Today’s theme: Preaching
Pastors in the Emergent/Emerging church respect and believe in the historical authenticity of the Bible and therefore aim to faithfully interpret and creatively apply biblical texts. In Emergent contexts pastors often engage in a theological and practical conversation about a biblical text or theme, and the application of the text often comes when members of a community offer their own experiences as they relate to the text. The sermon thus appears more like a discussion as opposed to a theological lecture, and on occasion takes the form of a parable, a contemporary story with biblical resonance, meaning, and application.
Emerging leader Dan Kimball (The Emerging Church [2003]) explains how preaching in an Emerging setting remains faithful to the Bible’s message while interpreting and applying that message in contemporary contexts. Kimball urges pastors to imagine themselves as storytellers, as heralds of God sent to proclaim a message of grace and forgiveness. Such storytelling speaks a religious language that both insiders and outsiders can understand. Communication is critical in Kimball’s opinion, and as such ministers should not neglect the public proclamation, in various forms, of the Bible. “The emerging church needs to elevate public reading, preaching, and teaching,” Kimball writes, “[i]n a culture devoid of truth and lacking understanding of the scriptural story, we need to proclaim, herald, and preach all the more. But the way we do this needs to change because the audience has changed.”1
According to Kimball, much like Paul’s address to the philosophers of Athens as told in Acts 17, tending to the needs of today’s listeners allows for a variety of approaches to presenting the stories of Christianity. Even with the freedom to experiment with delivery styles (discussed below), Kimball contends that preaching to today’s listeners demands that Christ remain the central focus of the message, that the Trinitarian equation animate all discussion, that the physicality of being human frame spiritual pondering (especially issues surrounding sexuality), that the scriptures remain in an authoritative position, that hell and perdition frequent conversations, and that ministers acknowledge that the Christian spiritual journey is one of highs and lows, a life of “messy spirituality” and constant striving for obedience and holiness.2
With respect to modes of communicating the message, Kimball believes that ultimately the Holy Spirit brings conviction and guides consciences to faith; it is the pastor’s role to consider “how [to] present truth to the people we hope to see transformed.” This consideration leads Kimball to posit that “experience” far outweighs the “facts” of a presentation. “We need to approach Scripture in a holistic way,” Kimball argues, “thinking through how the sermon fits within the worship experience. We need to blend our propositions of truth with experiences of truth.” On this point Kimball suggests the incorporation of more visual elements into worship experiences, from images of stained glass, to icons, to contemporary art infused with biblical texts. Kimball believes this better engages today’s listeners, highlights the importance of the biblical narrative, and encourages communal participation in services with corporate reading or private meditation, and attempts to remove the pastoral cult of personality that inhabits many Protestant churches today. Kimball also asserts that this approach to worship creates an environment that embraces dialogue and allows a genuine “struggle” with scriptures, much like the Hebrew Midrash. “To a modern mindset this might sound dangerous,” Kimball admits, “but I believe this is healthy and sharpens our thinking. It also admits that we may not have all the answers about God neatly packaged.”3
While Kimball describes the role of a preacher as storyteller, Emerging leader Spencer Burke, in Making Sense of the Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and Culture (2003), prefers to imagine preachers as facilitators because facilitators do not merely “impart information, [they] create opportunities for learning.” Burke suggests that most sermons are “thinly disguised university lecture[s],” and that many modern Christians idolize knowledge above praxis. This approach, in Burke’s estimation, often obscures a community’s focus “on the Word become flesh,” a kind of focus that creates space for more displays of Christian symbolism in the form of things like icons. Burke’s approach, from preacher as facilitator to a more thoroughgoing use of symbols and signs above all sets Christian worship in an egalitarian and in his view a more biblical mode. “For years,” Burkes writes, “we have elevated teaching to the exclusion of other gifts. Paul described the church in terms of a body. Whether we realize it or not, we’re walking around with a body that’s grossly out of proportion to our head. Our obsession with teaching has made us a caricature of what God intended.”4 Both Burke and Kimball agree that delivery styles might undergo experiment or improvisation, and invite those who communicate messages to reformulate pastoral identity.
If Kimball and Burke offer a kind of theoretical framework for preaching, teaching, and application in an Emerging setting, Doug Pagitt describes what this looks like in an Emerging church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church, Pagitt discusses the sacred spaces in which the Solomon’s Porch community worships and the ways these spaces frame discussion and dialogue. Intentionally eschewing the festive feel of megachurches, the worship experience at Solomon’s Porch aims to be more “interactive and participatory.” This means that stages and other architectural displays of power give way to meeting “in the round” where couches enclose and encapsulate the community, and all in attendance are invited to speak and share at various times during the service. This structure also translates into a worship experience where the music comes from the lips and instruments of “local” musicians, where Psalm readings (only by female members of the community) become weekly expressions of “the poetry of [the Christian] faith,” where communion exists as the weekly meal of spiritual sustenance, where communal and individual prayer becomes a collective utterance of community, and where the sermon becomes a “story” framed by a Biblical passage and interpreted to fit with a contemporary settings.5
This series continues with another look at the Emerging/Emergent churches and missionality and with forthcoming posts about my travel through Lent 2005 with the faithful at Ecclesia Houston.
Endnotes
1 Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 171-173.
2 Ibid., 174-183.
3 Ibid., 185-194, quoting 187, 188, 193.
4 Spencer Burke, Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and Culture (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 51-66, quoting 52-54, 65.
5 Doug Pagitt, Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 49-64, 113-124.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Emerging Church, circa 1970s
In recent months both Andrew Jones and Dan Kimball have noted books from the 1970s with "emerging" titles.
I'd like to add another title to the discussion: Sergio Torres and Virginia Fabella, editors, The Emergent Gospel: Theology from the Underside of History (Orbis, 1978).
This is a collection of essays from the 1976 Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians held at Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Interestingly, the voices here present interrogate the hegemony of Western theological trends (see below); these words remain true today.
One hopes, as I did in a recent paper, that Emergent (US) voices continue to adopt global postures.
From the Final Statement of the Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians (1976):
"The theologies from Europe and North America are dominant today in our churches and represent one form of cultural domination. They must be understood to have arisen out of situations related to those countires, and therefore must not be uncritically adopted without our raising the question of their relavance in the context of our countries....We reject as irrelevant an academic type of theology that is divorced from action. We are prepared for a radical break in epistemology which makes commitment the first act of theology and engages critical reflection on praxis of the reality of the Third World" (from the Introduction, p. x).
Any thoughts?
I'd like to add another title to the discussion: Sergio Torres and Virginia Fabella, editors, The Emergent Gospel: Theology from the Underside of History (Orbis, 1978).
This is a collection of essays from the 1976 Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians held at Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). Interestingly, the voices here present interrogate the hegemony of Western theological trends (see below); these words remain true today.
One hopes, as I did in a recent paper, that Emergent (US) voices continue to adopt global postures.
From the Final Statement of the Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians (1976):
"The theologies from Europe and North America are dominant today in our churches and represent one form of cultural domination. They must be understood to have arisen out of situations related to those countires, and therefore must not be uncritically adopted without our raising the question of their relavance in the context of our countries....We reject as irrelevant an academic type of theology that is divorced from action. We are prepared for a radical break in epistemology which makes commitment the first act of theology and engages critical reflection on praxis of the reality of the Third World" (from the Introduction, p. x).
Any thoughts?
Friends in the Blogosphere
Glad to see my friend Keelan Downton in this branch of the blogosphere. I look foward to his reflections; he has some important things to say with respect to ecumenical concerns as well as interfaith dialogue.
BaldBlogging on the Emerging Church, Part 6
As previous posts indicate, notable numbers of Emerging/Emergent faithful engage postmodernism and work to translate this intellectual posture into practical settings. For many in the movement a number of trajectories (i.e., worship and artistic expression) define cultural engagement at the practical level and transmit this engagement in postmodern ways. Hence the topic of today’s post: worship.
Postmodern worship, in the words of Emerging leader Dan Kimball (The Emerging Church [2003]), while making possible the employment of creativity and improvisation must stay keen to “attribute worth to God [and] to kiss toward him in reverence and lay prostrate.” This attribution, Kimball contends, examines how scriptures describe worship and also takes a serious glance at worship in the early church. Prayer, sacraments, teaching, and community characterized the early church, and because of Christ’s Incarnation, Kimball maintains, Christians today can and should create “multisensory” worship gatherings – meetings of faith and devotion that involve all of the senses. In this view faithful devotion is not merely intellectual assent to a catalogue of doctrines or propositions; faithful devotion involves careful reflection on the aesthetics of worship, the sacred spaces and experiences to which Emerging leaders attend. Emerging gatherings, therefore, aim at holistic worship – worship that involves visual stimuli like icons (but also for religious instruction) or computer technology, physical motion like clapping or kneeling, smelling incense, “tasting” the Eucharistic meal, and “hearing” the voice of God through dialogical conversation. Ideally, holistic worship also includes the participation of all in attendance – both men and women, both old and young. Not only does Kimball advocate the creation of an environment where the postmodern generation might encounter God in various ways, he also advocates the use of silence as a way to connect to others and as a way to teach patience and devotion.1
Another aspect of worship that receives significant attention among Emergent/Emerging pastors, thinkers, and practitioners is the use of art in worship, or simply the use of art as an expression of faith. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions have historically used artistic expression in liturgies and devotions, from icons of saints to statues of the Virgin Mary, for example. Yet many in the Emerging/Emergent movement, who are conscious of what we might call the art history of Christianity, maintain spaces for more improvisational and individual expressions of faith. “Visualcy,” Andy Crouch writes, captures the essence of today’s visual culture and suggests that evangelicals must acquire a new kind of literacy for the postmodern age. Crouch is hopeful that a kind of artistic discourse of images will equip evangelicals to thoughtfully engage today’s world: “visual technologies are restoring human beings to our God-given role as communal cultural communicators.”2
Similarly, in an essay titled “Digital Media as Cultural Metaphor,” communications theorist Robert S. Fortner calls for deeper reflection on the “metaphysics of this digital age,” a time during which the growth of digital culture injects a kind of communicative democratization into electronic discourse. For Christians, according to Fortner, this new age demands careful analysis and appropriation of digital technology to the life of faith. “[T]his is the new culture now under construction,” Fortner concludes, “one that – through its metaphorical definition of reality – will reconfigure the symbolic world of humankind and the methodology for recognizing truth. Yet it is this new symbolic world that Scripture and those who believe it must address if we are to make the Word of God relevant to mankind. It is a new Babel.”3 Many in the Emergent/Emerging church recognize this reality, and seek to apply it.
In “Musings on Art and the Relationship to Worship in the 21st Century,” musician and consultant Cathy Townley eschews practical suggestions for how to feature art in worship services in order to display why art is godly and how artists can display godliness. According to Townley, art can uniquely convey the “truth,” which is not always beautiful, and in the end produce a kind of spiritual and ontological transformation. “Art brings the inside outside,” Townley writes, “[and] [a]rt makes you internalize what you perceive. Art begins conversation, and dialogue….Art is the language of the soul.” Townley suggests that visual discourse includes all of humanity in the conversation of God’s perpetual creation(s), and as such “[t]he artist in a human being is sacred space.” In this sense, Townley observes, the human quest for wholeness, healing, and community often comes through artistic mediums, and it is in this dimension of life that true spiritual healing might come. “In a sense,” Townley concludes, “the artist is not only one who has a talent, but is also a metaphor for one who endures the pain of life.”4 Thus, for Townely, the Emerging environment creates the possibility to observe humanity fleshed out, to witness visible healing displayed in the context of a worshiping community.
Moving from theoretical to practical displays of faith, what the authors call “praxis,” Jonny Baker, Doug Gay, and Jenny Brown offer a collection of options in Alternative Worship: Resources From and For the Emerging Church (2004). To enhance and transform worship the authors suggest that Emerging churches might shape services by the inclusion of historical liturgies, the application of communications theories, and displays of artistic expression. Furthermore, devotional and sacramental living might result from these transformative worship settings, whether musically enhanced or artistically ensconced. The authors also suggest that “alternative” worship settings sometimes encourage political engagement framed by theologies of liberation, whether political or gender-based. Even though the authors rightly define their worship as “alternative,” they frame their liturgically innovative suggestions around the “traditional” church calendar so that the church years open with Advent and ends with Pentecost. To demonstrate what the authors mean by “alternative worship,” I will describe enhanced liturgical suggestions from the season of Pentecost.
The authors open the chapter on Pentecost by framing contemporary celebrations of this liturgical season with the recent global explosion of Pentecostalism itself. Large numbers of global Christians practice more pentecostal or charismatic expressions of faith, the authors point out, so it follows that the Emerging church should reflect these trends. The authors also note that much of contemporary theological reflection possesses a renewed focus on pneumatology and its connection to individual spiritual and communal expressions of Spirit-led Christian unity that cross cultural and ethnic boundaries. To accomplish this, the authors offer a number of corporate reader-response prayers and confessions, and also suggest practical ways to display Pentecost. For example, a corporate prayer titled “Opening Doors” reads: “Eternal God, fling open the doors of our hearts to the weather of your Spirit. Lead us out beneath the dancing sky and wind across the stumbling ground of our reality to where the sound of worship never ceases and the view that stretches further than the human eye can see. Through Christ the faithful witness, Amen.” Here geographical and climatological terms suggest the global movement of the Spirit where physical displays of faithful devotion seem to come from liminal impulses. In a section that details ritual practices, the authors suggest that those gathered for worship might anoint one another’s foreheads with oil, bring in electric fans to demonstrate the wind of the Holy Spirit and flash images of the effects of wind on television screens, or even end the service with those gathered by lighting sparklers and playing a song called “Firestarter” to stage the fresh and energetic fire of the Spirit from Pentecost.5 For many Emerging churches, such a radical display of faith and devotion draws on unique gifts within the worshiping community while at the same time honoring long standing traditions of the Christian faith.
