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What Do You Like About Emergent?

Posted Nov 11, 03:14 PM | 3 comments | by Editor | Link

By Steve Knight:

Theologian Michael Wittmer would like to know, “What do you like about Emergent?”

He starts off with a compliment of his own: ”[Brian McLaren] rightly reminds us that this life and this earth matters and that the Christian life starts now, not just after we die. I often cite his line that getting saved is the starting line, not the finish line, of our life with Christ. In fact, I think that his recovery of living for Christ explains a big chunk of his appeal to younger Christians. While I have important reservations about where he starts from and where he ends up, I applaud Brian’s efforts to recover what I would call a Christian worldview.”

Wittmer’s new book Don’t Stop Believing attempts to navigate a “third way” between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and Emergent Christians (my summary of the book’s description).

While I love the title of the book for it’s cleverness and 1980s nostalgia factor, I question it’s overall premise. Is it ever possible to stop believing? Isn’t the question always: what are we believing in? and what beliefs are we living out of? Regardless, Wittmer is opening a dialogue by inviting positive reflections on Emergent, and I’d like to encourage everyone who has something nice to say to pop over and share your reflections with him.

(HT: Darry Dash)

Steve Knight is local organizer for the Charlotte Emergent Cohort and a member of the Coordinating Group for Emergent Village.

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Welcome to the Reader's Forum

1tad delay Nov 12, 07:04 AM

Zondervan advanced me a copy of the book for review. I wrote about it here:
http://taddelay.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/dont-stop-believing-by-michael-wittmer/

2mike wittmer Nov 12, 10:52 PM

Steve:

I agree with you that it is impossible to stop believing in anything and that the question is what are we believing in. That is precisely the point I address in the book. The title of the book is meant to draw attention, not to exhaustively explain the book’s content. The subtitle drives straight to the heart of my book, and is what I would enjoy having a conversation about. Granted that loving like Jesus is an essential part of faith, is it enough to live like Jesus or must we also believe some specific truths about him in order to be saved?

3Richard W Wilson Dec 8, 11:13 AM

I tend to think that if we live like Jesus we will tend to love like him and believe like him. If we believe like him (granted that this is all only partially possible and totally dependent on the enabling of his Spirit) then we will tend to think particular things about him also. The question is then what those things might be, and how “specific” those truths must be. How specific does the NT Jesus say our beliefs must be? My sense is that Jesus is in conversation about that in ways with which we might not agree, but that we need to be open to hearing him speak in ways with which our received and post-scriptural tradition might not approve.
All the best to those in Christ, Richard

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