Transcript The Great Emergence - St. John in the Wilderness Adult

The Great Emergence:
How Christianity
Is Changing and Why
From the book by Phyllis Tickle, c. 2008
by Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI
The Rev. Marilyn Baldwin
St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church
White Bear Lake, MN
June, 2009
Emergence, Emersion

The emerging church (sometimes
referred to as the emergent movement) is
a Christian movement of the late 20th and
early 21st century that crosses a number
of theological boundaries: participants can
be described as evangelical, postevangelical, liberal, post-liberal,
charismatic, neocharismatic, and postcharismatic. (Wikipedia)
2
Emerging Church

Proponents… call it a "conversation" to
emphasize its developing and decentralized
nature, its vast range of standpoints and its
commitment to dialogue. What those involved in
the conversation mostly agree on is their
disillusionment with the organized and
institutional church and their support for the
deconstruction of modern Christian worship,
modern evangelism, and the nature of modern
Christian community. (Wikipedia)
3
The Great Emergence
 Part
I: What Is It?
 Part
II: How Did It Come To Be?
 Part
III: Where Is It Going?
4
Part I: What Is It?
Changes slipped into our lives somewhat
unnoticed, unheralded in late 20th Century
 Affect every part of our lives
 Interface with/context for all aspects

Social
 Culture
 Politics
 Economics

5
“The World Is Flat Again”
Classic economics applies less to service
economies than production-based ones
 National borders, loyalties not as strong as
before
 Small nations can hold large ones hostage



Technology, knowledge have leveled playing
field
Traditional privilege no longer a given
6
Examples

“Information overload” at all levels
To-do lists are endless
 Dependent upon technology outside ourselves
for even simple tasks

 Simple
calculations
 Computer, phone issues disrupt lives

Where is the line between human and
machine?
7
How Does This Apply To Religion?
(specifically, North American Christianity)
About every five hundred years the
Church feels compelled to hold a giant
rummage sale….
 We are living in and through one of
those five-hundred-year sales.

---Phyllis Tickle, quoting The Rt. Rev. Mark Dyer,
Retired Anglican Bishop
8
Understanding History*
Pattern of 500-years helpful to
understanding and reassurance
 Empowered structures become unwieldy
 Must be shaken off so that new growth
may occur

* “Those who do not understand history are
doomed to repeat it” ---George Santayana
9
Three Results or Corollary Events

New, more vital form of Christianity emerges
Former dominant form becomes “more pure and
less ossified” version of itself

= two new creatures where there was one
Faith has then spread dramatically into new
geographic and demographic areas


Increasing exponentially range and depth of
Christianity

Eg., Reformation forced changes upon Roman Church
10
Rummage Sales
When the Church Cleans Out Its Attic

500 Years Ago: Great Reformation
(16th Century) growth in relative importance for
religion & culture
 Luther: October 31, 1517

 Others
had made rumblings for at least a century
 Other changes went on for at least a century more

Wycliff, Zwingli, Knox, Calvin, Hooker
11
Rummage Sales (cont.)

500 Years Earlier: Great Schism (1054)
Cultural, theological, practical differences
between Eastern and Western Churches
 Symbolic habits, rituals, sacred means

 Eastern:
(Constantinople) Leavened bread, Greek
language, Spirit descended from God the Father
 Western: (Rome) Unleavened bread, Latin, Spirit
descends from Father and Son (filioque clause)
Rome excommunicated Constantinople
 Constantinople declared Rome anathema

12
Rummage Sales (cont.)

500 Years Earlier: (Late 6th Century)
Pope Gregory (I) the Great (590-604)
 “Cleanup” after the Fall of the Roman Empire
(Rome sacked, 410; fell, 476; Senate
disbanded in 480)
 Council of Chalcedon, 451: Issues

 Nature
of Jesus’ Incarnation: divinity vs. humanity
 Whether Mary was “Mother of God” or of human

Eastern, Western, Oriental Christianity
13
Gregory and the Monastics

Growing lawlessness, illiteracy of culture
Commoners, minor clergy left with little official
religious practice or scriptural study
 Thanks to Gregory (and Benedict before him)