Moving from corporate worship to private devotion, Tony Jones’s The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (2005) offers a Protestant embrace of Christian spirituality that spans history and traverses denominational and ecclesial borders. Sacred Way describes measures of spiritual contemplation and explains physical, or “bodily,” ways Christians might express devotion. For Jones, the sacred aspects of devotion include silence, the Jesus Prayer of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, icons, and meditation; physical exercises of faith Jones recommends include fasting, pilgrimage, spiritual labyrinth, walking the Stations of the Cross and making the sign of the Cross. Jones explains that he tired of guilt-induced Protestant devotional practices and upon consultation with an ecumenical array of spiritual and mystical practitioners he began to value the long history of (ancient) Christian devotion. “For me,” Jones writes, “there is incredible richness in the spiritual practices of ancient and modern Christian communities from around the world. Incorporating new ways of praying, meditating, reading the Bible, and so on have fueled my faith and my passion for spirituality….[S]piritual discipline is liberation, for it’s within the time set aside to be disciplined that we are changed and shaped by God.6 Jones visits the history of Christian spiritual formation in order to offer a spirituality that addresses authentically those in today’s world.
Endnotes
1Kimball, The Emerging Church, 114, 127-131, 158, 160.
2Andy Crouch, “Visualcy,” Christianity Today 49/6 (June 2005): 62.
3Robert S. Fortner, “Digital Media as Cultural Metaphor,” in Robert M. Fowler, Edith Blumhofer, and Fernando F. Segovia, eds., New Paradigms for Bible Study: The Bible in the Third Millennium (New York: T & T Clark International, 2004), 21-47, quote from 45.
4Cathy Townley, “Musings on Art and the Relationship to Worship in the 21st Century,” Next-Wave (April 2000),(accessed July 2005).
5Jonny Baker, Doug Gay, and Jenny Brown, Alternative Worship: Resources From and For the Emerging Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 131-146, quote from 133. This resource also comes with a CD-ROM full of songs and other creative suggestions for Christian worship.
For a social scientific analysis of many of the trends and practices recommended by Baker, Gay, and Brown, see William J.F. Keenan, “Twenty-First-Century Monasticism and the Religious Life: Just Another New Millennium,” Religion 32 (2002): 13-26; Mark W. MacWilliams, “Virtual Pilgrimages on the Internet,” Religion 32 (2002): 315-335; Patrick Maxwell, “Virtual Religion in Context,” Religion 32 (2002): 343-354; and Christopher Helland, “Surfing for Salvation,” Religion 32 (2002): 293-302.
6Tony Jones, The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 17, 198.
Postmodern worship, in the words of Emerging leader Dan Kimball (The Emerging Church [2003]), while making possible the employment of creativity and improvisation must stay keen to “attribute worth to God [and] to kiss toward him in reverence and lay prostrate.” This attribution, Kimball contends, examines how scriptures describe worship and also takes a serious glance at worship in the early church. Prayer, sacraments, teaching, and community characterized the early church, and because of Christ’s Incarnation, Kimball maintains, Christians today can and should create “multisensory” worship gatherings – meetings of faith and devotion that involve all of the senses. In this view faithful devotion is not merely intellectual assent to a catalogue of doctrines or propositions; faithful devotion involves careful reflection on the aesthetics of worship, the sacred spaces and experiences to which Emerging leaders attend. Emerging gatherings, therefore, aim at holistic worship – worship that involves visual stimuli like icons (but also for religious instruction) or computer technology, physical motion like clapping or kneeling, smelling incense, “tasting” the Eucharistic meal, and “hearing” the voice of God through dialogical conversation. Ideally, holistic worship also includes the participation of all in attendance – both men and women, both old and young. Not only does Kimball advocate the creation of an environment where the postmodern generation might encounter God in various ways, he also advocates the use of silence as a way to connect to others and as a way to teach patience and devotion.1
Another aspect of worship that receives significant attention among Emergent/Emerging pastors, thinkers, and practitioners is the use of art in worship, or simply the use of art as an expression of faith. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions have historically used artistic expression in liturgies and devotions, from icons of saints to statues of the Virgin Mary, for example. Yet many in the Emerging/Emergent movement, who are conscious of what we might call the art history of Christianity, maintain spaces for more improvisational and individual expressions of faith. “Visualcy,” Andy Crouch writes, captures the essence of today’s visual culture and suggests that evangelicals must acquire a new kind of literacy for the postmodern age. Crouch is hopeful that a kind of artistic discourse of images will equip evangelicals to thoughtfully engage today’s world: “visual technologies are restoring human beings to our God-given role as communal cultural communicators.”2
Similarly, in an essay titled “Digital Media as Cultural Metaphor,” communications theorist Robert S. Fortner calls for deeper reflection on the “metaphysics of this digital age,” a time during which the growth of digital culture injects a kind of communicative democratization into electronic discourse. For Christians, according to Fortner, this new age demands careful analysis and appropriation of digital technology to the life of faith. “[T]his is the new culture now under construction,” Fortner concludes, “one that – through its metaphorical definition of reality – will reconfigure the symbolic world of humankind and the methodology for recognizing truth. Yet it is this new symbolic world that Scripture and those who believe it must address if we are to make the Word of God relevant to mankind. It is a new Babel.”3 Many in the Emergent/Emerging church recognize this reality, and seek to apply it.
In “Musings on Art and the Relationship to Worship in the 21st Century,” musician and consultant Cathy Townley eschews practical suggestions for how to feature art in worship services in order to display why art is godly and how artists can display godliness. According to Townley, art can uniquely convey the “truth,” which is not always beautiful, and in the end produce a kind of spiritual and ontological transformation. “Art brings the inside outside,” Townley writes, “[and] [a]rt makes you internalize what you perceive. Art begins conversation, and dialogue….Art is the language of the soul.” Townley suggests that visual discourse includes all of humanity in the conversation of God’s perpetual creation(s), and as such “[t]he artist in a human being is sacred space.” In this sense, Townley observes, the human quest for wholeness, healing, and community often comes through artistic mediums, and it is in this dimension of life that true spiritual healing might come. “In a sense,” Townley concludes, “the artist is not only one who has a talent, but is also a metaphor for one who endures the pain of life.”4 Thus, for Townely, the Emerging environment creates the possibility to observe humanity fleshed out, to witness visible healing displayed in the context of a worshiping community.
Moving from theoretical to practical displays of faith, what the authors call “praxis,” Jonny Baker, Doug Gay, and Jenny Brown offer a collection of options in Alternative Worship: Resources From and For the Emerging Church (2004). To enhance and transform worship the authors suggest that Emerging churches might shape services by the inclusion of historical liturgies, the application of communications theories, and displays of artistic expression. Furthermore, devotional and sacramental living might result from these transformative worship settings, whether musically enhanced or artistically ensconced. The authors also suggest that “alternative” worship settings sometimes encourage political engagement framed by theologies of liberation, whether political or gender-based. Even though the authors rightly define their worship as “alternative,” they frame their liturgically innovative suggestions around the “traditional” church calendar so that the church years open with Advent and ends with Pentecost. To demonstrate what the authors mean by “alternative worship,” I will describe enhanced liturgical suggestions from the season of Pentecost.
The authors open the chapter on Pentecost by framing contemporary celebrations of this liturgical season with the recent global explosion of Pentecostalism itself. Large numbers of global Christians practice more pentecostal or charismatic expressions of faith, the authors point out, so it follows that the Emerging church should reflect these trends. The authors also note that much of contemporary theological reflection possesses a renewed focus on pneumatology and its connection to individual spiritual and communal expressions of Spirit-led Christian unity that cross cultural and ethnic boundaries. To accomplish this, the authors offer a number of corporate reader-response prayers and confessions, and also suggest practical ways to display Pentecost. For example, a corporate prayer titled “Opening Doors” reads: “Eternal God, fling open the doors of our hearts to the weather of your Spirit. Lead us out beneath the dancing sky and wind across the stumbling ground of our reality to where the sound of worship never ceases and the view that stretches further than the human eye can see. Through Christ the faithful witness, Amen.” Here geographical and climatological terms suggest the global movement of the Spirit where physical displays of faithful devotion seem to come from liminal impulses. In a section that details ritual practices, the authors suggest that those gathered for worship might anoint one another’s foreheads with oil, bring in electric fans to demonstrate the wind of the Holy Spirit and flash images of the effects of wind on television screens, or even end the service with those gathered by lighting sparklers and playing a song called “Firestarter” to stage the fresh and energetic fire of the Spirit from Pentecost.5 For many Emerging churches, such a radical display of faith and devotion draws on unique gifts within the worshiping community while at the same time honoring long standing traditions of the Christian faith.
Moving from corporate worship to private devotion, Tony Jones’s The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (2005) offers a Protestant embrace of Christian spirituality that spans history and traverses denominational and ecclesial borders. Sacred Way describes measures of spiritual contemplation and explains physical, or “bodily,” ways Christians might express devotion. For Jones, the sacred aspects of devotion include silence, the Jesus Prayer of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, icons, and meditation; physical exercises of faith Jones recommends include fasting, pilgrimage, spiritual labyrinth, walking the Stations of the Cross and making the sign of the Cross. Jones explains that he tired of guilt-induced Protestant devotional practices and upon consultation with an ecumenical array of spiritual and mystical practitioners he began to value the long history of (ancient) Christian devotion. “For me,” Jones writes, “there is incredible richness in the spiritual practices of ancient and modern Christian communities from around the world. Incorporating new ways of praying, meditating, reading the Bible, and so on have fueled my faith and my passion for spirituality….[S]piritual discipline is liberation, for it’s within the time set aside to be disciplined that we are changed and shaped by God.6 Jones visits the history of Christian spiritual formation in order to offer a spirituality that addresses authentically those in today’s world.
Endnotes
1Kimball, The Emerging Church, 114, 127-131, 158, 160.
2Andy Crouch, “Visualcy,” Christianity Today 49/6 (June 2005): 62.
3Robert S. Fortner, “Digital Media as Cultural Metaphor,” in Robert M. Fowler, Edith Blumhofer, and Fernando F. Segovia, eds., New Paradigms for Bible Study: The Bible in the Third Millennium (New York: T & T Clark International, 2004), 21-47, quote from 45.
4Cathy Townley, “Musings on Art and the Relationship to Worship in the 21st Century,” Next-Wave (April 2000),
5Jonny Baker, Doug Gay, and Jenny Brown, Alternative Worship: Resources From and For the Emerging Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 131-146, quote from 133. This resource also comes with a CD-ROM full of songs and other creative suggestions for Christian worship.
For a social scientific analysis of many of the trends and practices recommended by Baker, Gay, and Brown, see William J.F. Keenan, “Twenty-First-Century Monasticism and the Religious Life: Just Another New Millennium,” Religion 32 (2002): 13-26; Mark W. MacWilliams, “Virtual Pilgrimages on the Internet,” Religion 32 (2002): 315-335; Patrick Maxwell, “Virtual Religion in Context,” Religion 32 (2002): 343-354; and Christopher Helland, “Surfing for Salvation,” Religion 32 (2002): 293-302.
6Tony Jones, The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 17, 198.
Teaching World Christianity
On Thursday morning I'm driving to Waco/Baylor University (a 3-hour drive) for the Pruit Symposium on Global Christianity with a good friend and fellow scholar. I'm giving a paper on teaching world Christianity Thursday afternoon and am looking forward to all of the sessions, meetings, and conversations. When it's ready I'll post my paper here.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
BaldBlogging on the Emerging Church, Part 5
Moving from the Emerging/Emergent church’s posture toward postmodernism, in this post (and several following) I want to explore themes in the Emergent movement: today the theme is history.
The Emerging movement is historically conscious in that there is a genuine interest in the history of Christianity and a desire to appropriate elements of the church’s past. This view of Christian history does not essentialize the past by harkening back to a mythical pristine chapter in church history, but seeks to appropriate elements of the church’s past drawn from many Christian traditions.
In Generous Orthodoxy (2004), for example, Emergent church pastor and leader Brian McLaren comments on the benefits of using ancient church creeds. In a chapter titled “Why I am catholic,” McLaren comments on the Nicene Creed and its potential to shape conversations about Christian unity and describes what he has learned and applied from [Roman] Catholic Christianity. About the phrase, “We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” McLaren writes:
“We believe in one . . . church,” the creed says, and that’s no easy-to- swallow statement because we’re surrounded by denominations, divisions, arguments, grand polemics, and petty squabbles. That’s where the “we believe” part comes in: you can only know the unity of the church by believing it, not by seeing it. When you believe it you see through the surface dirt and cracks to the beauty and unity shining beneath. Generous orthodoxy presumes that the divisions, though tragic, are superficial compared to Christianity’s deep, though often unappreciated, unity. Perhaps the more we believe in and practice that unity, the easier it will be to grow beyond the disunity.1
Here McLaren attempts to address historic fractures within Protestantism and urges contemporary Christians to embrace the ancient message of unity in diversity found in the Nicene Creed.
In a similar vein, McLaren also describes what he finds most attractive about Roman Catholic Christianity and suggests that evangelical renewal might come from embracing some of the ancient elements of the Christian faith. McLaren embraces the sacramental aspects of Roman Catholicism that purport to see God’s handiwork in its multiform manifestations of the sacred; argues that liturgy can enhance the sometimes simplistic and thoughtless aspects of evangelical worship; highlights the practicality of respecting tradition; urges evangelicals to adopt a healthy posture of veneration for Mary; celebrates the incarnational focus of Catholic theology and life; and praises the spirit of forgiveness and healing in some Roman Catholic circles. Interestingly, McLaren situates his comments about tradition as a critique of the Protestant Reformation. “The Protestant Reformation separated two brothers,” McLaren observes, “Scripture and tradition. The older brother tells the story that leads up to and through Christ, and the younger brother remembers what has happened since. These brothers aren’t the same, but neither should they be enemies.”2 There is much for evangelicals to digest in McLaren’s chapter on catholicity and ecumenism, and these comments reflect the historically conscious nature of the Emerging/Emergent church and demonstrate the interest in and application of ancient elements of the Christian faith.3
Endnotes
1Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 222
2Ibid. 225-230, quote from 227.
