The Future of Our Movement

i can see this starting to be true in my family. i am very excited about the future.

I have though a lot about the emerging church but I have reservations about some of the leaders’ theology. I’m not against the ideas of emergent, in fact, I think its a great concept for the postmodern generation. I have read many emergent books but this lack of orthodox theology has made me hesitant to explore emergent further. But my reservations stem from a lack of orthodox theology, not style. I like emergent’s style and form. But if there is no concern from the greater emergent community, it concerns me and its future looks bleak. One of emergent’s leaders, Doug Pagitt at Solomon’s Porch, follows universalism where all will eventually be saved, even those who are not in Christ. Listen to his interview at YouTube (Part 1 and Part 2 ). This is a very serious issue!

While I agree that our relationship with our families is of prime importance, I personally have a number of reservations in relation to the legitimation issue.

Let me frame this: I am not an Evangelical nor do I consider myself part of the Emergent Church, though I would consider myself Christian. My academic background is in philosophy, principally Heideggerian and post-Heideggerian phenomenology.

With this background, I have issues with how Emergent Church thinkers are using (or not using) Heidegger. In the few things that I have read, the focus seems to be entirely on epistemology, even when name-dropping Heidegger, and no mention of ontology, which is central to Heidegger, Derrida, Levinas, and Foucault (which, I think we would agree, are paradigmatic so-called postmodern thinkers). I think this seriously weakens the Emergent claims as it is not properly grounded in an accurate description/phenomenology of what it means to be human and how beings appear to us. Furthermore, I think that so grounding Emergent claims would go a long way in disabusing Evangelicals from their accusations that so-called postmodernism is inherently nihilistic and denies truth.

Have I simply missed the Emergent thinkers who approach Emergent concerns in relation to ontology or is it truly missing from Emergent discourse in the wake of epistemology? What I find interesting in this approach by Emergent thinkers is that it is thoroughly modern: making epistemology first philosophy rather than properly grounding it in being-in-the-world (Heidegger) and/or ethics (Levinas).

Our children are the most precious gift God has given us. Furthermore, THEY are they example God has given us, of US in relation to God. We are reminded we are all still children in God’s eyes, totally helpless on our own and in need of the Father’s care. I pray that we find creative ways to put them first, above anything else.