Emergent Church?

I think this article by Andy Crouch over at CT last winter is a competent synopsis of the Emergent “Conversation”. It is just the latest thing in Evangelicalism, which is constantly trying to reinvent itself so that it remains relevant. I am thus ambivalent about the “movement” (they really hate that word, btw) because on one hand Evangelicalism is so sick and deformed that it should be reinvented, but on the other hand one of the things that makes it so sick is this pathetic, compulsive need to constantly reinvent itself.

There are elements of Emergent (post-modern) Christianity that I consider to be hopeful signs:

1) As post-modern they are pretty down on modern, and since modern sucks, I don’t suppose post-modern could be any worse.

2) They are pretty down on having all the pat answers: rationalistic theological fetishism (I like to call it) and much more into mystery and dialectic tension. Again a possible step in the right direction… but maybe not.

3) Related to (2), they don’t seem to care much for the “inerrancy” myth (tho’ I doubt they’d call it a myth), and therefore seem to take a more Catholic view of Scripture (IMO, the right view).

4) They seem to draw more upon ancient and medieval thinking and tradition than their thoroughly modern forefathers, but perhaps only because they think it is cool, which would be too bad. (It’s never cool to be cool because you think it’s cool!)

But one strike against emergent is that they have not yet, I think, managed to excise that cancerous wart that so mars the face of modern Evangelicalism: self fulfillment and autonomy. When they do this, then they might be something…

My $0.02

Two quick articles that might help:

Christianity Today covers the Emergent Church

Good basic article on the Emergent Church phenomenon

Please don’t ask me to define postmodernism. My ears will bleed.

Rob