3My comments on the historical consciousness of the Emerging/Emergent church are adopted from my “Embracing the Early Church: Reflections on Evangelicals, Patristics, Ecclesiology, and Ecumenism,” Reformation & Revival Journal 13/4 (Fall 2004): 13-43.
The Emerging movement is historically conscious in that there is a genuine interest in the history of Christianity and a desire to appropriate elements of the church’s past. This view of Christian history does not essentialize the past by harkening back to a mythical pristine chapter in church history, but seeks to appropriate elements of the church’s past drawn from many Christian traditions.
In Generous Orthodoxy (2004), for example, Emergent church pastor and leader Brian McLaren comments on the benefits of using ancient church creeds. In a chapter titled “Why I am catholic,” McLaren comments on the Nicene Creed and its potential to shape conversations about Christian unity and describes what he has learned and applied from [Roman] Catholic Christianity. About the phrase, “We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” McLaren writes:
“We believe in one . . . church,” the creed says, and that’s no easy-to- swallow statement because we’re surrounded by denominations, divisions, arguments, grand polemics, and petty squabbles. That’s where the “we believe” part comes in: you can only know the unity of the church by believing it, not by seeing it. When you believe it you see through the surface dirt and cracks to the beauty and unity shining beneath. Generous orthodoxy presumes that the divisions, though tragic, are superficial compared to Christianity’s deep, though often unappreciated, unity. Perhaps the more we believe in and practice that unity, the easier it will be to grow beyond the disunity.1
Here McLaren attempts to address historic fractures within Protestantism and urges contemporary Christians to embrace the ancient message of unity in diversity found in the Nicene Creed.
In a similar vein, McLaren also describes what he finds most attractive about Roman Catholic Christianity and suggests that evangelical renewal might come from embracing some of the ancient elements of the Christian faith. McLaren embraces the sacramental aspects of Roman Catholicism that purport to see God’s handiwork in its multiform manifestations of the sacred; argues that liturgy can enhance the sometimes simplistic and thoughtless aspects of evangelical worship; highlights the practicality of respecting tradition; urges evangelicals to adopt a healthy posture of veneration for Mary; celebrates the incarnational focus of Catholic theology and life; and praises the spirit of forgiveness and healing in some Roman Catholic circles. Interestingly, McLaren situates his comments about tradition as a critique of the Protestant Reformation. “The Protestant Reformation separated two brothers,” McLaren observes, “Scripture and tradition. The older brother tells the story that leads up to and through Christ, and the younger brother remembers what has happened since. These brothers aren’t the same, but neither should they be enemies.”2 There is much for evangelicals to digest in McLaren’s chapter on catholicity and ecumenism, and these comments reflect the historically conscious nature of the Emerging/Emergent church and demonstrate the interest in and application of ancient elements of the Christian faith.3
Endnotes
1Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 222
2Ibid. 225-230, quote from 227.
3My comments on the historical consciousness of the Emerging/Emergent church are adopted from my “Embracing the Early Church: Reflections on Evangelicals, Patristics, Ecclesiology, and Ecumenism,” Reformation & Revival Journal 13/4 (Fall 2004): 13-43.
Friday, October 21, 2005
BaldBlogging on the Emerging Church, Part 4
Leonard Sweet offers an extend discussion about engagement with postmodern culture in Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century (2000). Sweet advocates what he calls an “EPIC” approach to postmodern culture and argues that Christian leaders must create worship that is “[e]xperiential, [p]articipatory, [i]mage-driven, [and] [c]onnected.” This approach to the postmodern moment in which Christians live, Sweet argues, creates space to contemplate “creativity” and display “imagination.” In other words, some Christians part of a postmodern context, or even those interested in spiritual things for whose worldviews postmodernism forms the structure, often seek to visually participate in a communal experience with something transcendent. According to Sweet, a visual religious experience augmented by oral communication and participation, serves as something of an entrée, even a metaphor, for a deeper relationship with God and a more authentic connection to community. To contextualize the EPIC approach, Sweet marshals scores of examples from popular culture, from corporate and business literature, from politics, from music, from art, from communications theory, and from economics. Resident in every imaginable corner of today’s culture, Sweet contends that in order to have an acknowledged voice Christian churches must study and engage postmodern culture or risk atrophy or irrelevance. Put another way, Sweet asserts that Christian communities must learn to “do church” in ways that are “biblically absolute but culturally relative.”1
In a similar vein, Robert Webber’s Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism in a Postmodern World (1999) crafts an “ancient-future” lens through which Christians might see the postmodern world. The phrase “ancient-future,” according to Webber, attempts “to find points of contact between classical Christianity and postmodern thought.” Webber chronicles and defines the differences between modern and postmodern conceptions of Christ, the church, spirituality, and missions. Webber contends that the cultural context of “classical” (ancient) Christianity has some parallels with the postmodern world and thus intends to “interface historic Christian truths into the dawning of a new era.” This is done, Webber insists, by seeing Christ as the ultimate victor over sin and evil and the church as the incarnational extension of Christ into the world. Furthermore, Webber contends, the incarnational embodiment of Christians is best fostered in a church that is consciously holy, catholic, and apostolic. The worship in such a historically conscious church, Webber argues, revolutionizes “experience” such that communication, ritual, and spiritual discipline become “the vehicle through which the story of the work of Christ is proclaimed and enacted” as well as “the rehearsal of the Christ event through which one’s experience with God is established, maintained, and repaired.” Thus, for Webber, like Sweet, the interplay of present and past defines the ancient-future thrust of evangelical faith in a postmodern context.2
While thinkers like Sweet and Webber aim to situate and equip evangelical faith and worship in a postmodern setting, Carl Raschke’s The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (2004) seeks to orient evangelicals to postmodern culture through the lens of philosophy. Raschke carefully details the roots of postmodern philosophy, which he dates to “deconstruction” championed in the 1960s and 1970s by the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), and explains the dynamics of postmodern philosophy as it appeared and continues to appear in philosophical, literary, artistic, historical, and religious studies circles. 3 Most important for the current discussion, Raschke sets his argument for the compatibility of postmodernism and evangelicalism against the postmodern critique of many evangelical scholars. “The postmodernism preoccupation with popular culture, which many evangelical theologians disdain,” Raschke points out, “[is] but a form of cultural sensitivity and intellectual humility that ultimately offers an evangelical opportunity that hard-core Christian rationalists overlook.”4
So, how do postmodernism and evangelicalism actually comport and how will they usher in what he calls a “new reformation”? First, Raschke argues that three dimensions of postmodernism create the possibility for this new reformation: its egalitarian nature; its animus of interconnectivity (both electronic and physical); and its dynamism and pliability. In Raschke’s view, these dimensions of postmodernism will merge with evangelicalism to create a new reformation that prizes relational Christianity, displays a winsome revival spirit that embraces radical, often ascetic living, and in turn allows a kind of Charismatic, even Pentecostal worship experience. “Postmodernity is the exposure of the flux that engulf us,” Raschke describes, “but it is also the realization that this vast panorama of fragmentation, instability, and discontinuity can be an opening to redemption.”5 For Raschke, then, a relational, Pentecostal evangelicalism most accurately reflects the postmodern sensibilities of the contemporary world and ultimately makes possible a new reformation.6
Many in the Emergent church acknowledge the postmodern moment of which humanity is a part, accept the challenges of its major claims, and seek to articulate a faith that is biblically rooted yet culturally sensitive. And while scholars like Leonard Sweet, Robert Webber, and Carl Raschke offer a kind of theoretical framework for Emergent engagement with postmodernism, practitioners and pastors demonstrate how, in such a cultural context, the Emergent church might think about history, tradition, preaching, worship, spiritual formation, artistic expression, and cultural engagement (i.e., evangelism).
These are the topics I will address in subsequent posts.
Endnotes
1Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), xxi. Sweet further describes the EPIC approach as a “double ring” or what John Stott calls “double listening” (xvi). Sweet’s double ring “ ‘reaches out’ for a back-to-the-future methodology of movement that is simultaneously backward and forward,” while Stott’s double listening, though very similar, has “one ear listening to God’s Word and the other to God’s World” (xvi). In starkly philosophical terms, Sweet contends that “[a]n E-P-I-C epistemology does not negate objectivism with subjectivism in another recurring dualism. Rather, it encompasses both in a wider enfoldment that bring together organism and environment. In an E-P-I-C epistemology rationality is expanded to include experience. The E-P-I-C perspective moves beyond objective and subjective “groundings” to an experiential accounting of truth where presence and participation play literally a “critical” role in history” (156).
2 Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 7, 14, 104-06 (italics his). This section on Webber is adopted from my article “Embracing the Early Church.” Such a short summary does not do justice to the breadth or depth of Webber’s analysis of contemporary culture in light of the church’s ancient past. As such, readers might consult Webber’s application of his ancient-future paradigm in Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003) and Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). Also relevant is Webber’s sociological analysis of today’s postmodern evangelicals often interested in (ancient) spiritual things, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002). Also important on this score is Colleen Carroll’s study of postmodern Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Chicago: Loyola, 2002).
3 Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). For an accessible, understandable introduction to deconstruction, see John D. Caputo, ed., Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (New York: Fordham University Press, 1997).
4 Ibid., 20.
5 Ibid., 145-205, quote from 174.
6 In a book that is both highly philosophical and transparently personal, not only does The Next Reformation detail Raschke’s devotion to and penchant for postmodernism, but it reveals that relational, communal, and a highly experiential (Pentecostal) Christianity grounds this philosophical devotion. Referencing his important contribution to the field of theology – “the end of theology” – Raschke remarks: “The end of theology is say an adieu to theology in the most literal sense of the word. To say adieu to theology is to “say it like it is” (in French) – literally, to God. It is the power of God liberating evangelical, if not the whole of Christian thought and theology from its long captivity in the Egypt of metaphysics and the Babylon of modernism and drawing it back “to God,” of “letting God be God,” in the face-to-face relationship of faith and worship. After theology we must all get on our faces” (215).
In a similar vein, Robert Webber’s Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism in a Postmodern World (1999) crafts an “ancient-future” lens through which Christians might see the postmodern world. The phrase “ancient-future,” according to Webber, attempts “to find points of contact between classical Christianity and postmodern thought.” Webber chronicles and defines the differences between modern and postmodern conceptions of Christ, the church, spirituality, and missions. Webber contends that the cultural context of “classical” (ancient) Christianity has some parallels with the postmodern world and thus intends to “interface historic Christian truths into the dawning of a new era.” This is done, Webber insists, by seeing Christ as the ultimate victor over sin and evil and the church as the incarnational extension of Christ into the world. Furthermore, Webber contends, the incarnational embodiment of Christians is best fostered in a church that is consciously holy, catholic, and apostolic. The worship in such a historically conscious church, Webber argues, revolutionizes “experience” such that communication, ritual, and spiritual discipline become “the vehicle through which the story of the work of Christ is proclaimed and enacted” as well as “the rehearsal of the Christ event through which one’s experience with God is established, maintained, and repaired.” Thus, for Webber, like Sweet, the interplay of present and past defines the ancient-future thrust of evangelical faith in a postmodern context.2
While thinkers like Sweet and Webber aim to situate and equip evangelical faith and worship in a postmodern setting, Carl Raschke’s The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (2004) seeks to orient evangelicals to postmodern culture through the lens of philosophy. Raschke carefully details the roots of postmodern philosophy, which he dates to “deconstruction” championed in the 1960s and 1970s by the late French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), and explains the dynamics of postmodern philosophy as it appeared and continues to appear in philosophical, literary, artistic, historical, and religious studies circles. 3 Most important for the current discussion, Raschke sets his argument for the compatibility of postmodernism and evangelicalism against the postmodern critique of many evangelical scholars. “The postmodernism preoccupation with popular culture, which many evangelical theologians disdain,” Raschke points out, “[is] but a form of cultural sensitivity and intellectual humility that ultimately offers an evangelical opportunity that hard-core Christian rationalists overlook.”4
So, how do postmodernism and evangelicalism actually comport and how will they usher in what he calls a “new reformation”? First, Raschke argues that three dimensions of postmodernism create the possibility for this new reformation: its egalitarian nature; its animus of interconnectivity (both electronic and physical); and its dynamism and pliability. In Raschke’s view, these dimensions of postmodernism will merge with evangelicalism to create a new reformation that prizes relational Christianity, displays a winsome revival spirit that embraces radical, often ascetic living, and in turn allows a kind of Charismatic, even Pentecostal worship experience. “Postmodernity is the exposure of the flux that engulf us,” Raschke describes, “but it is also the realization that this vast panorama of fragmentation, instability, and discontinuity can be an opening to redemption.”5 For Raschke, then, a relational, Pentecostal evangelicalism most accurately reflects the postmodern sensibilities of the contemporary world and ultimately makes possible a new reformation.6
Many in the Emergent church acknowledge the postmodern moment of which humanity is a part, accept the challenges of its major claims, and seek to articulate a faith that is biblically rooted yet culturally sensitive. And while scholars like Leonard Sweet, Robert Webber, and Carl Raschke offer a kind of theoretical framework for Emergent engagement with postmodernism, practitioners and pastors demonstrate how, in such a cultural context, the Emergent church might think about history, tradition, preaching, worship, spiritual formation, artistic expression, and cultural engagement (i.e., evangelism).
These are the topics I will address in subsequent posts.
Endnotes
1Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), xxi. Sweet further describes the EPIC approach as a “double ring” or what John Stott calls “double listening” (xvi). Sweet’s double ring “ ‘reaches out’ for a back-to-the-future methodology of movement that is simultaneously backward and forward,” while Stott’s double listening, though very similar, has “one ear listening to God’s Word and the other to God’s World” (xvi). In starkly philosophical terms, Sweet contends that “[a]n E-P-I-C epistemology does not negate objectivism with subjectivism in another recurring dualism. Rather, it encompasses both in a wider enfoldment that bring together organism and environment. In an E-P-I-C epistemology rationality is expanded to include experience. The E-P-I-C perspective moves beyond objective and subjective “groundings” to an experiential accounting of truth where presence and participation play literally a “critical” role in history” (156).
