emergent christianity

[benidict]

just got done reading the wikopedia peary gave us. the emergent/emerging movement. looks alot deeper than the fad i thought it might be. it seems to be the next generation of protestant thought. no offense to my emergent friends out there, but from what i read, its makes me glad im a Catholic. i would have to do alot more research and read some books. but its not a direction i could ever see myself going. Peace

 

[Izdaari]

Gaaak.

Look…I’m an English major, with degrees and teaching credentials, and can spout academese with the best of 'em. In terms of literature I can get as polysyllabic as the densest of them…but when I read the above paragraph, I wanted to go all Calvin and Hobbs on you. What the…???

Would you mind, please, explaining precisely what ‘emergent Christianity’ is? Use words of no more than three syllables, if possible?

You can begin by defining what ‘modernist’ thinking is in terms of Christianity, so that when you speak of pre-modern and post-modern philosophy, I’ll have some sort of gauge to measure such concepts by?

I’d appreciate it.

Diana…

No, I don’t think so, too much work! Are we playing intellectual Calvinball here?

Just hit Wikipedia and read the Emerging Church article. That’ll probably be much clearer than I could make it for you.

You could also read the article on Postmodern Christianity if you care to.

 

[Izdaari]

just got done reading the wikopedia peary gave us. the emergent/emerging movement. looks alot deeper than the fad i thought it might be. it seems to be the next generation of protestant thought. no offense to my emergent friends out there, but from what i read, its makes me glad im a Catholic. i would have to do alot more research and read some books. but its not a direction i could ever see myself going. Peace

Maybe no need to go there. As a Catholic, you already have a lot of what we’re trying to bring into Protestantism.

 

[dianaiad]

It’s too confusing. Read it here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_church

I’m sorry, but I got lost. Something about the term ‘overly redemptive’ hit the first blow, followed immediately by ‘spiritual tourism’ and “alternative worship” twisted me around, and I was completely finished off by ‘postcolonial hermeneutics.’

The only thing missing was 'transgender polymorphology."

(sigh)

I don’t know what’s worse in my own view…the fact that these people USE that sort of language, or that, since I actually know what that jargon means in its proper melieu, that they use it so very badly. “Postcolonial hermeneutics?” REALLY?

It’s enough to drive me to the Emergent Village website to see what THEY have to say. I haven’t gone into it very deeply yet, but so far they look like fun people who do not write like the wiki folk do.

 

[Padrej]

Hi i have seen this several times in peoples denominational identifier. Emergent Pentacostal, Emergent Baptist. what does Emergent mean? is it some “new” fad within christianity, or a movement of some sort? someone please correct my ignorance. Peace

benidict
Here is a link to an excellent article from Zondervan publishing on the Emergent churches.
christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html

This is from the article as a teaser:
To define a movement, we must, as a courtesy, let it say what it is. Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, in their book, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Baker Academic, 2005) define emerging in this way:

Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities.

BUT please do not confuse them with the “Convergence Movement” where liturgical churches like Catholics and Anglicans are coming together with Pentecostals and other Protestants to share in worship. It seems like this is a spin off movement of the Charismatic Catholics.