 Convents,
monasteries became repositories for
early treasures of Church and learning

Power rested in religious communities and
especially their leaders
14
First Century CE
Obviously most important to Christian faith
 Christianity born out of Judaism



Birth, public ministry, teachings, crucifixion,
Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth changed
everything
Judaism itself forever changed

70 CE Temple destroyed; 130 Jews barred
 Jews
dispersed; epochs of human time redated
 Much of Church born in those 60 years
15
Inner Workings of Rummage Sales
We are on the cusp of 500-year change
 We are also the product of one, and all
those before
 Need to gauge present pain against
patterns and gains of previous “hinge
times”
 No structure has been lost; only changed
by new, not-yet-organized form

16
“Re-Traditioning” Diana Butler Bass

Apostolic tradition did not cease to be

Canon, Augustinian theology, mysticism still
with us
Monastic tradition did not cease but still
influences us
 Roman Catholicism’s power, ritual, and
theology still inform us
 Protestant Christianity still important


Emphasis on literacy, Scripture
17
Broader Upheaval

Colonized Christianity changing in lessdeveloped countries, cultures


More sharing, egalitarian assumptions
Similar issues in Judaism
500 years BC: Babylonian Captivity,
destruction of Solomon’s Temple
 1000 BC: End of Age of Judges, David’s
monarch established

 Great

Transformation: Emergence of humanity
Similarities in Islam? (Shorter history)
18
Cable Of Meaning (after Tickle, p. 35)
Waterproof covering (history of community)
Mesh sleeve (common imagination)
Spirituality
Corporeality
Morality
19
A Holy Tether
Consider “generic religion” – belief system
 Humanity secured by tether to greater
meaning


“If there were no god, we would have to invent
one”
20
Cable Of Meaning Explained
Waterproof covering = story of community
 Mesh sleeve = common imagination



Not necessarily true, but “truth” of community
Three strands:
Spirituality: Naming central experiences &
values of individuals and community
 Corporeality: Physically embodied religion
 Morality: Application, enactment of values

21
Cable To Meaning

All well as long as cable is intact, suffers
no major blow
Story and shared illusion are struck a blow
simultaneously – major change in culture
 “Religious duct tape” seals off changes for
awhile

 Healing

takes place; new shared values
Cultural change cycle starts all over again
22
The Great Emergence
 Part
I: What Is It?
 Part
II: How Did It Come To Be?
 Part
III: Where Is It Going?
23
Part II: How Did It Come to Be?

Why is it important?

Knowing historical parallels:
 Allows
us to more accurately evaluate & address
changes
 Diminishes sense of failure: my/our fault

Most recent parallels in 16th Century
Reformation
 Makes
sense to gain understanding from it
24
The Great Reformation:
Prequel to Emergence
Reformation didn’t start with Luther’s 95
Theses (1517) but much earlier
 1378: Two men elected Pope

Urban VI, Italian
 Clement VII, French

 Led
to cultural, political, and social upheavals
 Primacy, stability of Seat of Rome shattered

Not settled until 1418, after 3 popes vying for
power
25
Outcome: Two Major Changes
Destroyed idea that popes are chosen by
God to be arbitrator of religion and politics
 Evoked one major question – always
present in re-formation:

Where now is the authority?

Answer didn’t come until Reformation:
Sola scriptura, scriptura sola
 Joined later by “priesthood of all
believers”
26
Advantages of New Authority
As new source of authority becomes
established, chaos gives way to stability
 New changes, requirements come out of
new authority

Sola scriptura required literacy of all
 Literacy accelerated drive toward rationalism,
Enlightenment, ultimately literature, science
and technology of today

27
Disadvantages of New Authority

Divisiveness: many different interpretations
of same information
New denominations, sects proliferate
 Bloody history of spread of Christianity
 Disunity of the Body of Christ
 Sola scriptura sets up a “paper pope” in place
of human one?

