Is the emergent/emerging church movement dying... already?
Phil Johnson thinks so. “You wonder why I’ve hardly posted anything about Emergent/ing Christianity for the past year? The movement has been self-destructing nicely without any help from me.”
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Among emergents, some have bemoaned its death for almost a year. Here is a post from an emergent who is expressing his disappointment about it lack of momentum, even blaming “the conservatives” for making it fizzle. http://thehopefulskeptic.com/blog/?p=54
However, Tony Jones is much more hopeful, pointing to all of the young evangelicals that are influenced by Rob Bell and Shane Claiborne. But Rob Bell for several years (much to the disappointment of Jones and Pagitt) has refused to endorse the emergent movement and I just found this quote from Shane Claiborne from a footnote of one of his books which is critical of its theology. In my opinion, “the movement” (emerging/emergent) became a bit narcissistic. Much of the theology became sloppy within the movement, with folks who have repeated some of the mistakes of fundamentalism (only with more tattoos), and others have repeated the mistakes of liberalism (only with more wit).
Phil Johnson alludes to a moral failure among one of its primary leaders, with a cover-up by the church that he (the emergent leader) attends, which has added to dillusionment that some emergents are having with its leaders. They attend a conference and the woman that this certain leader is with doting on is not his wife (because his divorce has not gone through yet).
I am interested in how Brian MClaren’s upcoming book is going to play out with the demise of the emergents. From it Dr. Michael Wittmer from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (who was mailed an advance copy) summarizes MClaren’s position against those who believe in the authority of Scripture….that we who stand under the Bible as our authority are guilty of the same type of thinking that endorsed slavery, anti-Semitism, genocide, homophobia, the Inquisition, witch-burning, and apartheid (the author instead recommends using the Bible as a common library of diverse viewpoints rather than an internally consistent authority over our lives).”
http://mikewittmer.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/this-conversation-is-over/ Dr. Wittmer predicts this upcoming book to be a litmus test for the evangelical church……..
However, Tony Jones is much more hopeful, pointing to all of the young evangelicals that are influenced by Rob Bell and Shane Claiborne. But Rob Bell for several years (much to the disappointment of Jones and Pagitt) has refused to endorse the emergent movement and I just found this quote from Shane Claiborne from a footnote of one of his books which is critical of its theology. In my opinion, “the movement” (emerging/emergent) became a bit narcissistic. Much of the theology became sloppy within the movement, with folks who have repeated some of the mistakes of fundamentalism (only with more tattoos), and others have repeated the mistakes of liberalism (only with more wit).
Phil Johnson alludes to a moral failure among one of its primary leaders, with a cover-up by the church that he (the emergent leader) attends, which has added to dillusionment that some emergents are having with its leaders. They attend a conference and the woman that this certain leader is with doting on is not his wife (because his divorce has not gone through yet).
I am interested in how Brian MClaren’s upcoming book is going to play out with the demise of the emergents. From it Dr. Michael Wittmer from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (who was mailed an advance copy) summarizes MClaren’s position against those who believe in the authority of Scripture….that we who stand under the Bible as our authority are guilty of the same type of thinking that endorsed slavery, anti-Semitism, genocide, homophobia, the Inquisition, witch-burning, and apartheid (the author instead recommends using the Bible as a common library of diverse viewpoints rather than an internally consistent authority over our lives).”
http://mikewittmer.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/this-conversation-is-over/ Dr. Wittmer predicts this upcoming book to be a litmus test for the evangelical church……..
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