Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

-----

Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Saturday, February 10, 2024

How Evangelicals Think of the Past Emergent Church, Part 1




Dcn. Cook's gives his assessment of the emergent church in his undergraduate thesis of 2020. To this thesis and to other evangelical positional statements and imprecations of emergentism I have responded in the many articles found in the listed Indexes below.

To these I will post Cook's two observations of emergentism before responding with two or three emergent articles sharing what they find as deficient in evangelical thought.

Be it known that the majority of my life was spent in the fundamental church, then in the evangelical church, and finally in an emergent church. These have all been spiritually healthy experiences for me but it is the latter kind of conservative evangelicalism which has caused me to change my position.

In doing so I discovered process-based Christianity which has given to me the best of all my past but with a better foundation than I had found in the Westernized / Americanized bible faiths.

Hence, the first number of years in my early fifties I needed to deconstruct my evangelical faith. I had no plan and no idea where I was heading. Everything was left open-ended. Eventually a directionality took place... but it took a lot of time to find it and I was very comfortable with living in the tension of the moment with no firm answers.

Then, the last number of years of leaving evangelicalism I ended up discovering and exploring Process-based Christianity. My journey of lost faith had begun with a deep blackness and spiritual tearing of the soul. And yet, bye and bye the Spirit of the Lord bound my wilderness experience back to the Christian faith and along the way helped me envision a more loving, embracing, expanded form of the Christian faith than I had learned or been taught.

Thus and thus, the creation of Relevancy22 and why I think evangelics and emergents (they are twin faiths by the way; or, brothers older and younger than the other) should consider my journey to be a possible journey for themselves. But I'll leave this for the reader to someday decide. All I can do is tell you why a process Christianity is the preferred way to go.

R.E. Slater
February 10, 2024


A New Kind of Christianity?

Ecclesiology May 26, 2020

This article constitutes the sixth installment in a series adapted from the author’s undergraduate thesis, An Ancient Future Church?: An Orthodox Examination of the Post-modern Christianity of the Emergent Church Movement. Follow the link above to start from the beginning of the series.
---

Brian McLaren is regarded as the most influential voice in the Emerging movement, mostly through his writings and extensive, global speaking schedule. McLaren, along with Alan Jones, is among the most notable proponents of the radical wing of the movement. Although from two different traditions — McLaren being the founding pastor of the non-denominational Cedar Ridge Community Church and Jones being the Anglo-Catholic dean1 of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco — they both share a vision of a reimagined, new Christianity, a Christianity that in many ways bears no relation to that which has been passed down from the Apostles. Between them, they have published a multitude of books but it is in McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy and A New Kind of Christianity and Jones’ Reimagining Christianity that they have laid down their vision of the future of Christianity – albeit one that is informed by their interpretation its past.

The common theme that runs through the writings of both McLaren and Jones is that of a subtle agnosticism towards historical Christianity, in particularly that of it as a revealed truth. Again, as with most emergents, their stance is generally in opposition to conservative evangelicalism of a North American variety, so most Orthodox would agree with their opposition to certain tenets of Protestantism.

However, their reaction against Protestantism does not lead them towards more traditional Christian teachings but instead in the direction of liberalism and pluralism. Also prevalent in McLaren’s writing, in particular A New Kind of Christianity, is his frequent references to the ‘Greco-Roman captivity’ of Christianity, in which he sees the Biblical narrative distorted by Platonic and Aristotelian perspectives of the first-century Roman Empire, in particular regard to the teaching on the Fall. Although this is a typical and clichéd Protestant criticism of so-called ‘post-Constantinian Christianity,’ McLaren places most mainstream Protestants within this captivity also. Remaining focused on McLaren, we can see that his deconstructionist view of historical Christianity is at the core of his thought. In effect, he does not appear to believe that orthodox, or historical, Christianity is what it should be. In fact, his ‘orthodoxy’ consists of claiming not to know the entire truth. He writes:

Sit down next to me in this little restaurant and ask me if Christianity (my version of it, yours, the Pope’s, whoever’s) is orthodox, meaning true, and here’s my honest answer: a little but not yet. Assuming by Christianity you mean the Christian understanding of the world and God, Christian opinions on soul, text, and culture… I’d have to say that we probably have a couple of things right, but a lot of things wrong, and even more spreads before us unseen and unimagined. But at least our eyes are open!