28
Further Assaults on Authority
1453: Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople

Greek Orthodox intelligentsia leave Turkey for
Europe
 Brought
copies of ancient documents in original
languages
 Possessed ability to read ancient languages
 Brought scientific and mathematics knowledge
from Islamic world

All contributed to great leap in knowledge and
culture in all of Europe: The Renaissance had
begun
29
Tension and Conflict

Tensions defined religiously after Islam’s
founding in 6th Century


Less defined as far as geography
Iberian Peninsula (Spain) in 50 years
before Luther series of skirmishes
Regional kings and Mussulmen (Muslims)
 Roman Church and Sephardic (Spanish) Jews
 Catholic monarch’s retaking of Spanish culture



Cordoba’s library had over 400,000 volumes
Largest in one place since destruction of Alexandria
30
Tension and Conflict (cont’d)

Ottomans conquered much of southern
Mediterranean by 1417
Inroads to Europe as far as Vienna for the
next century
 Finally repulsed in 1683


Caused reconsideration of Church, state,
social & economic orders
City-states centralized; duchies became states
 Merchant classes, transportation, warfare all
transformed into modern modes

31
Rise of Protestantism

Shifts in loyalties from local lord to distant
king
Greater independence, responsibility for self
 Middle class came between ancient
aristocracy and peasantry
 Cash became basis of power

Protestantism became expression of new
world order
 Gave authority to new order by
“sacramentalizing” important occurrences

32
Rummage Sale – Hinge Time
Changes

Characterized by/informed by

Increasing restraints upon/outright rejections
of
 Pure
capitalism
 Mainline Protestantism’s loss of demographic base
 Changes in nuclear family
 Shift from cash to information as base of power
 Demise of nation-state & rise of globalization
33
Influence of Gutenberg
Wycliffe,(d.1388) others argued for
presenting Scripture in common language
 Gutenberg’s printing press (1440) and
subsequent inventions made it available
 Also allowed Luther’s documents, others to
be distributed far and wide
 Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton
theories disseminated


Called into question previously unquestioned
34
Rethinking Church Authority

“3-level universe” proven wrong by
Columbus


Was the Church capable of being wrong?


Where were God, Heaven?
Simply, Yes
Common story now broken

Search for new meaning, adjusted story
35
New Answers To Old Questions

Open to question/change:
Number and order of sacraments
 Role of faith and works in salvation
 Buying of church positions and forgiveness
 Nature of Communion; proper prayer
 Timing of baptism
 Numbering, definitions of Commandments


Luther/Reformation opened door to more
changes – not final questions
36
Counter-Reformation: Roman
Response
Luther, others originally envisioned
changed Church, not split
 Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17) within
Roman Church pushed for changes


Doctrine and practice clarified
 Devotions,
indulgences, Purgatory
 Training of priests, appointments, factions cleared
up
37
Seeking Hegemony
Def: Leadership; pride of place
 Drive to war in several areas
Spanish & Italian Inquisitions
 Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) involved much of
Europe over Roman/Protestant control
 English Civil War (1641-51)

38
Questions of Re-Formation: Darwin,
Freud, and the Power of Myth

Modern Science as major challenge to
story and imagination in place since postReformation
Darwin’s Origin of Species, 1859
 Faraday, Field Theory, 1851

 Electromagnetic




rotations and induction
Principles on which generators and transformers work
No “ether” or “matter” as such
Light not from angels but a natural phenomenon
Changed ways of thinking, being, believing
39
Questions of Re-Formation (Cont’d)
Freud: Opened questions of mind and self
 Jung: Extended explorations of self,
collective unconscious; influenced others
 Campbell: Disestablished Christian
“doctrine of particularity” and “exclusivity”
 New mass communication technologies
made information available to all


Telegraph, radio, mass news, TV
40
Theological Changes: Reactions

1895: Conference of Conservative
Protestants meet


Formulate principles of belief: Fundamentals
1950’s on: pioneering education,
discussion via TV, common culture
Bishop Sheen
 Televangelists
 Joseph Campbell: What of solus christus and
sola scriptura?

