...I’ve yet to encounter anything written by or about Emergentists that rises to the level of comprehensibility...What qualifies a writing as 'comprehensible'?
To which writings are you referring?
Not to be rude, but maybe the problem is not with the so-called 'emergentists'... Just a thought.
As a Gen-X’er, I empathize with the search for an authentic Christian spirituality—one that transcends the vapidity of Baby-boomer evangelicalism. Yet thus far, I see no philosophical grounds for believing that the Emergent church movement represents the way out. This is because there are points at which one will never get out by going forward (as the name “Emergent” suggests). There are points at which one must, as Vizzini told Inigo in The Princess Bride, “go back to the beginning.” And the post-modern point in which we live today and from which the Emergent church is purportedly “emerging” represents just such a point. One cannot move forward (emerge) when there is nothing there from which to move.Okay, so my only response to this bit of incomprehensibility is, "Huh?"
Let me attempt a translation. :-)
ReplyDeleteIf the problem of modernity is that it left behind a mystical world view, how much sillier is a post-modernity. If modernity is a weak foundation -- why build a new house on it? No matter how cool it looks or how many interesting things you do with the house, ultimately it crumbles due to feeble foundations.
Obviously, the critic is someone who sees the emergent movement as fundamentally modern in nature -- just a little change in window dressing. (There are many who would argue that postmodernity is better classified as hypermodernity -- emphasizing customization and individual choice.) From this perspective the real way forward is to turn back to a pre-modern mystical world view.
That helps a bit, and serves to strengthen my disagreement. I think I would say that the emerging church is something happening within postmodernity; it is not necessarily postmodern (whatever that is).
ReplyDeleteI realize I have a filter that views the issue from inside the emerging church (though on the fringes.
btw, I also believe postmodernity is actually hypermodernity, but I also think that this particular pendulum swing (coming after 'post' modernity) is the prelude to something different.