To be a Christian in a generously orthodox way is not to claim to have the truth captured, stuffed, and mounted on the wall. It is rather to be in a loving community of people who are seeking the truth on the road of mission and who have been launched on the quest by Jesus, who, with us, guides us still. Do we have it? Have we taken hold of it? Not fully, not yet. But we keep seeking. We’re finding enough to keep us going. But we’re not finished.

In fact, there is nothing Orthodox, or even ‘orthodox,’ about this view. From an actual Orthodox Christian perspective, one that sings “we have found the true faith” at every Divine Liturgy, it does a great disservice to the Holy Fathers who shed their blood to defend the doctrines of true Christianity from distortion and heresy. Of course, McLaren does not claim to be Orthodox, and his perspective is tragically symptomatic of much of modern, liberal Christianity and to a large degree, a considerable segment of the emerging movement. However, it cannot be held against McLaren that he holds such a view – he is merely the natural result of the processes taking place within Western Christianity for centuries, with all sources of authority successively being discarded, one after another. With the loss of Holy Tradition, the mind of the Fathers, and even a respectful view of Holy Scripture, it is difficult to imagine any other result.

Along with his view that, basically, Christianity in whatever form we know it cannot be completely true, McLaren also advocates ‘gender-neutral’ pronouns for God, ‘nuanced’ views on universalism and sexual morality, and holds the opinion that people can be ‘followers of Jesus’ within their own religions, whether they are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or some other religion. These views are not, however, exclusive to McLaren, or the emerging movement for that matter, being quite endemic within modern liberal Protestantism. Despite all of this, McLaren does affirm, at least according to his website, traditional Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, the incarnation and virgin birth, and the death and resurrection of Christ. The question of how he understands or ‘interprets’ these doctrines is another question.

What has made McLaren so influential in ECM is his style and approach. By trying to shift away from the ‘Greco-Roman narrative,’ as he calls it, and developing a more ‘Jewish’ Christianity, McLaren believes that he is avoiding dogmatism, judgmentalism, denominationalism, hypocrisy and an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality, replacing it with inclusiveness, dialogue, storytelling and plurality, if not syncretism. What he has instead achieved is the creation of a politically-correct, neutered religion, which has no substantial message and although he himself apparently holds to the traditional doctrines mentioned above, his approach allows for the complete discarding of them by others.

While McLaren maintains some acceptance of traditional Christian teachings, despite his seemingly contrary views regarding the truthfulness of it all, his friend Alan Jones goes even further with his speculations. His book Reimagining Christianity has been lauded as a classic by liberals and emergents and condemned as a heretical text by conservative evangelicals. Despite his dubious views on the Trinity, Christ and the virgin birth, he received great praise from McLaren for this work. Others who lauded Jones’ book include Richard Holloway, the former Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and a ‘born-again atheist.’

To quote and comment on all of the difficult and troubling statements found in Jones’ book would be the work of another paper entirely but as a demonstration of the doctrines contained therein, some of the most significant will be included here. When discussing narrative and storytelling, he reveals a view of the Holy Scriptures which is at odds with traditional Christianity: “Are the words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament really his? My approach has always been skeptical with regard to the text and open with regard to the tradition.” His skepticism also reaches beyond the Scriptures, to the Creed and the doctrine of the virgin birth: “I believe in the Bible and the creeds but not literally, and I am no atheist. I love the tradition and am nurtured by it. I have a great devotion to Mary the Mother of God but am agnostic about her literal virginity – or, to put it bluntly, I couldn’t care less about it.” Likewise, the heavenly hosts: “Every day I invoke the protection of holy angels but I hear no flapping of wings. Belief in angels is a way for me to affirm the presence of God in a personal way… Angels are a metaphor pointing to something real, and the only way to get to that reality is through poetry, myth, and metaphor.”

His views on the person and divinity of Christ are also questionable, with just enough typically vague language to avoid openly appearing heretical: “We call Jesus divine because he makes visible the mystery in his living, dying, and rising to new life. He shows us that we exist only in relationship with each other and that the secret of life is found in giving it away.” He goes on:

The question “Is Jesus God?” is not like questions such as “Was Abraham Lincoln from Illinois?” The questions sound the same, but the latter question is easily settled by making a few inquiries. The question about Christ’s divinity is a far larger one, about how we interpret the world. We don’t know what life means until we have learned how to turn it into a story – a myth. A myth, in this sense, is not something untrue, but a story without which the truth could not be told.