2 Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 7, 14, 104-06 (italics his). This section on Webber is adopted from my article “Embracing the Early Church.” Such a short summary does not do justice to the breadth or depth of Webber’s analysis of contemporary culture in light of the church’s ancient past. As such, readers might consult Webber’s application of his ancient-future paradigm in Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003) and Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). Also relevant is Webber’s sociological analysis of today’s postmodern evangelicals often interested in (ancient) spiritual things, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002). Also important on this score is Colleen Carroll’s study of postmodern Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers, The New Faithful: Why Young Adults are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Chicago: Loyola, 2002).
3 Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004). For an accessible, understandable introduction to deconstruction, see John D. Caputo, ed., Deconstruction in a Nutshell: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida (New York: Fordham University Press, 1997).
4 Ibid., 20.
5 Ibid., 145-205, quote from 174.
6 In a book that is both highly philosophical and transparently personal, not only does The Next Reformation detail Raschke’s devotion to and penchant for postmodernism, but it reveals that relational, communal, and a highly experiential (Pentecostal) Christianity grounds this philosophical devotion. Referencing his important contribution to the field of theology – “the end of theology” – Raschke remarks: “The end of theology is say an adieu to theology in the most literal sense of the word. To say adieu to theology is to “say it like it is” (in French) – literally, to God. It is the power of God liberating evangelical, if not the whole of Christian thought and theology from its long captivity in the Egypt of metaphysics and the Babylon of modernism and drawing it back “to God,” of “letting God be God,” in the face-to-face relationship of faith and worship. After theology we must all get on our faces” (215).
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Expressing an Ancient-Future Faith
In something of a sidebar to my present series on the Emerging church, I'd like to pursue another line of discussion.
A fellow bow tie wearer, Jonathon Norman (here's one of my bow ties), recently offered a series of posts that explored various facets of Robert Webber's conception of an "ancient-future" faith embodied by what he calls the "younger evangelicals."
So, with a nod to Jonathon as I finish tying my bow tie, and before I post my own commentary on Webber's work, I'd like to pose this question: how do you define "ancient-future" faith? What is it? What does it look like? In your opinion, are there really large numbers of younger people (say, high school youth groups up to 35-40ish) embracing an ancient-future faith? (Webber, of course, marshals data to demonstrate this; I'm looking for more anecdotal types of observations.)
Alternatively, might ancient-future be synonymous with the phrase (small "c") "catholic evangelical," as found in one of my recent papers and in several parts of Kennth Collins's book The Evangelical Moment? (It might be interesting here to remember that Roman Catholic theologians William Shea , Bill Portier, (and here), and Robert Barron discuss the term "evangelical Catholic.")
A fellow bow tie wearer, Jonathon Norman (here's one of my bow ties), recently offered a series of posts that explored various facets of Robert Webber's conception of an "ancient-future" faith embodied by what he calls the "younger evangelicals."
So, with a nod to Jonathon as I finish tying my bow tie, and before I post my own commentary on Webber's work, I'd like to pose this question: how do you define "ancient-future" faith? What is it? What does it look like? In your opinion, are there really large numbers of younger people (say, high school youth groups up to 35-40ish) embracing an ancient-future faith? (Webber, of course, marshals data to demonstrate this; I'm looking for more anecdotal types of observations.)
Alternatively, might ancient-future be synonymous with the phrase (small "c") "catholic evangelical," as found in one of my recent papers and in several parts of Kennth Collins's book The Evangelical Moment? (It might be interesting here to remember that Roman Catholic theologians William Shea , Bill Portier, (and here), and Robert Barron discuss the term "evangelical Catholic.")
Monday, October 17, 2005
BaldBlogging on the Emerging Church, Part 3
Both insiders and critics of the Emergent church note the movement’s relationship to postmodernism. 1 Admittedly, postmodernism is a hefty term that has been subject to trenchant debate within evangelical circles. As I discuss below, many in the Emergent movement readily acknowledge that Christians must critically engage, and in many cases adopt, postures of postmodernism; faithful articulation of the Christian gospel, they argue, demands intimate interaction with and analysis of contemporary culture. The culturally creative element within the Emerging movement adopts and appropriates familiar cultural signs, symbols, and other elements and uses these as a way to engage conversation. Generally this does not result in a mere “Christianization” of “secular” cultural elements, but a rigorous (i.e., theoretical) use of culture as a bridge to friendship and conversation through visual, personal, and relational (i.e., practical) ways. For more on these points, visit the current book blog A New Kind of Conversation.
In what follows I will address the issue of postmodernism and its relation to the Emergent movement and then describe the practical ways Emergent churches engage, adopt, and appropriate aspects of postmodernism.
Postmodernism is a contemporary frame of reference for many in the West, the current context in which individuals create meaning and self understanding, though as Sherman Kuek brilliantly explains in a six-part series from August 2005, postcolonialism is of more significance for the global South. Postmodernism, the ideas of which receive attention in academic disciplines like art, history, literature, philosophy, sociology, economics, theology, linguistics, technology, and even architecture, interrogates received structural notions of human knowledge and meaning. The aim of postmodernism, therefore, is to question or subvert structural modes of knowledge and discover the ways in which meaning exists and is created in these institutional structures. Thus interrogated and dismantled, local and contextual knowledge replaces institutional modes of knowing; meaning emerges at an individualized level and through a multiplicity of refractions.
For some time now many in the evangelical world have defined postmodernism, outlined its parameters, sketched its implications, and assessed the ways in which postmodernism compares and contrasts to Christian knowledge found in the scriptures. Some commentators are critically dismissive, some skeptically reserved, and others discriminatingly welcoming. 2 And while it is beyond the scope of these posts to offer full coverage of evangelical interaction with postmodernism, it is important to point out that Emergent church leaders and those sympathetic to Emergent perspectives acknowledge this cultural climate and seek to interact and engage. Several examples demonstrate this posture of critical engagement.
The next post will show how the work of Leonard Sweet, Robert Webber, and Carl Raschke thoughtfully, though not uncritically, interacts with postmodernism.
Endnotes
1 For insider accounts and opinions, see Chris Seay and others in Leadership Journal.Net and Christianity Today. For trenchant criticism, see especially the work of Albert Mohler, D.A. Carson, the EmergentNo Blog, and the essayists in Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor, eds., Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005).
2 See, among many others, Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994); Timothy R. Phillips and Dennis L. Okholm, eds., Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995); Stanley J. Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996); D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996); Jerry L. Summers, “Teaching History, the Gospel, and the Postmodern Self,” in Ronald A. Wells, ed., History and the Christian Historian (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996); Merold Westphal, ed., Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999); Richard B. Davis, “Can There Be an “Orthodox” Postmodern Theology?,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 45/1 (March 2002): 111-123; Brad J. Kallenberg, Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2002); J.P. Moreland, “Truth, Contemporary Philosophy, and the Postmodern Turn,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48/1 (March 2005): 77-88; Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor, eds., Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005); Myron B. Penner, ed., Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005).
In what follows I will address the issue of postmodernism and its relation to the Emergent movement and then describe the practical ways Emergent churches engage, adopt, and appropriate aspects of postmodernism.
Postmodernism is a contemporary frame of reference for many in the West, the current context in which individuals create meaning and self understanding, though as Sherman Kuek brilliantly explains in a six-part series from August 2005, postcolonialism is of more significance for the global South. Postmodernism, the ideas of which receive attention in academic disciplines like art, history, literature, philosophy, sociology, economics, theology, linguistics, technology, and even architecture, interrogates received structural notions of human knowledge and meaning. The aim of postmodernism, therefore, is to question or subvert structural modes of knowledge and discover the ways in which meaning exists and is created in these institutional structures. Thus interrogated and dismantled, local and contextual knowledge replaces institutional modes of knowing; meaning emerges at an individualized level and through a multiplicity of refractions.
For some time now many in the evangelical world have defined postmodernism, outlined its parameters, sketched its implications, and assessed the ways in which postmodernism compares and contrasts to Christian knowledge found in the scriptures. Some commentators are critically dismissive, some skeptically reserved, and others discriminatingly welcoming. 2 And while it is beyond the scope of these posts to offer full coverage of evangelical interaction with postmodernism, it is important to point out that Emergent church leaders and those sympathetic to Emergent perspectives acknowledge this cultural climate and seek to interact and engage. Several examples demonstrate this posture of critical engagement.
The next post will show how the work of Leonard Sweet, Robert Webber, and Carl Raschke thoughtfully, though not uncritically, interacts with postmodernism.
Endnotes
1 For insider accounts and opinions, see Chris Seay and others in Leadership Journal.Net and Christianity Today. For trenchant criticism, see especially the work of Albert Mohler, D.A. Carson, the EmergentNo Blog, and the essayists in Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor, eds., Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005).
2 See, among many others, Gene Edward Veith, Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Wheaton: Crossway, 1994); Timothy R. Phillips and Dennis L. Okholm, eds., Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995); Stanley J. Grenz, A Primer on Postmodernism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996); D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996); Jerry L. Summers, “Teaching History, the Gospel, and the Postmodern Self,” in Ronald A. Wells, ed., History and the Christian Historian (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996); Merold Westphal, ed., Postmodern Philosophy and Christian Thought (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999); Richard B. Davis, “Can There Be an “Orthodox” Postmodern Theology?,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 45/1 (March 2002): 111-123; Brad J. Kallenberg, Live to Tell: Evangelism for a Postmodern Age (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2002); J.P. Moreland, “Truth, Contemporary Philosophy, and the Postmodern Turn,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 48/1 (March 2005): 77-88; Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth, Justin Taylor, eds., Reclaiming the Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation in Postmodern Times (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005); Myron B. Penner, ed., Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005).
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
BaldBlogging on the Emerging Church, Part 2
While diverse in local expression, the Emergent church in the United States (and larger Emerging church) comprises transdenominational communities of Christ followers who aim to be historically conscious, biblically sound, culturally creative, artistically expressive, doctrinally responsible, and faithfully missional. Collectively, the movement embraces history (in large measures from the early church or medieval church); teaches the scriptures (often dialogically or through stories; not necessarily in an expositional way); supports creativity and even improvisational kinds of worship (displayed through art or other creative expressions); and attempts to speak to a generation engaged in various kinds of pilgrimage, spiritual or otherwise (in missional ways).
The transdenominational nature of Emergent communities means that members of many of these churches within the United States come from a variety of evangelical and mainline backgrounds, or even Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox backgrounds (I would presume), and even those unaffiliated with any church whatever. This also means that Emergent churches are by and large independent churches, communities of faith not part of any formal denominational structure or body. Many Emergent pastors, leaders, and practitioners, however, meet annually at meetings and conventions (such as this week's Emergent Gathering; anyone blogging about this?), while others in the movement host local meetings, known formally as "cohorts." These modes of meeting and contexts for conversation, often initiated and/or announced electronically through web sites and blogs, indicate a desire for authentic community (identified and articulated beautifully in Aaron Flores's recent Master's thesis from Vanguard University), and conversations sometimes include discussion with those outside of the Emergent movement.1
Now some thoughts about what I take to be one of the most important trajectories of the Emerging/Emergent movement.
Those in the Emergent community often describe cultural engagement, what some call evangelism, as a "missional" activity. In fact, in the literature of the Emergent church one is less likely to come across references to evangelistic strategies or schemes; rather, one more often reads about missional modes of cultural interaction, and carefully defined statements about living within postmodern culture. Several theologians and thinkers illustrate the Emergent understanding(s) of missional.
In a recent essay, "The Church as a Missional Community," theologian Darrell Guder argues that the term missional avoids direct reference to words like "missionary," a controversial word with imperialistic overtones. "The term missional," Guder explains, "is an attempt to move the discussion beyond too narrow definitions of mission as merely one among the various programs of the church, and to find ways to think about the church's calling and practice today in light of the fact of the multicultural global church."2
Similarly, in A Generous Orthodoxy (2004) Emergent leader Brian McLaren suggests that the term missional "probably reflects a kind of postcolonial embarrassment about the term missionary, which has too often been associated with a colonial version of Christianity that inadvertently (one hopes) exported (and imposed) Euro-American culture right along with the gospel of Jesus....it gets us beyond the us-them thinking...that lead [sic] to prejudice, exclusion, and ultimately religious wars."3
Jesus historian Scot McKnight echoes Guder and McLaren and describes the global implications of a missional outlook. The missional church "breaks down the barrier between secular and sacred," writes McKnight, "between the spiritual and the secular, and between the holy and the profane. If the former conceptualization of the gospel was in the terms of "come out from among them" or "be not of this world," the missional Christians are asking how to be among them and of this world in order to participate in what God is doing."4 Describing Jesus's "missional discourse" from Matthew 9-11, McKnight explains that missional work "incarnates" Christ as Christians extend grace into their contexts and settings. By so doing, McKnight describes, "the missional person finds herself or himself on the border, in liminality, and that means being forced to make decisions never made before. Forced to do things never done before. Forced to engage in situations never engage before. Force[d] to try new things and see new things and say new things - and it is not easy to know what is right sometimes."5
To be missional, then, according to Guder, McLaren, and McKnight, is to possess a global outlook attuned to the diverse work of the Spirit, and to frame cultural engagement in more organic or relational ways, prizing dialogue above confrontation, and creativity over programmatic engagement. In my estimation, the missional posture of the Emergent church, its global-consciousness-in-liminality, offers a way for the movement to dialogue with Christianity in global terms and on a global scale - something about which I will write several posts down the road.
The next post will reflect on the Emergent engagement with postmodernism.
Endnotes
1For a list of meetings and links to local cohorts, visit Emergent Village
2Darrell L. Guder, "The Church as Missional Community," in eds. Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier, The Community of the Word: Toward an Evangelical Ecclesiology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 116. Guder places the concept of being missional in the context of ecclesiology and illuminates much of the discussion about missional within the Emerging church: "Our ecclesiologies of institutional maintanence and the tending of savedness are not adequate to the task that faces us now. We cannot evangelize under the assumption that most of what it means to be a practicing Christian is already handled by one's being born and raised in so-called Christian North America - so that all one needs to do is accept Jesus, join an church and perhaps start tithing. Nor can we evangelize under the assumption that our culture prepares people for Christ, so that we merely need to recognize the "felt needs" that people bring to church with them" (121).
3Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 106, 109.
4Scot McKnight, "Pro Missional," weblog post , July 13, 2005,(accessed July 2005).
5Scot McKnight, "Jesus on Being Missional 1, 7," weblog posts, August 28 and September 3, 2005,(accessed September 2005).
The transdenominational nature of Emergent communities means that members of many of these churches within the United States come from a variety of evangelical and mainline backgrounds, or even Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox backgrounds (I would presume), and even those unaffiliated with any church whatever. This also means that Emergent churches are by and large independent churches, communities of faith not part of any formal denominational structure or body. Many Emergent pastors, leaders, and practitioners, however, meet annually at meetings and conventions (such as this week's Emergent Gathering; anyone blogging about this?), while others in the movement host local meetings, known formally as "cohorts." These modes of meeting and contexts for conversation, often initiated and/or announced electronically through web sites and blogs, indicate a desire for authentic community (identified and articulated beautifully in Aaron Flores's recent Master's thesis from Vanguard University), and conversations sometimes include discussion with those outside of the Emergent movement.1
Now some thoughts about what I take to be one of the most important trajectories of the Emerging/Emergent movement.
Those in the Emergent community often describe cultural engagement, what some call evangelism, as a "missional" activity. In fact, in the literature of the Emergent church one is less likely to come across references to evangelistic strategies or schemes; rather, one more often reads about missional modes of cultural interaction, and carefully defined statements about living within postmodern culture. Several theologians and thinkers illustrate the Emergent understanding(s) of missional.
In a recent essay, "The Church as a Missional Community," theologian Darrell Guder argues that the term missional avoids direct reference to words like "missionary," a controversial word with imperialistic overtones. "The term missional," Guder explains, "is an attempt to move the discussion beyond too narrow definitions of mission as merely one among the various programs of the church, and to find ways to think about the church's calling and practice today in light of the fact of the multicultural global church."2
Similarly, in A Generous Orthodoxy (2004) Emergent leader Brian McLaren suggests that the term missional "probably reflects a kind of postcolonial embarrassment about the term missionary, which has too often been associated with a colonial version of Christianity that inadvertently (one hopes) exported (and imposed) Euro-American culture right along with the gospel of Jesus....it gets us beyond the us-them thinking...that lead [sic] to prejudice, exclusion, and ultimately religious wars."3
Jesus historian Scot McKnight echoes Guder and McLaren and describes the global implications of a missional outlook. The missional church "breaks down the barrier between secular and sacred," writes McKnight, "between the spiritual and the secular, and between the holy and the profane. If the former conceptualization of the gospel was in the terms of "come out from among them" or "be not of this world," the missional Christians are asking how to be among them and of this world in order to participate in what God is doing."4 Describing Jesus's "missional discourse" from Matthew 9-11, McKnight explains that missional work "incarnates" Christ as Christians extend grace into their contexts and settings. By so doing, McKnight describes, "the missional person finds herself or himself on the border, in liminality, and that means being forced to make decisions never made before. Forced to do things never done before. Forced to engage in situations never engage before. Force[d] to try new things and see new things and say new things - and it is not easy to know what is right sometimes."5
To be missional, then, according to Guder, McLaren, and McKnight, is to possess a global outlook attuned to the diverse work of the Spirit, and to frame cultural engagement in more organic or relational ways, prizing dialogue above confrontation, and creativity over programmatic engagement. In my estimation, the missional posture of the Emergent church, its global-consciousness-in-liminality, offers a way for the movement to dialogue with Christianity in global terms and on a global scale - something about which I will write several posts down the road.
The next post will reflect on the Emergent engagement with postmodernism.
Endnotes
1For a list of meetings and links to local cohorts, visit Emergent Village
2Darrell L. Guder, "The Church as Missional Community," in eds. Mark Husbands and Daniel J. Treier, The Community of the Word: Toward an Evangelical Ecclesiology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 116. Guder places the concept of being missional in the context of ecclesiology and illuminates much of the discussion about missional within the Emerging church: "Our ecclesiologies of institutional maintanence and the tending of savedness are not adequate to the task that faces us now. We cannot evangelize under the assumption that most of what it means to be a practicing Christian is already handled by one's being born and raised in so-called Christian North America - so that all one needs to do is accept Jesus, join an church and perhaps start tithing. Nor can we evangelize under the assumption that our culture prepares people for Christ, so that we merely need to recognize the "felt needs" that people bring to church with them" (121).
3Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 106, 109.
4Scot McKnight, "Pro Missional," weblog post , July 13, 2005,
5Scot McKnight, "Jesus on Being Missional 1, 7," weblog posts, August 28 and September 3, 2005,
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Bald Blogging on the Emerging Church, Part I
**Most of my posts on the Emerging Church will have "endnotes" where readers may refer to my notes, citations, and further reflection. These posts are aimed at both professional scholars and laypeople, and above all I hope readable for/to all who visit. Some posts will be quite long, while others much shorter.**
“Postmodernity is all our doubts supersized, but it also is all the raw sinews of faith stretched out like a taut drum. At first glance the prospect appears both repugnant and frightening. Yet such recoil can become the true matrix moment.”
Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation (2004) 1
“From the side of the emerging church movement, traditional evangelicalism appears to be hard-edged and inflexible because it constantly thinks in truth-categories and does not perceive the legitimate place of experience….From the perspective of the traditional Christian, the emergent Christian may appear to be so committed to new experiences and subjective evaluations that the truth can be easily left behind.”
D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church (2005) 2
“The experience of dialogue – the I-Thou relation with the uncontrolled other – may result in dizziness, vertigo, or shudder that unhinges us from our moorings or yanks us from our anchors….This loss of our footing…compel[s] us to acknowledge that the very meaning of being [post]modern may be the lack of meaning, that our quest for such meaning may be the very meaning itself – without ever arriving at any fixed meaning. In short, the hermeneutical circle in which we find ourselves, as historical beings in search of meaning for ourselves, is virtuous, not vicious, because we never transcend or complete the circle.”
Cornel West, “To Be Human, Modern and American” (1999) 3
“Like literature, history has the capacity to expand our vision of human lives and cultures. History also demonstrates the limitations of one’s own culture, its values, assumptions, and beliefs. To familiarize the alien and to alienate the familiar is one of the basic purposes of education.”
Albert J. Raboteau, “Praying the ABCs: Reflections on Faith in History” (1995) 4
The preceding comments serve as epigraphs for my reflections on the Emerging church.5 Carl Raschke makes a compelling case for the congruence of postmodern faith and evangelical conviction, while D.A. Carson suggests that one must choose either the “truth” or the emerging church. Juxtaposed, these brief observations, as I understand the movement and its critics, captures the essence of those who, to modify Miroslav Volf, embrace the emerging movement and those who exclude it. Cornel West’s comments, though written in the context of African American historical reflection, display the liminal possibilities that come with being “ancient-future,” while Albert Raboteau’s thoughts on faith and history, written with African American religious history in mind, capture the educational promise of new lines of inquiry. Collectively, the postures of Raschke, Carson, West, and Raboteau, as reflected above, display some of the "moods” associated with the emerging movement. Now, a few brief comments about the literature.
In recent months, journalists, theologians, social commentators, pastors, and talk-show hosts have explained, described, and assessed a growing number of Christians who identify with what is known as the “Emergent” church (sometimes called the “Emerging” church). Some of these accounts come from outsiders, those not formally affiliated with an Emergent or Emerging church/movement, though this is not uniformly the case.
For example, both Christian Century and Christianity Today featured stories about Emergent churches in November 2004 issues. In February 2005 the White Horse Inn, a theological radio talk-show hosted by theologian Michael Horton, devoted two programs to the Emergent church, and Modern Reformation, a bi-monthly theological journal of which Horton is editor, devoted its July/August 2005 issue to the Emerging Church. The magazine Banner of Truth featured two articles on the Emerging church in its on-line February 2005 issue. Further still, Chuck Smith and others wrote about the Emerging church in the March/April 2005 issue of Worship Leader. In May 2005 theologian D.A. Carson published the first book-length critique of the Emergent church titled Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications. Around the same time sociologist Gerardo Marti published A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church, the first sociological analysis of a multi-ethnic Emergent community in Los Angeles. In June 2005 Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler published two articles on the Emerging church at the on-line Christian news clearinghouse The Christian Post, and the television talk show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly devoted two episodes to the Emerging church in July 2005. In December 2005, Fuller Seminary theologians Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs will publish an important study titled Emerging Churches: Creating Community in Postmodern Cultures. Finally, the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church will devote an entire issue to the Emerging church and a number of recent theses, dissertations, and scholarly reflection offer academic analyses of the Emergent and Emerging strain(s) of Christianity.6
These articles, essays, and books (not to mention the large and ever-expanding electronic conversations) reflect a growing interest in the Emergent/Emerging church, indicate that the movement is part of a number of important conversations, and suggest that this expression of Christianity demands further attention.
My next post will offer comments on the major themes of the Emergent church.
Endnotes
1Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 174.
2D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 218.
3Cornel West, “Introduction: To Be Human, Modern and American,” in The Cornel West Reader (New York: Basic Books, 1999), xviii.
4Albert J. Raboteau, A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African-American Religious History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), 8-9.
5Following Scot McKnight, here it is helpful to make a distinction between the “Emergent” and the “Emerging” church. Many of those who are part of the “Emergent” church live and work within the United States and have had some affiliation with evangelicalism. The “Emerging” movement is mainly centered in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and is less defined by experience with North American versions of evangelicalism. This distinction does not mean that the "movement" is divided, but serves hopefully to clarify the usage of these terms. The literature uses both “Emergent” and “Emerging,” and only some writers note this distinction.
6See Andy Crouch, “The Emergent Mystique,” Christianity Today 48/11 (November 2004): 36-41 and in the same issue a discussion between Emergent pastor and leader Brian McLaren and Wheaton College President Duane Liftin titled “Emergent Evangelism” (pp. 41-42); Scott Bader-Saye, “A New Kind of Church?: The Emergent Matrix,” Christian Century ( November 30, 2004): 20-27; Geoff Thomas, “The Emerging Church,” Banner of Truth (February 8, 2005), David Carmichael, “The ‘Emerging Church’ Further Considered,” Banner of Truth (February 18, 2005),[Accessed May 2005]; Chuck Smith, Jr., “What is Emerging?,” Worship Leader 14/2 (March/April 2005): 22-27; D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005); Gerardo Marti, A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005); Albert R. Mohler, “What Should We Think of the Emerging Church? Part One” Christian Post (July 29, 2005), and “What Should We Think of the Emerging Church? Part 2” Christian Post (June 30, 2005), [Accessed July 2005]; D.A. Carson, “The Emerging Movement,” Modern Reformation 14/4 (July/August 2005): 11-18; Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, Emerging Churches: Creating Community in Postmodern Cultures (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005); Jonny Baker, “The Labyrinth. Ritualisation as Strategic Practice in Postmodern Times,” (M.A. thesis, Kings College, 2000); Matthew Guest, “Negotiating Community: An Ethnographic Study of an Evangelical Church,” (Ph.D. diss., Lancaster University, 2002); Steve Taylor, “A New Way of Being Church,” (Ph.D. diss., Otago University, 2004); and Aaron Flores, “An Exploration of the Emerging Church in the United States: The Missiological Intent and Potential Implications for the Future,” (M.A. thesis, Vanguard University, 2005). Though I knew of Aarons Flores’s work, citations to the academic work on the Emerging church from abroad and information about the forthcoming issue of the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church appeared on the July 20 and 28, 2005, posts at pastor Steve Taylor’s blog . A version of Steve Taylor’s doctoral dissertation appeared as The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005). The White Horse Inn radio program devoted its March 6, March 17, and July 17, 2005, shows to the Emergent church, and the July 8 and July 15, 2005, episodes of Religion & Ethics Newsweekly devoted attention to the Emerging church.
“Postmodernity is all our doubts supersized, but it also is all the raw sinews of faith stretched out like a taut drum. At first glance the prospect appears both repugnant and frightening. Yet such recoil can become the true matrix moment.”
Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation (2004) 1
“From the side of the emerging church movement, traditional evangelicalism appears to be hard-edged and inflexible because it constantly thinks in truth-categories and does not perceive the legitimate place of experience….From the perspective of the traditional Christian, the emergent Christian may appear to be so committed to new experiences and subjective evaluations that the truth can be easily left behind.”
D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church (2005) 2
“The experience of dialogue – the I-Thou relation with the uncontrolled other – may result in dizziness, vertigo, or shudder that unhinges us from our moorings or yanks us from our anchors….This loss of our footing…compel[s] us to acknowledge that the very meaning of being [post]modern may be the lack of meaning, that our quest for such meaning may be the very meaning itself – without ever arriving at any fixed meaning. In short, the hermeneutical circle in which we find ourselves, as historical beings in search of meaning for ourselves, is virtuous, not vicious, because we never transcend or complete the circle.”
Cornel West, “To Be Human, Modern and American” (1999) 3
“Like literature, history has the capacity to expand our vision of human lives and cultures. History also demonstrates the limitations of one’s own culture, its values, assumptions, and beliefs. To familiarize the alien and to alienate the familiar is one of the basic purposes of education.”
Albert J. Raboteau, “Praying the ABCs: Reflections on Faith in History” (1995) 4
The preceding comments serve as epigraphs for my reflections on the Emerging church.5 Carl Raschke makes a compelling case for the congruence of postmodern faith and evangelical conviction, while D.A. Carson suggests that one must choose either the “truth” or the emerging church. Juxtaposed, these brief observations, as I understand the movement and its critics, captures the essence of those who, to modify Miroslav Volf, embrace the emerging movement and those who exclude it. Cornel West’s comments, though written in the context of African American historical reflection, display the liminal possibilities that come with being “ancient-future,” while Albert Raboteau’s thoughts on faith and history, written with African American religious history in mind, capture the educational promise of new lines of inquiry. Collectively, the postures of Raschke, Carson, West, and Raboteau, as reflected above, display some of the "moods” associated with the emerging movement. Now, a few brief comments about the literature.