41
The New Self
Old theory of “self” existing somewhere in
brain
 Newer ideas of self merging with artificial
intelligence: existential questions



Self/brain/mind/I/soul/prayer/God/existence
Each time of reformation has same
question:
Where now is the authority?
 No answers = individual, societal chaos

42
Two Questions of Great Emergence


What is human consciousness – what makes us
human?
How can we live as religious persons in a world
of many religions?



We cannot have truly entered into stability until we
have answered both questions
Both questions are in widespread, open discussion
All participants are products of 20th Century;
major cultural changes must be examined
43
The Century of Emergence:
Einstein, Autos, and Marginalization of Grandma

Einstein dominates 20th Century in many areas,
including religion

1905: Published 4 papers that changed our
“consensual illusion” forever
1.
Quanta or bundles of light proven - later
quantum physics - no angels, but natural laws
Brownian motion described quantitatively - proof
of molecular activity - proof of existence of
atoms
Special Theory of Relativity - no absolutes in
space or in time - all depend on observer
Matter and energy not separate but equivalent
(E=mc2)
2.
3.
4.
44
Heisenberg and Uncertainty

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle came out
of Theory of Relativity

“Uncertainty” the only fact that could be
accepted as fact in both popular mind and
academics
deconstruction: no absolute truth – all
relative to the perceiver
 All writing – sacred or secular – has no innate
meaning outside of reader
 Literary
Battle of The Book
45
Looking for the Real Jesus

Sola scriptura already damaged before
Einstein or Heisenberg

“What if Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus of
Western history are not the same? Reimarus,
1770’s
“The Quest for the Historical Jesus,”
Schweitzer, 1901 – marks the end of an era and
opening of another
 Midcentury finds and methods changed how
most view the Gospels

 Jesus
seen as much as guru and sage as God
46
More Einstein, more outcomes:

1915-16: General Theory of Relativity
Understanding of time as a fourth dimension,
capable of slowing
 Ongoing expansion of universe; Big Bang
 Human space exploration
 Biblical literalism based on inerrancy given a
blow
 Divine authority of Scripture decentralized,
turned into “pick-and-choose bazaar”

Where now is our authority?
47
Enter Pentecostalism

1906: Black LA preacher’s new doctrine
that Spirit gifts are accompanied by
speaking in tongues

Azusa Street Revival spread like wildfire in US
and world
 2006:
500 million Pentecostalists – 2nd only to RC
Church of all classes, races, genders
 Worship style influenced others, especially
evangelicals

48
Beginnings of Pentecostalism



African-American community was largest
“untheologized” community spirituality
Black spiritual experience and contact with divine
have been central since before Azusa Street;
mainstream since then
Assumes direct contact with God and direct
agency of Holy Spirit



Spirit takes precedence over Scripture
First answer to “Where is authority?” - Spirit
¼ of emergents are Pentecostal by heritage or affinity
49
Leaving Grandma
in the Rearview Mirror

1908: First popular mass-produced US car
Freed Americans from ties to home,
family, community, church
 Changed Sabbath forever to Sunday:
shopping, errands, sports took precedence
over church and family gatherings
 “Grandma” was enforcer of biblical learning,
church attendance, generational ties

50
The Influence of Karl Marx

Published Communist Manifesto in 1848

Built on ideas of Hegel: dialectical materialism





Opposites exist only when in opposition
When conflict if resolved, the two synthesize
All of life is a becoming, never a being
All creation part of some Absolute that is becoming
Marx: State must be supreme; all other forms of
authority must cease to exist for people to thrive

Das Kapital, 1867: Owners always looking to make goods
more cheaply on the backs of workers
 Workers would revolt, which must be prevented
 State should own all things, keeping ownership from
individuals
51
Marx’s Influence (cont’d)

Communist/socialist authority in conflict
with religion and Reformation concepts

Human responsibility, worth, purpose
Others argued for a proto-secular
humanism: what is best for most
 Midcentury churches took over in
socializing young

Building programs for meeting halls, gyms
encouraged uniformity of belief
 Not same as belief in God