Of course, skepticism in regards to Christ’s words in the New Testament will of course lead to difficulties in answering Christ’s question of “Who do you say that I am?” 2 This is the conundrum that liberal Christianity finds itself in. Jones’ general opinion of Christianity shines through in many of his remarks, and it does not come across as positive. He writes: “Each of the monotheistic religions has its own peculiar neurosis… Christianity is sadomasochistic.” “And concerning Christianity, I am not interested in its survival, in its adapting to the so-called modern world. Christianity doesn’t need anyone to save it. If it has any truth, it will continue. If it hasn’t, it deserves to die.” The following anecdote recounted by Jones effectively summarizes his worldview.

John Shepherd, the dean of St. George’s Cathedral in Perth, Western Australia, invited the abbot of the Bodhinyana Buddhist Monastery to preach at the service, which was a Eucharist – the central Christian sacrament, and the abbot accepted in full knowledge of this. Aboriginal dancers led the procession into the cathedral and later led the offertory procession to the altar. During communion, representatives of the Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Baha’i faiths read passages from their sacred writings, and after communion an Aboriginal reader offered a dream-time reflection. Was this Christian? The answer, as far as I am concerned, is “Of course.”

Although he writes in his book that “I really do believe that Christianity, as I have received it, has a fullness of truth, which I cannot find in other traditions” many of his statements and observations shown above bring this into doubt. None of what Jones writes is ground breaking, original, or specifically emergent, being more rooted in the radically liberal Christianity that has developed since the 1960’s, but his view of Christianity as a narrative, or story, and shedding of dogmatic absolutes, coupled with the incorporation of many spiritual traditions from both traditional Christianity and other religions, brings him well within the spectrum of ECM, particularly the Emergent stream. Those people who have left ‘dogmatic’ denominations, or traditional Protestant churches find much to latch onto in his writings as a much-needed way to articulate their new views.

As Jones writes, “I’m waiting for a more generous and inclusive version of the Old Story to emerge.” This is the ‘new kind of Christianity’ McLaren writes of, which is being sought by those on the extreme wing of the emerging movement. Although ECM has its traditional, doctrinal-minded Protestants, a good proportion of the movement is fully behind Brian McLaren and similar thinkers from the Emergent stream in their search for a radically redefined Christianity. However, based on what Alan Jones thinks Christianity is, and his description of the conventicle in Australia, this ‘new Christianity’ will not really be Christian in any recognizable sense at all.

Is the Emerging Church Movement Dead?

With all the discussion and debate raging about ‘the Great Emergence,’ the rise of ECM, and its growing influence on mainstream Christianity, it is interesting to see that many of its proponents (or former proponents) deem that the movement has already died a death and is finished. Like all opinions and beliefs in ECM, this is far from universal, and is disputed by many. As the final section of our overview of ECM, we will look at the various opinions as to why this may be the case.

Of all the blog posts and articles on this issue, the most in-depth have been from C. Michael Patton, a blogger for Credo House. He identifies six points as to why he believes that ECM is dead, most of them being their interactions with evangelicals, who are ECM’s target demographic, at least among the ‘churched’ population. His points are that:

1) The leaders lacked tact in addressing evangelicals

2) they were unnecessarily offensive towards them

3) they failed to identify with them

4) they tolerated heterodox theology

5) ECM leadership was not unified

6) Evangelical leadership never really cared about engaging with them.

Patton compares the first three points with a failed coup attempt, in which the emerging upstarts failed to convince evangelicals to listen to their message, primarily because many emergent leaders spoke down to them, or even mocked evangelicalism. Rather than finding common ground in the idea of ‘always reforming,’ which is a core component of Protestant thought, they instead associated evangelicals with fundamentalism (something that a number of emergents were fleeing from) and belittled them. Evangelicals, who might have aligned with ECM’s position on many issues, instead became defensive and rejected the emergent leaders.

Pfour and five go hand-in-hand, as it is the Emergent stream’s tolerance of liberal positions on both theological and moral issues which led to many ruptures in the movement, and the eventual abandonment of the ‘emerging’ label by many in the Doctrine-Friendly stream. Many of the more conservative elements of ECM have instead adopted the term ‘missional’ to express their intention of returning to the roots of their involvement with ECM. Dan Kimball, who was an early leader in the Doctrine-Friendly stream, sums up his disassociation with ECM:

When the whole emerging church discussion began, it was primarily about evangelism and mission to emerging generations… That’s why I got into it, and it was fun and a thrill to be part of… After a while, some within it began focusing more on theology and even some core issues of theology… the whole central focus of evangelism to emerging generations was lost, in my opinion… A lot of the things discussed and then even becoming beliefs is pretty liberal theology… it is pretty much classical extreme liberalism in a new, cooler wrapper.

