Emerging Church and Generous Orthodoxy
If you have done any research on the emerging church movement (ECM) or Emergent Theology (ET) you will find out that there is a lot of discussion happening. D. A. Carson has written a book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications, Scot McKnight as written a paper entitled What is the Emerging Church, and Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) scholar Brent Kunkle gave a paper entitled Essential Concerns Regarding the Emerging Church at the 2006 annual meeting of the ETS in Washington D.C. These are just a few, there are countless other blogs out there discussing this topic which is important for the church. These works have received numerous reviews, some from those within the movement itself, others from outside the movement. Rick Phillips has written on McKnight’s work and Tony Jones has posted a public response to Brett Kunkle’s paper. And there have been numerous reviews of Carson’s work, with Scot McKnight’s series (this post starts a series of posts about the book), Tim Challies, Derek Thomas of reformation 21 and Andrew Jones over in the UK, just to name a few. So what can be said is probably more of repetition that actual new thoughts regarding the ECM and ET. At that risk, here goes.
It appears to me that charity and humility is what is most needed in this conversation. I can honestly say that for what I’ve read about the movement from both within and without (which is admittedly small… I haven’t even read all of the works above!) there are things that do concern me: most of which have to do with an apparent acceptance of post-modernity and what that entails. There are also some things that can be of benefit: most of which deals with the missional mindset. Many within the emerging movement are critical of those attempting to understand and explain the movement. They refuse to be assimilated and charge that those criticizing them do not adequately understand them (mainly because they aren’t friends and haven’t conversed). At the same time, there are some reactionary statements made on some blogs that label the movement as a neo-liberal cult (ala the emerging church according to Rob Bell of Mars Hill).
So as I read Brian McLaren’s work Generous Orthodoxy I am wary of posting my thoughts “willy-nilly.” It is crucial that we clearly understand before we critique. I don’t think I can claim to fully understand where McLaren is coming from, but can attempt to understand his work. I’m about half-way through and so far have not been overly impressed. He does have some good things to say that are helpful to the church at large, but I feel he has not done the title of his work justice. When I’m finished I’ll post my thoughts, but I wanted to give this post as a sort of preface to anything written about the ECM or ET.