52
The Spiritual Strand and A.A.
Children of 40’s, 50’s “spiritual but not
religious”
 Growth of AA, other groups after 1935
encouraged people to “choose your own
concept of God/Higher Power”

Leap from doctrinal to experiential
 Wounded as better healers than experts,
authorities, clergy
 Revived small-group dynamic

53
Strangers and Countrymen

1965 Immigration and Nationality Services
Act passed
Long memories of cheap labor imported from
other countries; Asians targeted
 Wars opened Asia to US; later, US to Asian
immigrants


By end of Great Depression, Americans
primarily urban with time and opportunities

Free time leads most to awareness of self,
internal experience
54
A New Religion
Most mainline Christianity gave no
religious vocabulary or practices
 Asian immigrants brought Buddhism

Rich narrative of wisdom experience
 Tranquil meditative tools “unencumbered by
theism”

 “Insinuated

itself” into Christian and Jewish practice
Journey of the spirit did not require the
baggage of religion
55
The Drug Age
For some, drugs offered different reality
and adjusted perception of subjectivity
 Again, American culture had taught little or
nothing about spirituality

Experimentation became a way to encounter
mystery, experience
 Questioned nature of consciousness, further
disorienting participants
 “Clear trajectory from Timothy Leary to the
Great Emergence”

56
The Erosion of Sola Scriptura

Years leading to Civil War had caused Scripture
to be questioned by slavery opponents


Freedom, equality legally guaranteed if not personally
WWI and II called gender equity into question




Women got the vote; seeds of Women’s Movement
planted
Divorce hurdle was overcome
Ordination of women, episcopacy
Gay rights as last challenge to biblical literalism
When last fight is won, where will be the authority?
57
The Corporeal Strand
Protestantism codified as a set of beliefs
 Religious sensibilities that have assumed
body, form, & power = CORPOREAL
 Often exhibited in fights over hymnals,
biblical translations, rituals
 Race/gender/sexual preference have
crossed barriers to become cultural fights


May be a sign we are nearing the end of focus
on corporeal, perhaps to begin with moral
58
The Moral Strand
Roe v. Wade often cited as first sign of
moral question: What defines human?
 Jack Kevorkian, “mercy killing”
 Terry Schiavo was most recent major case
to question difference



Inflict vs. permit death
Questions still open and debated
59
Technological Advances

Roman Catholic leadership
¼ of today’s emergents are of Roman Catholic
background
 Impact of Vatican I & II on all of Christianity

 I:
Papal Infallibility; origin, role of Scripture
 II: Ecumenism, interfaith dialogue, theology of
religion

Medical advances & ethical questions

Beginning & end of life issues
60
Technological Advances (cont’d)

Impact of personal music devices


Changed expectations from performed to
participatory music
Changes in political boundaries, loyalties
Money no longer sole basis of power
 Information now holds power in most cases


Religious experience has moved from
sacred to secular to electronic space

Internet connects without hierarchy, yet
disconnects from local community
61
Technological Advances (cont’d)

Enables “priesthood of all believers” in
ways the Reformers could not imagine

Huge implications for emergents
 Opens
information to all
 Opens dis-information as well
 No mentoring, formation, credentials

Rise of “aggressive atheism” in response
to worldwide connectedness

Theodicy of natural and human-caused
disasters, wars
62
Rosie the Riveter

Mobilization of troops and materials for
WWII required women in war mfg. jobs

Over 20 million women worked in defense
 Others
cared for their children, did other related
work

Peace sent most back to domestic oblivion
Restiveness from having had power
 New technologies left much time, little to do
 Role expectations of returning GIs, wives
differed

63
Rosie the Riveter (cont’d)

Rosie increased social life in acceptable
ways
Telephone contacts
 Church volunteer work, fellowship


Young women had memory of a different
upbringing – power of women

Domestic, work, and social life would change
forever as they came to adulthood
64
Family Reconfigured

1960: Birth control pill changed women’s
options
Family planning
 More equality in jobs
 Smaller, later families
 Two-income families
 Child care elsewhere
 Loss of mother role, traditional family
Where now is the basis for our social order?