The final and sixth is the natural conclusion to the first five: most serious evangelical leaders and scholars did not fully engage with ECM, partly due to its propensity to speak down to evangelicals and seeming inability to present a united front on important issues, and partly due to their own refusal to open up their theological doctrines to debate.

In another post, Patton blames ECM’s ambiguity in regards to theological and moral issues as a major part of the movement’s failure to become more influential among traditional Protestants. Allegorizing it as a plane flight, he writes:

The emerging church asked Christians to re-think their faith. They asked us to deconstruct our beliefs. They asked us to doubt everything. They asked for us to take a ride in the emerging plane and fly for a bit… However, the emerging plane never landed. It soon became clear that there was no destination. There was no runway on which to land and the emerging plane did not even have landing gear. The deconstruction happened with no plans of reconstructing. The emerging journey became an endless flight that did not have any intention on setting down anywhere. Many people jumped out, skydiving back home. The rest, I suppose, remained on the plane until it ran out of gas.

A significant number of the Doctrine-Friendly stream ‘skydived,’ most notably Mark Driscoll, who is now mostly associated with Neo-Calvinism. One of the more astute commentators on Patton’s article noted that ECM’s desire to find ‘authentic tradition’ and continuity with historical Christianity opened up the path to Neo-Calvinism for many former emergents, an opinion with which I am in full agreement.

However, despite the more conservative elements of ECM retreating back into evangelicalism, or rebranding as missional, Brian McLaren and others still think the movement is as active and vibrant as ever, although the ‘conversation’ has changed. Writing in 2012, he states that “If we use Phyllis Tickle’s term “Christian Emergence” or “Emergence Christianity” to describe a broad phenomenon that is occurring across the spectrum of Christian communities, I think the movement is stronger than ever.” He goes on to state that he believes that influential figures in evangelical and charismatic movements have forced the movement underground.

In Ganiel and Marti’s recent research, they find themselves in agreement with McLaren that ECM is “not only viable but shows some signs of spreading.” They believe that the “RIP ECM” debate is a healthy sign that ECM is maturing away from its initial reactionary positions. One of the main arguments against McLaren’s opinion is that the Emergent Village website and blog has disappeared, when it was once the hub for much ECM discussion, particularly the Emergent Stream, as well as a whole host of other blogs, which have either vanished or dried up. It could be suggested that this was a deliberate move, made just as ECM seemed on the verge of becoming a denomination, or at least a recognised and established movement with a hierarchy, in its own right. In this regard, by appearing to be ‘dead’ by dissolving its focal point, ECM could be staying true to its anti-establishment principles.

So, although some have distanced themselves from the Emerging label and the sole semi-official organ of ECM has seemingly folded, a number of the individuals associated with ECM continue to be highly influential and sought after for conferences and gatherings. Most importantly, the ideas and concepts associated with ECM are still prevalent in many quarters and, if Ganiel and Marti’s assessment is correct, continuing to spread, even if they are not overtly being labelled as ‘emerging’.

“What, then, is the Emerging Church?”

Having now looked at ECM from a variety of perspectives, using a selection of primary and secondary literature, we are able to see that Fr. Damick’s statement from the beginning of this thesis is thoroughly accurate. However, despite the difficulty in being able to identify what exactly ECM is with exactitude, we are able to highlight specific themes that are present in much of the analysis and also to make several connections between the varying perspectives. From this, we can present a synthesized analysis along with our own concluding viewpoint.

Besides the wider view of Phyllis Tickle, which encompasses of all Western Christianity and its various groups, most of our sources, and the majority of ECM commentators, limit the description of Emerging Church to a specific movement originating within evangelical Protestantism and, to a degree, within the fundamentalist movement, mostly in reaction to the latter but trying to remain within the extended family of the former, sometimes referring to itself as ‘post-evangelical.’ It cannot be emphasized enough that ECM is neither a formal organisation nor a new denomination, but instead a pan-denominational movement with adherents in probably every major Protestant group, including some leadership figures, such as pastors, seminary teachers and other notables. In a sense, it is more akin to a ‘think-tank’ than a formal organisation, or in the language of ECM, a ‘conversation,’ with generally few actual communities based on emerging thought (although the ones that do exist are well-known and influential), but many individuals influenced and inspired by emerging thought being spread throughout more traditional parishes and communities.

