a good cleansing and resurrection.
Thus proceeded a deconstructive and reconstructive periods in my life over a number of years as I moved from Calvinism to Arminianism; then updated Arminianism to become both an "open theology" and a "relational theology" which I put together as one on my own; then quickly stumbled across process theology which eventually caused me to pull in all my past writings and thinking towards this direction.
A philosophic direction which removed nearly every faith obstacle out there which previously was eclectically built of compoundingly unhelpful, non-processual, archetypal philosophies. It's cachaphonous noise disrupted the inner flow and rhythms of organic creation... but with process thought its simple tunes could be heard again.
That said, I have decided to leave my early articles on-line to share my Spirit-journey from fundamental and evangelical thought into what I thought was Christ-centered neo-orthodoxy... or at the very least, post-conservative evangelicalism. And yet it is neither of these but something else altogether different.
Eventually I landed in A.N. Whitehead's Philosophy of (Processual) Organism which then allowed further exploration of all things related to metaphysical and theological thought.... It allowed me to take the best of my past fundamental Baptist and conservative evangelical heritage - including the best of the emergent faith movement - to create a Christ-centric soteriology removed from Westernized, Hellenized, etc, philosophical Americana and placed upon a more ancient (Semitic/Hebraic) foundation using Hegel and later, Whitehead's, organic process-based philosophical foundations.
Through this difficult, epistemological faith-journey, I try to be honest with where I am moving from-and-towards as I look into every aspect of my faith naturalistically and spiritually. And for those who need direction this site here, Relevancy22, is an excellent place to begin. I try to leave it open-ended even though my own spirit yearns for definite statement built around loving outcome and humane humanitarianism coupled with responsible environmentalism. In all of this, vibrates Jesus and the kind of Jesus-salvation-and-resurrection which I think makes creation able to surmount the chaos of the world and universe.
In summary, however embarrassing some of my past statements and quandaries have been... please realize I had no one to turn to - and was largely on my own for a long time - as I wandered the wastelands of my antecedal faith lands.
Enjoy,
R.E. Slater
February 7, 2024
~~ all articles are listed in chronological order from latest to earliest ~~
Emergent Events
- Jan 2014 - Christianity 21 - A Celebration of Church
- Sept 2012 - An Ikonoclast: "For Those Desiring Eden"
Emergent Letters to Evangelicals
Emergent Sermons Archives - Rob Bell
Note: All of Rob's sermons have been monetized, meaning that they no longer exist at the church nor on the Internet. As substitute, you may go here at Rob's site known as The RobCast. From my time spent listening to Rob, Kent Dobson, and A.J. Sherill, each were good in their own way. Of the three, I thought AJ was the more grounded, Kent the more historical, and Rob shooting from the hip to see what fell. However, listening to Rob was like listening to Jesus. You just felt convicted all the time. He wasn't the first preacher in my experience like this but he was one of the most fierce. So if you can find his sermons use them. And pass on the link here that I might post them for others to listen to. Thank you. - re slater
Emergent Tenets (15)
Or, What Makes an Open Bible Closed? <-- Important
Rebirth: Towards An Open Bible and Emerging Faith <--- again, one of my all time favs
What is Theological Liberalism? <-- no. 1
Can an Open Bible compete with a Dead One? <-- very significant
The Presence of God in an Open Bible <-- very significant
Allowing One's Theology to Change and Grow, Adapt and Adjust <-- very significant
Thinking Through a Post-Modern, Post-Evangelic Christianity <-- very significant
Emergent v. Liberal Theology (5)
Emergent v. Mainline Denominationalism (4)
Emergent v. Progressive Christianity (3)
* * * * * *
Christian Orthodoxy's 6-Point Manifesto:
- A God who is Creator-Redeemer
- A Special Revelation that is supernatural in origin
- A Christology that is Incarnational and Trinitarian
- Scriptures that are Inspirational and Authoritative
- A lost humanity requiring God's salvation
- A future that looks to Jesus Christ's return and rule