65
Scripture’s Place

GenX children no longer learned bible
stories, morality at home

Scriptural ignorance results in two
possibilities:
 Some
eagerly seek engagement with it
 Others ignore, avoid it – “send to attic” with
antiques
Where is this all going?
66
The Great Emergence
 Part
I: What Is It?
 Part
II: How Did It Come To Be?
 Part
III: Where Is It Going?
67
Part III: Where Is It Going?


No one really knows – we can only imagine,
forecast possibilities
Like others before



A generalized social/political/economic/
intellectual/cultural shift
Initiating in, but not limited to, Western experience
We speak of North American Christianity but
other religions, areas involved as well

Emergence in UK 20 years ahead – useful for our
purposes
68
Learning From History
After “sale” was over, Christianity
readjusted, grew, and spread
 Today’s Emergents have spread

Geographically
 Numerically
 In depth
 In passion
 In belief of Christian call to brotherhood of all
 New way of living out faith?

69
The Gathering Center
Many Faces of a Church Emerging



Early church first called “Christian” only when
Barnabas and Paul were called to Antioch
“Protestant” name used at least 12 years after
Luther’s Theses
No way to pinpoint when, where, what history will
see as emergent


Walter Rauschenbusch, 1907, first id’d Western
humanity in “a revolutionary epoch… as thorough as
Renaissance and Reformation”
Paul Tillich, 1950’s, spoke of “shifting times and
shifting foundations”
70
Sketching the Church

1960’s observers noted changes in a
diagram – a quadrilateral
aka
Charismatic &
Pentecostal
Liturgicals
Social
Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
aka Mainline
Aka Fundamental
71
Changing Shapes
No longer fit neatly into boxes
 Now more of a cruciform shape

Liturgicals
Renewalists
Social
Justice
Christians
Conservatives
72
Changing Shapes (cont’d)

Locate self or community based on
importance in Christian practice
Liturgicals
Renewalists
Social
Justice
Christians
Conservatives
Intersections loose and flexible
73
Changing Shapes (cont’d)
Top: Intersection between faith & works
Where will you be at 10 AM on Sunday?
Liturgicals
Renewalists
Social
Justice
Christians
Conservatives
Places on a spectrum rather than boundaries
74
Changing Shapes (cont’d)
Top: Action more important than belief orthopraxy
Liturgicals
Social
Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
Bottom: Belief more important than what
one does - orthodoxy
75
The Gathering Center
Liturgicals
Social
Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
76
The Gathering Center (cont’d)

20th – 21st Century changes
Lifestyle from rural isolation to high-density
suburban/urban
 Labor from solitary to constant contact


Given that religion is relatively very
important to Americans, it is natural that
we should discuss it in both private &
working lives

“Watercooler theology”
77
Watercooler Theology
Conversation about God in public
 Diversity in conversationalists about God

No longer just reserved for clergy
 Open opinions on interpretations of current
events


Old divisions begin to melt, especially in
“four corners” area

Finding “empty spot” or hunger or question or
experience to talk about
78
Ubiquitous theology



Public, shared, and vital
Media age expedited communication and
diversity
New center not quite Protestant or any other



Melange picked from each quadrant
Established churches could not accommodate
New faithful began meeting among themselves


House churches sprang up along with unlikely
meeting places
All share incarnational characteristic: Jesus is
incarnate as is worship – of the whole body
79
Centripetal Force

Gathers energy by bringing in more of its
own
Swirling, mixing from quadrant to quadrant
 Sweeping toward center
 Expands in waves of influence


Results in new way of being Christian &
church
Predicted by scholars
 Dismissed as generational by established
churches

80
Error in Assessment


Denominations failed to account for “rummage
sale” factor – massive cultural shift
Culture had become post-everything







Modern
Denominational
Rational
Enlightenment
Literate
???
No means of returning/no desire to do so
81
Backlash
Major changes between inherited and
emergent church result in backlash
 Dramatic change perceived as threat to
status quo

Fundamentalism (early 20th C.) one example
 Reaction is not necessarily a bad thing