DeVine’s study, analysed above, gives the clearest explanation for the movement’s distinguishing factions – Doctrine-Friendly and Doctrine-Wary, or Emergent. These two groups, although not clearly demarcated, form the most notable constituent parts of the movement. In this, we can connect the more specific outlook of the majority of ECM commentators and critics with Tickle’s wider, more inclusive view, in that we can draw correlation between these two factions and the Magisterial and Radical factions of the main Protestant Reformation. Another comparison, more familiar to Orthodox, would be the Renovationist movement in early twentieth-century Russia, which consisted of both moderate and radical elements.

In either comparison, both factions are born from a genuine desire to change what they perceive as institutional problems in their churches, albeit with differing approaches. Much of the writings of ECM adherents show that they have a serious desire to make what they believe to be necessary changes for their churches to continue to function and, in particular, reach out in our contemporary social and cultural climate. In order to achieve this, ECM has made extensive use of post-modern thought and post-modernist approaches. For both factions, this has manifested itself as a more inclusive ecclesiology, with a strong focus on community-building, as opposed to the ‘programs’ associated with seeker-friendly churches.

As part of the ‘post-evangelical’ drift away from modernism and the rigidity associated with it and as a move towards a deeper and more authentic spiritual experience, ECM as a whole has incorporated and adopted many practices from traditional forms of Christianity, incorporated with more modern forms of media, such as audio-visual presentations and new forms of worship music influenced by contemporary culture. As well as how they worship, they have also advocated change in where they worship, with many communities advocating the moving of the worship space from a church building to a different environment, such as a bar, coffee shop, arts space, converted malls and theaters, claiming secular space for the sacred and manifesting the church community in a more missional sense. It is these practices which identify ECM ‘across the board’ in both its more conservative and more liberal quarters.

It is within the more radical elements of ECM that we find another prevalent aspect of the movement, which is its anti-authoritarianism. This was highlighted in the studies of both Carson and Ganiel and Marti. Although much of the above-mentioned practices are in protest against the perceived staid practices of Protestantism, the Emergent stream takes its protest into the theological sphere, and even openly goes against traditional evangelical doctrines. This mostly focus around the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, something that the Orthodox also have strong disagreements with, but also extends to more ‘universal’ teachings, such as the virgin birth, the inspiration and reliability of Holy Scripture, church hierarchy, the nature of the Trinity, and the divinity of Christ. There is also a tendency to lean towards universalism and, to a degree, syncretism among some of the Emergent faction.

In summary, ECM can be seen as a reform movement that started in response to the staid modernism of evangelical Protestantism, its outdated approaches to both mission and worship and its affiliation with the Religious Right. Emergents sought to re-engage the surrounding culture by both using contemporary culture and traditional practices in order to conduct missionary work and create new, enthusiastic and authentic communities in a post-modern environment. However, as with all religious reform movements, the movement slowly grew into two factions, with the more liberal emergents becoming anti-authoritarian and, it can be said, iconoclastic, in their approach. Reaction against these elements was strong from conservative evangelicals and proponents of ECM withdrew their support as a result. At the time of writing, the majority of the conservative faction have ‘relabelled’ themselves as ‘missional’ and have distanced themselves from the ‘emerging’ label. The more liberal elements continue their work, although on a seemingly smaller and less visible scale since the demise of Emergent Village as a semi-official organ. ECM continues, although its current form is one that operates more at a grassroots level than the former national- and international-conference level. The ideas spread by ECM during its most influential period are still around, and by all accounts, slowly spreading. As has been discussed above, the movement is not over, but the conversation has changed slightly.

- Dcn. Michael Cook


Friday, February 9, 2024

Common Sense Christian Wisdom from my friend Rance - Feb 2023



Common Sense Christian Wisdom
from my friend Rance
February 2024


Let's Talk about the New Testament Gospels

by Rance Darity

I’m inclined to believe that the four Gospels are not written by writers who actually knew Jesus or were first hand witnesses to the resurrection.

I am inclined to believe that the names that were attached to the various Gospels were not the actual authors of these texts but were those assigned to them by later tradition. Why? The Gospel writers were sophisticated writers not fisherman or tax collectors.

I’m [also] quite certain that the four Gospels were preceded by oral traditions carried forward by those who were the earliest Christians.

It’s nearly certain that Mark was the earliest Gospel and that Matthew and Mark depended upon Mark as their primarily written source for their own compositions. (The Gospel of John also seems to be familiar with the Synoptic tradition.)