In recent months, journalists, theologians, social commentators, pastors, and talk-show hosts have explained, described, and assessed a growing number of Christians who identify with what is known as the “Emergent” church (sometimes called the “Emerging” church). Some of these accounts come from outsiders, those not formally affiliated with an Emergent or Emerging church/movement, though this is not uniformly the case.
For example, both Christian Century and Christianity Today featured stories about Emergent churches in November 2004 issues. In February 2005 the White Horse Inn, a theological radio talk-show hosted by theologian Michael Horton, devoted two programs to the Emergent church, and Modern Reformation, a bi-monthly theological journal of which Horton is editor, devoted its July/August 2005 issue to the Emerging Church. The magazine Banner of Truth featured two articles on the Emerging church in its on-line February 2005 issue. Further still, Chuck Smith and others wrote about the Emerging church in the March/April 2005 issue of Worship Leader. In May 2005 theologian D.A. Carson published the first book-length critique of the Emergent church titled Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications. Around the same time sociologist Gerardo Marti published A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church, the first sociological analysis of a multi-ethnic Emergent community in Los Angeles. In June 2005 Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler published two articles on the Emerging church at the on-line Christian news clearinghouse The Christian Post, and the television talk show Religion & Ethics Newsweekly devoted two episodes to the Emerging church in July 2005. In December 2005, Fuller Seminary theologians Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs will publish an important study titled Emerging Churches: Creating Community in Postmodern Cultures. Finally, the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church will devote an entire issue to the Emerging church and a number of recent theses, dissertations, and scholarly reflection offer academic analyses of the Emergent and Emerging strain(s) of Christianity.6
These articles, essays, and books (not to mention the large and ever-expanding electronic conversations) reflect a growing interest in the Emergent/Emerging church, indicate that the movement is part of a number of important conversations, and suggest that this expression of Christianity demands further attention.
My next post will offer comments on the major themes of the Emergent church.
Endnotes
1Carl Raschke, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 174.
2D.A. Carson, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 218.
3Cornel West, “Introduction: To Be Human, Modern and American,” in The Cornel West Reader (New York: Basic Books, 1999), xviii.
4Albert J. Raboteau, A Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African-American Religious History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995), 8-9.
5Following Scot McKnight, here it is helpful to make a distinction between the “Emergent” and the “Emerging” church. Many of those who are part of the “Emergent” church live and work within the United States and have had some affiliation with evangelicalism. The “Emerging” movement is mainly centered in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and is less defined by experience with North American versions of evangelicalism. This distinction does not mean that the "movement" is divided, but serves hopefully to clarify the usage of these terms. The literature uses both “Emergent” and “Emerging,” and only some writers note this distinction.
6See Andy Crouch, “The Emergent Mystique,” Christianity Today 48/11 (November 2004): 36-41 and in the same issue a discussion between Emergent pastor and leader Brian McLaren and Wheaton College President Duane Liftin titled “Emergent Evangelism” (pp. 41-42); Scott Bader-Saye, “A New Kind of Church?: The Emergent Matrix,” Christian Century ( November 30, 2004): 20-27; Geoff Thomas, “The Emerging Church,” Banner of Truth (February 8, 2005), David Carmichael, “The ‘Emerging Church’ Further Considered,” Banner of Truth (February 18, 2005),
Friday, October 07, 2005
Reflections on the Emergent/Emerging Movement/Church/Conversation
This note is to announce a series of posts forthcoming on the Emergent/Emerging Movement/Church/Conversation.
I use "Emergent/Emerging" to indicate that my reflections are mainly on the Emergent "movement" in the United States, though throughout these posts I will interact with the larger "Emerging" movement situated in the U.K. and elsewhere in the world. I use "Movement/Church/Conversation" because in my research I notice the use of all three terms to describe this particular faith movement. Henceforth I will use Emergent or Emerging when the context dictates and I will use movement, church, and conversation (generally) interchangeably.
At this point I envision a series of somewhere around 15 posts that will begin with a glance at the flurry of attention the Emergent/Emerging movement has received in the last 12-15 months or so. I will then outline what I see as the major themes of the movement and discuss the movement's relation to postmodernism. From here I will flesh out the themes I identify previously, narrated through/by the voices of Emergent/Emerging writers, pastors, and practitioners. My comments will then shift to a more descriptive (rather than expositional) mode. I will describe my experiences with Ecclesia, an Emergent community in Houston; I participated in/with this community through the Lenten season earlier this year. Summary thoughts will follow this post, and will have something of an interpretive edge. I will then move into the prescriptive mode, and offer my thoughts as to where and how the Emergent movement in the United States might interface Christianity in the global south.
I plan then to offer my reviews of D.A. Carson's now infamous book on the Emerging church and R. Scott Smith's forthcoming work that interacts with the Emergent movement.
Here's where I stand in relation to the Emergent/Emerging conversation: First, [born in 1977] I am what Robert Webber calls a "younger evangelical." I am one who attempts to "deal thoughtfully with the shift from twentieth- to twenty-first-century culture," as Webber puts it, "[one who] is committed to construct a biblically rooted, historically informed, and culturally aware new evangelical witness in the twenty-first century" (16). More specifically, I would describe myself as a "catholic evangelical," one who hails from the evangelical strain of Christianity, and is somewhat ambivalent toward yet hopeful for the movement, and who attempts to dialogue historically, theologically, practically, and relationally with both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Second, I am a historian by training, though my interests, writing, research, and teaching straddle disciplinary boundaries. Third, I am not "officially" (i.e., a "member") part of an Emergent community, though I am an interested observer and occasional participant in Emergent activities.
I use "Emergent/Emerging" to indicate that my reflections are mainly on the Emergent "movement" in the United States, though throughout these posts I will interact with the larger "Emerging" movement situated in the U.K. and elsewhere in the world. I use "Movement/Church/Conversation" because in my research I notice the use of all three terms to describe this particular faith movement. Henceforth I will use Emergent or Emerging when the context dictates and I will use movement, church, and conversation (generally) interchangeably.
At this point I envision a series of somewhere around 15 posts that will begin with a glance at the flurry of attention the Emergent/Emerging movement has received in the last 12-15 months or so. I will then outline what I see as the major themes of the movement and discuss the movement's relation to postmodernism. From here I will flesh out the themes I identify previously, narrated through/by the voices of Emergent/Emerging writers, pastors, and practitioners. My comments will then shift to a more descriptive (rather than expositional) mode. I will describe my experiences with Ecclesia, an Emergent community in Houston; I participated in/with this community through the Lenten season earlier this year. Summary thoughts will follow this post, and will have something of an interpretive edge. I will then move into the prescriptive mode, and offer my thoughts as to where and how the Emergent movement in the United States might interface Christianity in the global south.
I plan then to offer my reviews of D.A. Carson's now infamous book on the Emerging church and R. Scott Smith's forthcoming work that interacts with the Emergent movement.
Here's where I stand in relation to the Emergent/Emerging conversation: First, [born in 1977] I am what Robert Webber calls a "younger evangelical." I am one who attempts to "deal thoughtfully with the shift from twentieth- to twenty-first-century culture," as Webber puts it, "[one who] is committed to construct a biblically rooted, historically informed, and culturally aware new evangelical witness in the twenty-first century" (16). More specifically, I would describe myself as a "catholic evangelical," one who hails from the evangelical strain of Christianity, and is somewhat ambivalent toward yet hopeful for the movement, and who attempts to dialogue historically, theologically, practically, and relationally with both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Second, I am a historian by training, though my interests, writing, research, and teaching straddle disciplinary boundaries. Third, I am not "officially" (i.e., a "member") part of an Emergent community, though I am an interested observer and occasional participant in Emergent activities.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Accosting White Privilege, Interrogating Racism, and Practicing Pentecost, Part II
In my last post I only hinted at the encounter I had with racism couched as white privilege. Thinking further about the post, and having Anthony Bradley ask for details, I realized that by not being totally forthright, by not mentioning names, ethnicities, and gender, I subverted the initial aim of my post: to share experiences of white privilege parading as racism in order to encourage the repentance it takes for racial reconciliation in the church.
I hope this post becomes part of the discussion surrounding Scot’s current series of posts, Bryan’s observations, and Anthony’s reflections.
Let’s set the scene: It is September 15, 2005, the first night of the After Evangelicalism conference in Grand Rapids. In the Gainey Conference Center on the campus of Cornerstone University Anthony Smith and I make our way through the book display (Baker and Eerdmans had books for sale), grab our materials for registration, and chat eagerly about what is ahead. We then make our way over to the coffee and dessert table to grab a quick cup before Robert Webber’s opening plenary address.
Standing near the table about to pour cups of coffee, a conference attendee, who is a white, middle-aged female, has a quizzical look hoping to find some help; she asks Anthony: “Are you the server guy?” Then about 3 awkward seconds of silence.
This attendee did not even offer a personal introduction or extend a hand in greeting; the assumption was that an African American male at a theology conference about evangelicalism must be hired help for the event. Hence, as this attendee uttered “Are you the server guy?,” as I stated in my previous post, unconscious racism couched in white privilege reared its ugly head. Anthony graciously answered with something like, “No, I’m here to present a paper.” Befuddled, stammering, and clearly embarrassed, the conference attendee asked where Anthony was from, and the conversation trailed off as we eventually headed into the meeting room for Robert Webber’s presentation.
Anthony and I reflected on this encounter several times throughout the course of the conference and have talked about it a few times since. I also been giving it much thought personally as well.
I must say that, while I had seen previously encounters displaying white privilege like the one in Grand Rapids, for the first time my soul grieved deeply after this encounter; I grieved for the racism that still pervades the church.
Recognizing white privilege, much less uprooting the racism that lurks behind this posture and this practice, in my opinion, is not something white folks are wont to do. In my experiences the so-called Christian responses to this claim are things like, “racism doesn’t really exist,” or, “In truth, God is colorblind.” Generally the gesture is a genuine but ill-informed tokenism stemming from what has been called the white western guilt complex. (Yale historian Lamin Sanneh comments on the guilt complex in the context of western missions here.) In other words, to combat racism (again, in my experience) white folks, generally aware of the history of racism in the United States, start down the road to reconciliation with the mindset to right the wrongs of America’s white racist past. This seems to be another version of a socio-political response to racism; again, socio-political responses (e.g., congressional legislation, etc.) are necessary and important, but do not recognize racism as sin, as a subversion of the Eucharist we are invited to share.
When will Christ followers of Euro-American heritage, my white brothers and sisters, own up to the systemic racism in the church that shows up as white privilege? While I do not discount claims of “I’m not personally racist” by any means, as Scot demonstrates and as Anthony articulates, individual testimonials fail to uproot that which chokes community cultivation and fail to bridge that which prevents dining at the Eucharistic table together.
Through the grief I see a ray of hope. I’m hopeful because practicing Pentecost corporately (and individually) can combat the racism that remains among and between Christ followers. I’m hopeful because I was greatly and profoundly encouraged not only from Anthony’s written reflections, but from his enactment of Pentecost.
I’m also hopeful because of the work of Michael Emerson and company, because of the work of Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp (and other books of “Multiethnic Interest” published by InterVarsity Press), and because of the musical meditations of people Derek Webb and Lenny Kravitz, among others.
I close with a quote from Harris and Schaupp’s book, Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World (2004):
“Unaware/covert racism can operate despite our commitment to racial reconciliation, because we cannot see it very well. We whites are not aware of our own paritality; we don’t know how to look for it, so it is hidden from us. People of color feel something is not right, but it’s hard to name and describe. We white people want to excuse ourselves from it when it’s pointed out to us. It makes us appropriately uncomfortable to think about racism operating in our hearts and around us….we create other explanations for the inequity.
If we are going to uncover racism, we cannot be satisfied with easy answers. Scripture says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:16). The word that is translated “wickedness” can also be translated “injustice.” If we continue to live in injustice or wickedness, what happens is that our thinking becomes cloudy….[w]hen we white people do not confront our own racism, we begin to put ourselves in God’s place. We don’t want to commit ourselves to learning to be simply human equals with people of color.
Underneath it all, we white people don’t want to do the hard work of uncovering the racism in our systems” (105).
I hope this post becomes part of the discussion surrounding Scot’s current series of posts, Bryan’s observations, and Anthony’s reflections.
Let’s set the scene: It is September 15, 2005, the first night of the After Evangelicalism conference in Grand Rapids. In the Gainey Conference Center on the campus of Cornerstone University Anthony Smith and I make our way through the book display (Baker and Eerdmans had books for sale), grab our materials for registration, and chat eagerly about what is ahead. We then make our way over to the coffee and dessert table to grab a quick cup before Robert Webber’s opening plenary address.
Standing near the table about to pour cups of coffee, a conference attendee, who is a white, middle-aged female, has a quizzical look hoping to find some help; she asks Anthony: “Are you the server guy?” Then about 3 awkward seconds of silence.
This attendee did not even offer a personal introduction or extend a hand in greeting; the assumption was that an African American male at a theology conference about evangelicalism must be hired help for the event. Hence, as this attendee uttered “Are you the server guy?,” as I stated in my previous post, unconscious racism couched in white privilege reared its ugly head. Anthony graciously answered with something like, “No, I’m here to present a paper.” Befuddled, stammering, and clearly embarrassed, the conference attendee asked where Anthony was from, and the conversation trailed off as we eventually headed into the meeting room for Robert Webber’s presentation.
Anthony and I reflected on this encounter several times throughout the course of the conference and have talked about it a few times since. I also been giving it much thought personally as well.
I must say that, while I had seen previously encounters displaying white privilege like the one in Grand Rapids, for the first time my soul grieved deeply after this encounter; I grieved for the racism that still pervades the church.