Scholars predicted @ 10% of born
Christians would push back violently
against center; new diagram
82
The Rose
Liturgicals
Renewalists
Social
Justice
Christians
Conservatives
The Rose was the symbol of the Great Reformation
83
Backlash Examples

Congregations, ecclesial units, individuals would
aggressively dedicate resources to reversing all
changes




Fallout from consecration of Bp. Robinson in
Episcopal Church
Election of conservative Roman pontiff, local bishop
Splintering of Presbyterian Church
Choosing sides unavoidable

Each quadrant develops reactionists, purists

“Ballast” against too-hasty changes in stormy sea
84
Surrounding Currents

Other sections of quadrants can be
assigned by rough percentages
Exception: Unknown % emergent
 Spectrum or sliding scale in widening ring


Ultimately 60% may be Emergent by the
time the movement is mature

30-35% neither Emergent or reactors
85
The Surrounding Currents
Hyphenates
Progressives
Re-Traditioning
Traditionalists
86
Surrounding Currents
Flexible, open boundary lines
 Outer corners peopled by persuaded
quadrant dwellers

Inherited church of parents, grandparents
 Lend stability to faith in transition
 Will accommodate to and assist gradual
change
 Will participate in realignments across
sectarian lines

87
Re-Traditioning Christians
1 ring closer to center
 Choose to stay with inherited church but
wish to make it more fully what it was

“Fond refurbishers” want to fix & live in it for all
time
 Increase comfort, beauty, welcome to all
 Their task is the most remarkable, arduous,
and richest of all

88
Progressive Christians
1 track closer to center
 Want to maintain position in institutional
Christianity yet give up controlling doctrine,
practices

Remain within Protestant communions
 Seek to adapt to realities of postmodernity
 Remodelers, not refurbishers; “open place up”


Def: Believes in loving God, neighbor, self;
thinks that 2 out of 3 ain’t bad” – Eric Elnes
89
“Hyphenateds”
Nearest to center
 Names bear literal or implied hyphens:

Presby-mergents, Anglo-emergents
Meth-emergents, Luth-emergents, etc.
 Now

Most schizophrenic of circles; most vibrant,
colorful,vital


losing the “-”
Tear down the house on Grandpa’s land; build
anew
Most difficult to predict future
90
7. The Way Ahead
Mapping Fault Lines and Fusions

Different Bases of Authority
Left of vertical axis has different base of
authority than the right
Left: (all in tension)
Right:
Scripture +
sola scriptura
Spirit +
scriptura sola
Liturgy +
Apostolic tradition +

91
The Bases of Authority (a)
Social Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
Orthodoxy
Orthopraxy
Liturgicals
92
Orthonomy and Theonomy

Numbers diminishing for traditionalists
Orthopraxy (right practice) remains in upper
quadrants
 Orthodoxy (right doctrine) in place for lower
quadrants

Emergence grows & occupies no
quadrant; comes from all of them
 Open space on both sides of vertical axis

93
The Bases of Authority (b)
Orthopraxy
Liturgicals
Theonomy
Orthodoxy
Orthonomy
Social Justice
Christians
Renewalists
Conservatives
94
Orthonomy
New word coined from ancient Greek
Ortho = correct + nomy = naming harmony,
divine beauty
“correct harmoniousness”
Employment of purity to discern truth
 Many emergents confused about
arguments over exact historicity, doctrine


“Must be true since it is so beautiful”
95
Orthonomy – Keatsian Heresy?

“Beauty is truth and truth beauty” =/=
Beauty in the eye of the beholder

Action or object not divine or authoritative just
because of its beauty or harmoniousness
Emergents on right side of axis use a word
of their own: theonomy
 Greek “theos” = God + “nomy”
“Only God can be the source of perfection”
 How best to understand God’s meaning?