The many scholarly books and articles over the past hundred years or more trying to sort out the so-called ‘Synoptic Problem’ have gone over this issue with a fine tooth comb. Not all issues are resolved until this day, but most adhere to ‘Markan Priority.’

John’s Gospel is notoriously difficult to assess historically. It’s quite obvious that John is using language that did not actually come from the mouth of Jesus. This Gospel is very highly theological.

I believe that some of the material in the Gospels is manufactured and not historical. The accounts of the birth of Jesus are a prime example. This is not to say they are worthless, for the purpose of these accounts was to say something important about Jesus as the Son of God sent from the Father.

All that being said, can we really trust the Gospels and the gospel [of Jesus]?

My position is this:

As our canonical spiritual and theological reliable guides to faith in Christ, I believe that the church must be continually led by the Gospels and the New Testament. They are what nurtures and guards our faith. They all witness to something extraordinary, at the center of which is the story that God raised Jesus from the dead and made him king of the Jews and Lord of the world.

Rance Darity
February 8, 2024


* * * * * * *



Your Gospel is too small if…

by Rance Darity

Your Gospel is too small if…

  • You dwell more on trying to convert people than on seeking to live out the things Jesus taught.
  • You summarize salvation as only what happens in a personal conversion.
  • You have a formula for ‘getting people saved.’
  • You believe it’s primarily about people’s ‘souls’ that need saving.
  • You don’t think church is important.
  • You think believing in Jesus and obeying Jesus are two vastly different things.
  • You think only Christians are going to be saved.
  • You think it’s all about ‘going to heaven when you die’ and not about doing God's will on earth as it is in heaven.
  • You barely think about the resurrection of the body.
  • You barely think about the incarnation.
  • You barely care about the created world and caring for the environment.
  • You think that caring for the poor is optional.
  • You think the kingdom of God depends on the success of American capitalism.
  • You identify Christianity with a particular view of politics, particularly conservative politics.
  • You are more worked up about illegals entering your country than you are about hungry [or caged] children
  • You think more guns are your salvation.

Rance Darity
February 8, 2024


* * * * * * *



Inerrancy: The Red
Herring of Evangelicalism

by Rance Darity


Do you still have any of your sweetheart's old love letters from when you dated? If so, do you judge them to be inauthentic or untrustworthy if they contain an inadvertent scientific or historical mistake? 

Of course not. That is not the proper criteria by which to judge such revelations of the heart. Everyone of us is prone to make a casual error in mundane correspondence. What is essential in such human communications is that the most important matters be true, not that every detail conform to pedantic perfection that lie at the periphery. We value those letters for more than scientific reasons. The main thing is the main thing. 

How silly, then, to argue that the literature of the Bible must be above all such common human traits. Demanding such unusual perfection and inerrancy seems to suggest that we know better than God just how he should have communicated to us. But are we in the place of God to decide what kinds of books should or should not pass for divine communication? After all, God has always chosen fallible human vessels, words, and actions to communicate his will. According to a good source, his communication to us does not reach human perfection until his own Son makes his grand entrance (see Hebrews 1:1-2). 

How much does it really matter whether Judas committed suicide by hanging himself (Matthew 27) or by a violent fall (Acts 1)? Or how essential is it to the primary message of the Bible whether it was Judas or the priests who bought a field with the thirty pieces of silver? These and many other marginal contradictions do not betray the faithful purpose of the Bible as much as we might think. They merely underscore the point that God spoke through people, the same kind of people who write less than perfect love letters to their sweethearts. What matters most is that they actually do carry the essential freight of the gospel. It is to that end that they claim our attention and loyalty. They speak. We listen. They guide. We follow. And the main thing is the main thing.

You reply that 'all scripture is inspired by God.' And it is. Scripture is inspired by God's Holy Spirit of love to lead us into the knowledge of Christ and  his salvation, as well as how to live in light of this story. But this is all the more reason for us not to try and re-direct the Bible's real authority into matters it did not intend to claim. To attempt to do so will only lead us astray, placing our minds and attention on issues that are not worth defending. How much better to follow Scripture where it intends to lead us, and not into questions and disputes of doubtful spiritual value.

So no, the Bible is not an inerrant letter but a love letter from God to us.. 😎

Rance Darity
February 8, 2024

Thursday, February 8, 2024

Index - Evangelical Politics



Index - Evangelical Politics

~~ all articles are listed in chronological order from latest to earliest ~~