Recognizing white privilege, much less uprooting the racism that lurks behind this posture and this practice, in my opinion, is not something white folks are wont to do. In my experiences the so-called Christian responses to this claim are things like, “racism doesn’t really exist,” or, “In truth, God is colorblind.” Generally the gesture is a genuine but ill-informed tokenism stemming from what has been called the white western guilt complex. (Yale historian Lamin Sanneh comments on the guilt complex in the context of western missions here.) In other words, to combat racism (again, in my experience) white folks, generally aware of the history of racism in the United States, start down the road to reconciliation with the mindset to right the wrongs of America’s white racist past. This seems to be another version of a socio-political response to racism; again, socio-political responses (e.g., congressional legislation, etc.) are necessary and important, but do not recognize racism as sin, as a subversion of the Eucharist we are invited to share.
When will Christ followers of Euro-American heritage, my white brothers and sisters, own up to the systemic racism in the church that shows up as white privilege? While I do not discount claims of “I’m not personally racist” by any means, as Scot demonstrates and as Anthony articulates, individual testimonials fail to uproot that which chokes community cultivation and fail to bridge that which prevents dining at the Eucharistic table together.
Through the grief I see a ray of hope. I’m hopeful because practicing Pentecost corporately (and individually) can combat the racism that remains among and between Christ followers. I’m hopeful because I was greatly and profoundly encouraged not only from Anthony’s written reflections, but from his enactment of Pentecost.
I’m also hopeful because of the work of Michael Emerson and company, because of the work of Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp (and other books of “Multiethnic Interest” published by InterVarsity Press), and because of the musical meditations of people Derek Webb and Lenny Kravitz, among others.
I close with a quote from Harris and Schaupp’s book, Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World (2004):
“Unaware/covert racism can operate despite our commitment to racial reconciliation, because we cannot see it very well. We whites are not aware of our own paritality; we don’t know how to look for it, so it is hidden from us. People of color feel something is not right, but it’s hard to name and describe. We white people want to excuse ourselves from it when it’s pointed out to us. It makes us appropriately uncomfortable to think about racism operating in our hearts and around us….we create other explanations for the inequity.
If we are going to uncover racism, we cannot be satisfied with easy answers. Scripture says, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:16). The word that is translated “wickedness” can also be translated “injustice.” If we continue to live in injustice or wickedness, what happens is that our thinking becomes cloudy….[w]hen we white people do not confront our own racism, we begin to put ourselves in God’s place. We don’t want to commit ourselves to learning to be simply human equals with people of color.
Underneath it all, we white people don’t want to do the hard work of uncovering the racism in our systems” (105).
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Accosting White Privilege, Interrogating Racism, and Practicing Pentecost
In Grand Rapids this past weekend, I had a striking encounter with white privilege.
The moment I witnessed involved questions about the nature and location of desserts and coffee on a refreshment table; in other words, the moment about which I write took place in a particular social setting, at the nexus of culture(s) and place(s). This story features "person one" and "person two."
All of a sudden, the ambiance of the moment was ruptured when person one assumed person two to be hired help for the event. Without even a kind word of greeting or hand extended in friendship, person one revealed that, to use the words of the Apostle Paul, “principalities and powers” are everywhere evident. As words were uttered unconscious racism couched in white privilege reared its ugly head. Very often, the inadvertent display of the unconscious objectifies the conscious. The simple and direct response to these unfortunate and rancid comments roundly condemned the privilege they subtly displayed.
Some of what I’ve been reading lately provides the intellectual framework and some spiritual tools needed to understand and interpret this noxious encounter with white privilege.
As a historian I know that race is a particular construction of particular cultures in particular times and in particular places; I also know that race has a particularly complex past in Euro-American history. As a historian, and as one who is shaped by the life of faith, I believe that the pursuit of earthbound responses to racism (and its legacies) is necessary and commendable. I am also persuaded that given the religious dynamics that exist in Euro-American history and culture(s), a profoundly religious response to racism (and its legacies) provides a way to address – in sacramental and devotional ways – the principalities and powers that manifest as white privilege.
Suffice all of this to say that not only have I read about practicing Pentecost and overcoming the legacy of inequality, I witnessed the embodiment of practicing Pentecost. May I have the grace and peace, to use the words of a close friend, to practice Pentecost and embody racial penance.
The moment I witnessed involved questions about the nature and location of desserts and coffee on a refreshment table; in other words, the moment about which I write took place in a particular social setting, at the nexus of culture(s) and place(s). This story features "person one" and "person two."
All of a sudden, the ambiance of the moment was ruptured when person one assumed person two to be hired help for the event. Without even a kind word of greeting or hand extended in friendship, person one revealed that, to use the words of the Apostle Paul, “principalities and powers” are everywhere evident. As words were uttered unconscious racism couched in white privilege reared its ugly head. Very often, the inadvertent display of the unconscious objectifies the conscious. The simple and direct response to these unfortunate and rancid comments roundly condemned the privilege they subtly displayed.
Some of what I’ve been reading lately provides the intellectual framework and some spiritual tools needed to understand and interpret this noxious encounter with white privilege.
As a historian I know that race is a particular construction of particular cultures in particular times and in particular places; I also know that race has a particularly complex past in Euro-American history. As a historian, and as one who is shaped by the life of faith, I believe that the pursuit of earthbound responses to racism (and its legacies) is necessary and commendable. I am also persuaded that given the religious dynamics that exist in Euro-American history and culture(s), a profoundly religious response to racism (and its legacies) provides a way to address – in sacramental and devotional ways – the principalities and powers that manifest as white privilege.
Suffice all of this to say that not only have I read about practicing Pentecost and overcoming the legacy of inequality, I witnessed the embodiment of practicing Pentecost. May I have the grace and peace, to use the words of a close friend, to practice Pentecost and embody racial penance.
Charting Evangelicalism’s Past, Forecasting Evangelicalism’s Future
I’ve been reflecting the last two or three days on the topics covered at the After Evangelicalism conference. The aim of the conference was to think collectively about evangelicalism’s future, and to reflect on the movement’s trajectories. While I was not present at every panel to hear every paper, I did have the good fortune to read several of the essays as I encouraged friends and colleagues to participate in this conference’s conversations. I hope to read other conference essays in the future. Please send them along if you happen to chance upon this blog.
Any observer of American public life in the last thirty years or so knows how visible (and in some ways invisible) evangelicalism is in the United States. From the year of the evangelical (1976 – actually the year prior to my birth), to the rise of the Religious Right, to Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments crusade, and to the public religious musings of the current President – expressions of evangelicalism, among many, many others, (cast in particularly white terms) – U.S. culture is seemingly saturated with varieties of religion, and to use James’s terms, “varieties of religious experience.” Thus evangelicalism’s recent history, and much of the historical reflection about evangelicalism, explores its political, economic, and social textures.
Yet, one may ask, what of evangelicalism’s future? What will evangelicalism look like in 50-100 years, and beyond? How will scholars write about evangelicalism? On what evangelical topics will scholars reflect? Why, at all, does it matter?
If the After Evangelicalism conference is any indication, then there will be some important and serious reflection on the nature of evangelicalism, and the contest over evangelicalism’s past will continue.
First, the topic of the conference itself: To propose a conference about “after” evangelicalism suggests that its current state and its (contested) past are open for discussion. Any brief survey of the books coming off evangelical (and secular) presses the last ten years or so indicates this is an important question. Just think about how many books about evangelicalism’s history have appeared even in the last decade. This interrogation of past and present is welcome and refreshing. As the conference itself suggests, evangelicalism is not the possession of the political right as some believe, nor is it inconsistent to be evangelical and on the Left. Nor, it seems, is evangelicalism a particularly "American" style of religion, though evangelicalism's global public image might lead one to believe otherwise - not to mention the social liabilities that come with evangelicalism's identity.
Second, the plenary addresses: The first plenary address suggested evangelicalism’s future would be shaped in large part by early Christianity and perhaps by the spiritual practices of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Another plenary addressed the question of evangelicalism and race within the nexus of history, while yet another (not delivered) suggested that, despite its “deconstruction,” confessional Protestantism has something to offer evangelicals inclined toward Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. A final plenary explored the importance of Christo-anthro-socio-logical thinking about how individuals embody Christianity. In sum, these plenary addresses suggest that the evangelicalism of the future will engage more thoughtfully with ecumenism, honestly grapple issues of race and ethnicity, and embrace more interdisciplinary thinking about its local and global presences. I am hopeful yet.
Third, the panels: One panel discussed evangelicals and higher education, another evangelicalism and blogging, yet another about evangelicalism and world Christianity, and a final panel discussed evangelicalism, worship, and art. The panel on evangelicals and higher education underscored the tension that some still hold between rigorous academic life and a pastoral/professorial posture in the classroom and beyond. About evangelicals and world Christianity, the panelists highlighted the diversity of expression in global evangelicalism and suggested that clearer global thinking is in order given the rise of Pentecostal and charismatic spirituality exploding in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, The panel on evangelicals, art, and worship pointed to the flexibility that evangelical worship could have – a more conscious aesthetic expression in things like art and even diverse utterances of the Spirit. I did not attend the panel on evangelicals and blogging, so I would invite responses by anyone in attendance and recommend the fascinating work of Bryan Murley on the topic. Collectively these panels suggest that, like its past history, evangelicalism has deftly employed today’s new media, must concern itself with global issues (here I do not mean “missionary” work), and may be flexible and pliable enough to inject more of an aesthetic into worship spaces.
Fourth, the individual papers: Several sessions dealt with the Emergent/Emerging church, and offered a variety of ways – in interdisciplinary terms – to understand this important strain of evangelicalism (or post-evangelicalism). Importantly, these papers were not “how-to” suggestions written by insiders, nor did these papers slice the work of practitioners with a theological knife. Rather, essayists on the Emergent church attempted (and succeeded, I think, though others can judge the validity of my paper) to socially, culturally, and historically locate Emergent expressions of Christianity. Other papers offered gendered reflection on evangelicalism’s future; some explored the intricacies of evangelicals and political/social engagement; and another session (I wish I could have gone to) thoughtfully addressed the critical issue of evangelicals and race. Strung together, the individual papers suggest that the future of evangelicalism is richly complex, not easily summarized or generalized, yet genuinely open to the possibilities the future may bring.
In sum I thought the conference was a “success” insofar as these topics were honestly discussed and rigorously engaged. Also notable were the large number of undergraduates present. I propose a hearty round of applause for the conference organizers and all those who helped. (Finished clapping), next year’s conference theme is “After 9/11” and is bound to result in some critical reflection.
Any observer of American public life in the last thirty years or so knows how visible (and in some ways invisible) evangelicalism is in the United States. From the year of the evangelical (1976 – actually the year prior to my birth), to the rise of the Religious Right, to Roy Moore’s Ten Commandments crusade, and to the public religious musings of the current President – expressions of evangelicalism, among many, many others, (cast in particularly white terms) – U.S. culture is seemingly saturated with varieties of religion, and to use James’s terms, “varieties of religious experience.” Thus evangelicalism’s recent history, and much of the historical reflection about evangelicalism, explores its political, economic, and social textures.
Yet, one may ask, what of evangelicalism’s future? What will evangelicalism look like in 50-100 years, and beyond? How will scholars write about evangelicalism? On what evangelical topics will scholars reflect? Why, at all, does it matter?
If the After Evangelicalism conference is any indication, then there will be some important and serious reflection on the nature of evangelicalism, and the contest over evangelicalism’s past will continue.
First, the topic of the conference itself: To propose a conference about “after” evangelicalism suggests that its current state and its (contested) past are open for discussion. Any brief survey of the books coming off evangelical (and secular) presses the last ten years or so indicates this is an important question. Just think about how many books about evangelicalism’s history have appeared even in the last decade. This interrogation of past and present is welcome and refreshing. As the conference itself suggests, evangelicalism is not the possession of the political right as some believe, nor is it inconsistent to be evangelical and on the Left. Nor, it seems, is evangelicalism a particularly "American" style of religion, though evangelicalism's global public image might lead one to believe otherwise - not to mention the social liabilities that come with evangelicalism's identity.
Second, the plenary addresses: The first plenary address suggested evangelicalism’s future would be shaped in large part by early Christianity and perhaps by the spiritual practices of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Another plenary addressed the question of evangelicalism and race within the nexus of history, while yet another (not delivered) suggested that, despite its “deconstruction,” confessional Protestantism has something to offer evangelicals inclined toward Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. A final plenary explored the importance of Christo-anthro-socio-logical thinking about how individuals embody Christianity. In sum, these plenary addresses suggest that the evangelicalism of the future will engage more thoughtfully with ecumenism, honestly grapple issues of race and ethnicity, and embrace more interdisciplinary thinking about its local and global presences. I am hopeful yet.
Third, the panels: One panel discussed evangelicals and higher education, another evangelicalism and blogging, yet another about evangelicalism and world Christianity, and a final panel discussed evangelicalism, worship, and art. The panel on evangelicals and higher education underscored the tension that some still hold between rigorous academic life and a pastoral/professorial posture in the classroom and beyond. About evangelicals and world Christianity, the panelists highlighted the diversity of expression in global evangelicalism and suggested that clearer global thinking is in order given the rise of Pentecostal and charismatic spirituality exploding in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, The panel on evangelicals, art, and worship pointed to the flexibility that evangelical worship could have – a more conscious aesthetic expression in things like art and even diverse utterances of the Spirit. I did not attend the panel on evangelicals and blogging, so I would invite responses by anyone in attendance and recommend the fascinating work of Bryan Murley on the topic. Collectively these panels suggest that, like its past history, evangelicalism has deftly employed today’s new media, must concern itself with global issues (here I do not mean “missionary” work), and may be flexible and pliable enough to inject more of an aesthetic into worship spaces.