96
Networked Authority

New Christianity/emergent church must
discover
Authority base
 Delivery system
 Governing agency


Must find something other than Luther’s
sola scriptura

Seen as insufficient, outmoded
97
Historical Authority

Church has always utilized ideological
currents of culture in general
Early church copied Rome’s governance
 Under Gregory church’s authority was
administered through monasteries and
convents in similar hierarchical order
 Roman church defined authority in single
position: system of kings, lords of preReformation culture
 Reformation created democratic theology of
priesthood of all believers; elected leaders

98
Emergent Authority?
Scripture-and-community combined:
network theory (math, physics, Web)
 Church more of a network than an entity


Self-organized system of relations between
parts
 Each
part of smaller networks in complex levels
Each is a working piece as long as connection
remains intact
No one part or network has entire truth



Crowd sourcing = total egalitarianism
99
New Concept of Church

Egalitarianism = respect for worth of each


Becoming the church = discovering what it
means that the kingdom of God is within


Indifference to capitalism, individualism
Each person a bit of a much grander network
Established leaders, scholars, priests have
only human understanding

Message will flash to, from remote parts of
network and be tempered by community
100
“What Is Emergent/Emerging
Church?”
A conversation: bottom-up vs. top-down
 Global: no barriers as to nationality, race,
class, economic status
 Radical: relational, non-hierarchical, postdemocratized form of Christianity for the
future
 Impetus in the secular emergence
 Theory and tools found in theology,
experience of quadrants plus one group 101

A Gift from the Quakers

Early support in conservative quadrant
Evangelicalism


Lacked flexibility to shift to new model
Quakers belong in no quadrant
“Proto-network theory” in interplay of revelation,
discernment, Scripture, governance
 Recent writers described different approach to
spirituality and orderly being
(Richard Foster, Parker Palmer, J. Brent Bill), John
Wimber of Assn. of Vineyard churches)

102
A Gift from the Quakers (cont’d)

I believe…we are witnessing a new
reformation …challenging not doctrine the
the medium. These new paradigm
churches have discarded many of the
attributes of established religion…creating
a new genre of worship music,
restructuring the organization, and
radicalizing the principle of the priesthood
of all believers.-- Donald E. Miller, Firestone
Professor of Religion, USC, 1997.
103
Center Set and Bounded Set

Don’t always fit into established churches or
quadrants


Center-set: let people sort out by how close
they want to get to the center


Often don’t fit the community from which they
came
Assumes something other than rules holding
things together
Presence of rules assumes some authority,
consequence

Bounded-set = defining who’s in, out
104
Center Set and Bounded Set (cont’d)

“Believe-behave-belong” fits bounded-set
Roman Catholicism, historic Protestantism


Requires adherence to beliefs, conduct
“Belong-behave-believe” reverses process
Occurs in center-set approach
 One can belong and can seek more
 Will begin to behave in a different manner not
imposed by rules
 Behavior shapes belief until both are one

105
Narrative
Emergence thinking often critiqued as antiintellectualism
 Postmodern/emergents recognize paradox
in life and logical thinking

Logic suffers from sufficient perspective
 Meta-narrative also product of human thought


Narrative speaks truth to the heart so it
may inform the mind

Markedly different principle of human
organization and understanding
106
The Problem With Constantine

Growing distrust for precepts, teachings of
post-Constantinian church



Doctrine formalized at his direction
Theology shifted from Judaic wholistic concepts of
life and structure
Became Hellenized dualism, Greco-Roman
cultural hierarchy



Body = evil, suspect; soul = separate, good
Salvation concept went from how to live out God’s
will to a guaranteed ticket to Paradise
Great Emergence about restoring wholeness
to Christian life
107
Future Possibilities

Great Emergence may rewrite Christian
Theology
Atonement, origin of evil up for question
 New theology may be more embodied,
paradoxical, narrative, mystical than before


Roman, Protestant communions will need
to adjust to massive changes
Protestantism will have major impact
 Will need to assume greater collegiality

108
Not Easy To Discern
How will the Great Emergence interface
with results, consequences of
realignments?
 How will Emergents themselves consider
resulting Christianity?
 The growing emergent movement must be
intentional about faith and what it is to
become


Once-inocuous movement no longer is
109
The Emergent Mission
“The church became a place to go…
…Let us make it a people to be.”
110