Fourth, the individual papers: Several sessions dealt with the Emergent/Emerging church, and offered a variety of ways – in interdisciplinary terms – to understand this important strain of evangelicalism (or post-evangelicalism). Importantly, these papers were not “how-to” suggestions written by insiders, nor did these papers slice the work of practitioners with a theological knife. Rather, essayists on the Emergent church attempted (and succeeded, I think, though others can judge the validity of my paper) to socially, culturally, and historically locate Emergent expressions of Christianity. Other papers offered gendered reflection on evangelicalism’s future; some explored the intricacies of evangelicals and political/social engagement; and another session (I wish I could have gone to) thoughtfully addressed the critical issue of evangelicals and race. Strung together, the individual papers suggest that the future of evangelicalism is richly complex, not easily summarized or generalized, yet genuinely open to the possibilities the future may bring.
In sum I thought the conference was a “success” insofar as these topics were honestly discussed and rigorously engaged. Also notable were the large number of undergraduates present. I propose a hearty round of applause for the conference organizers and all those who helped. (Finished clapping), next year’s conference theme is “After 9/11” and is bound to result in some critical reflection.
Monday, September 19, 2005
After the After Evangelicalism Conference
I arrived home yesterday from my fifth conference this year, the After Evangelicalism conference held at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I presented a paper on the Emergent church and global Christianity and some of my research on evangelical ecumenicity. I received some engaging questions and helpful feedback. Contact me if you wish to read a copy of either (or both) papers, though I will probably eventually post them at the thinktank.
While it is always nice to present research at conferences, it was especially nice at this conference to meet and hang with fellow blogger-scholars: Anthony, Steve, Bryan, and Keelan. Come to find out, we are all younger evangelicals with ancient-future perspectives of various kinds. The journey has only just begun.
I also shared a brief conversation with another blogger-scholar: Scot. Unfortunately, Lauran was not able to make it to the conference, but those interested should contact her about some fascinating research on gender and the Emergent church. Also unfortunate was the cancelled flights of D.G. Hart, who was to deliver one of the plenary address. At least copies of his paper were made available.
Another highlight was to hear and hang out with Robert Webber. Not only are his thoughts challenging, revolutionary, and worthy of wide attention, he's a delightful soul. In addition, it was a pleasure meeting and talking with Latina evangelical and scholar Arlene Sanchez Walsh. I appreciated her challenging words with respect to the Latino/a presence in evangelicalism's narrative, and her call for (younger) scholars tell the stories of Latino/a evangelicals. All should read her work and listen to her wit and wisdom.
I also read through the galley proofs of Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibb's book on Emerging churches, due out with Baker in December. It was a quick read, and helpful for further defining and articulating the movement.
While it is always nice to present research at conferences, it was especially nice at this conference to meet and hang with fellow blogger-scholars: Anthony, Steve, Bryan, and Keelan. Come to find out, we are all younger evangelicals with ancient-future perspectives of various kinds. The journey has only just begun.
I also shared a brief conversation with another blogger-scholar: Scot. Unfortunately, Lauran was not able to make it to the conference, but those interested should contact her about some fascinating research on gender and the Emergent church. Also unfortunate was the cancelled flights of D.G. Hart, who was to deliver one of the plenary address. At least copies of his paper were made available.
Another highlight was to hear and hang out with Robert Webber. Not only are his thoughts challenging, revolutionary, and worthy of wide attention, he's a delightful soul. In addition, it was a pleasure meeting and talking with Latina evangelical and scholar Arlene Sanchez Walsh. I appreciated her challenging words with respect to the Latino/a presence in evangelicalism's narrative, and her call for (younger) scholars tell the stories of Latino/a evangelicals. All should read her work and listen to her wit and wisdom.
I also read through the galley proofs of Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibb's book on Emerging churches, due out with Baker in December. It was a quick read, and helpful for further defining and articulating the movement.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Pruitt Symposium on World Christianity
The conference schedule is now on-line. I give my paper the first day of the conference, and my session, unfortunately, conflicts with one of Lamin Sanneh's presentations. At least I'll get to hear his plenary address.
School's Back in Session, Part 2
In my last post I mentioned the start of the school year; I will soon administer quizzes to students, so it is only appropriate that I take a few myself. After all, every good teacher models the assignment, right?
I took 3 quizzes in all: "Which theologian are you?," "What's your theological worldview?," and "What is your model of the church?" The results were interesting: I'm Jonathan Edwards, I have an Emergent/Postmodern worldview, and I prefer a sacramental church.
Given an article I'm writing on the Emergent church, it is funny to discover this fact. Though I prefer a sacramental church, I don't attend one. The Jonathan Edwards identification is the most interesting, since I wrote my M.A. thesis on Jonathan Edwards, have researched the man and his times exhaustively, and am featuring Edwards in a large way in my dissertation.
There's a larger connection here, though, and I think Edwards would probably score as Emergent/Postmodern and sacramental as well. He sought to reframe Enlightenment thought for theological ends (i.e., speak the language of his times) and, among other things, Edwards was kicked out of his church in 1750 after narrowing the door for church membership and thereby making Communion a more serious matter (i.e., sacramentalism). The work of Edwards scholar Gerald McDermott wonderfully explains all of this in an eighteenth-century context, as does historian Robert Brown.
I took 3 quizzes in all: "Which theologian are you?," "What's your theological worldview?," and "What is your model of the church?" The results were interesting: I'm Jonathan Edwards, I have an Emergent/Postmodern worldview, and I prefer a sacramental church.
Given an article I'm writing on the Emergent church, it is funny to discover this fact. Though I prefer a sacramental church, I don't attend one. The Jonathan Edwards identification is the most interesting, since I wrote my M.A. thesis on Jonathan Edwards, have researched the man and his times exhaustively, and am featuring Edwards in a large way in my dissertation.
There's a larger connection here, though, and I think Edwards would probably score as Emergent/Postmodern and sacramental as well. He sought to reframe Enlightenment thought for theological ends (i.e., speak the language of his times) and, among other things, Edwards was kicked out of his church in 1750 after narrowing the door for church membership and thereby making Communion a more serious matter (i.e., sacramentalism). The work of Edwards scholar Gerald McDermott wonderfully explains all of this in an eighteenth-century context, as does historian Robert Brown.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
School's Back in Session
Today I return to school for a week-long inservice before the kids come back. Also, next week I start another semester, my last semester of doctoral coursework in history, at the University of Houston. It was a busy, fun, and quick summer, and on this day of new beginnings I'm in a bit of a reflective mood. Thus I'd like to post some thoughts about my trip to Morocco this summer. I penned these mediatations for a little publication that will go out to the parents of some of my students. For what it's worth.....
Meditations on Morocco: Finding History in Africa and Africa in History
By: Phil Sinitiere
I always wanted to go to Africa. This desire originated when I read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in college (though I reject the imperial and racist outlook of Conrad's time and the hubris of his age that continues to rear its ugly head in our own time) and continued with teaching about Africa in world history classes. More recently, graduate classes in African history at the University of Houston and my involvement with last year’s Interdisciplinary Core program on Sudan inspired my interest in Africa even more. I got a chance to visit Morocco during the summer of 2005.
Interestingly, the occasion of my visit involved Second Baptist School (SBS). I presented a paper on teaching Sudan at the annual World History Association (WHA) meeting held at Al-Akhawayn University in the resort town of Ifrane. My paper summarized SBS’s Core program from the 2004-05 year and offered five additional ways to teach Sudan in a world history context. Thus the paper integrated uniquely my teaching experience at SBS with my doctoral work at the University of Houston. Fittingly, one theme of this year’s conference was “Africa in World History.”
Started in 1984 and currently based at the University of Hawaii, the WHA aims to bring high school history teachers into conversation with professional academics and historians. Meetings not only canvass the latest theories of academic world history, but also offer innovative ways to teach world history; international presenters are both college professors and high school teachers. In addition, to reflect the global nature and importance of teaching world history, the WHA annual meeting is held at an international location every three years. The WHA chose South Korea and Italy to hold previous meetings, and will convene in London in 2008.
Though I’ve known about the WHA for several years and regularly read the Association’s publication, Journal of World History, this was my first time to attend an annual meeting. I’d like to share four things that stand out about my visit to Morocco.
The first notable thing about this year’s WHA meeting was the truly international flavor of the conference. Not only did I attend sessions that covered the history of North Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, and the Caribbean, for example, but I also met other scholars and teachers from Brazil, Australia, France, England, Pakistan, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand, Morocco, and of course a large contingent from the United States. It was a joy to both share with and learn from such a diverse group of scholars and teachers.
Another notable aspect of the WHA meeting was the focus on teaching. Professional academics often receive criticism for lack of engagement with the “real world,” but this did not characterize the attendees at all. The conference struck a balance between the latest scholarly trends in world history and the most effective ways to bring such perspectives to the classroom. For example, I heard presentations and had discussions about the creation of textbook assignments, ways to assess student achievement, the integration of technology in the classroom, and how to make history “relevant” to students. With the global nature of today’s world and the rapidity at which human communication now occurs, I am more convinced than ever that teaching world history is one of the best ways to inform students about the past and engage them with the present. In addition, I will be working with the history department at SBS to explore ways in which U.S. history and Government and Economics curriculum might continue to reflect a more global outlook.
Another highlight of this year’s WHA conference was the opportunity to meet Professor Jerry Bentley, the author of Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, the textbook used in SBS world history classes. Professor Bentley teaches at the University of Hawaii and is one of the pioneers of the academic field of world history. He helped to spearhedad the WHA, he’s authored one of the leading world history textbooks, he’s the editor of the Journal of World History, he’s a College Board consultant for the AP World History curriculum, and he’s a regular reader for the AP World History exam. One top of this exhaustive work, I can attest to the fact that Professor Bentley is eminently approachable and ready and willing to offer his wealth of knowledge about teaching world history.
Finally, WHA conference organizers arranged a tour for attendees to the ancient trading city of Fez. Situated several thousand feet above sea level, Fez is considered the spiritual capital of Morocco. Arab Berber settlers founded Fez in the early ninth century, and the city still displays impressive varieties of merchant activity. Another striking feature about Fez is the narrow streets. This means, of course, that transportation comes by walking or with the use of animals and visitors often have to negotiate space with cart-drawn donkeys. In addition business transactions, residents of and visitors to Fez encounter over 365 mosques and a number of important madersas, schools where students learn the Koran. Sights (and smells and sounds) likes these give the city an ancient feel. Interestingly enough, my visit to Fez reinforced a theme from this year’s WHA conference: “Africa in world history.”
Meditations on Morocco: Finding History in Africa and Africa in History
By: Phil Sinitiere
I always wanted to go to Africa. This desire originated when I read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in college (though I reject the imperial and racist outlook of Conrad's time and the hubris of his age that continues to rear its ugly head in our own time) and continued with teaching about Africa in world history classes. More recently, graduate classes in African history at the University of Houston and my involvement with last year’s Interdisciplinary Core program on Sudan inspired my interest in Africa even more. I got a chance to visit Morocco during the summer of 2005.
Interestingly, the occasion of my visit involved Second Baptist School (SBS). I presented a paper on teaching Sudan at the annual World History Association (WHA) meeting held at Al-Akhawayn University in the resort town of Ifrane. My paper summarized SBS’s Core program from the 2004-05 year and offered five additional ways to teach Sudan in a world history context. Thus the paper integrated uniquely my teaching experience at SBS with my doctoral work at the University of Houston. Fittingly, one theme of this year’s conference was “Africa in World History.”
Started in 1984 and currently based at the University of Hawaii, the WHA aims to bring high school history teachers into conversation with professional academics and historians. Meetings not only canvass the latest theories of academic world history, but also offer innovative ways to teach world history; international presenters are both college professors and high school teachers. In addition, to reflect the global nature and importance of teaching world history, the WHA annual meeting is held at an international location every three years. The WHA chose South Korea and Italy to hold previous meetings, and will convene in London in 2008.
Though I’ve known about the WHA for several years and regularly read the Association’s publication, Journal of World History, this was my first time to attend an annual meeting. I’d like to share four things that stand out about my visit to Morocco.
The first notable thing about this year’s WHA meeting was the truly international flavor of the conference. Not only did I attend sessions that covered the history of North Africa, Europe, India, Latin America, and the Caribbean, for example, but I also met other scholars and teachers from Brazil, Australia, France, England, Pakistan, Turkey, Norway, New Zealand, Morocco, and of course a large contingent from the United States. It was a joy to both share with and learn from such a diverse group of scholars and teachers.
Another notable aspect of the WHA meeting was the focus on teaching. Professional academics often receive criticism for lack of engagement with the “real world,” but this did not characterize the attendees at all. The conference struck a balance between the latest scholarly trends in world history and the most effective ways to bring such perspectives to the classroom. For example, I heard presentations and had discussions about the creation of textbook assignments, ways to assess student achievement, the integration of technology in the classroom, and how to make history “relevant” to students. With the global nature of today’s world and the rapidity at which human communication now occurs, I am more convinced than ever that teaching world history is one of the best ways to inform students about the past and engage them with the present. In addition, I will be working with the history department at SBS to explore ways in which U.S. history and Government and Economics curriculum might continue to reflect a more global outlook.
Another highlight of this year’s WHA conference was the opportunity to meet Professor Jerry Bentley, the author of Traditions and Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, the textbook used in SBS world history classes. Professor Bentley teaches at the University of Hawaii and is one of the pioneers of the academic field of world history. He helped to spearhedad the WHA, he’s authored one of the leading world history textbooks, he’s the editor of the Journal of World History, he’s a College Board consultant for the AP World History curriculum, and he’s a regular reader for the AP World History exam. One top of this exhaustive work, I can attest to the fact that Professor Bentley is eminently approachable and ready and willing to offer his wealth of knowledge about teaching world history.
Finally, WHA conference organizers arranged a tour for attendees to the ancient trading city of Fez. Situated several thousand feet above sea level, Fez is considered the spiritual capital of Morocco. Arab Berber settlers founded Fez in the early ninth century, and the city still displays impressive varieties of merchant activity. Another striking feature about Fez is the narrow streets. This means, of course, that transportation comes by walking or with the use of animals and visitors often have to negotiate space with cart-drawn donkeys. In addition business transactions, residents of and visitors to Fez encounter over 365 mosques and a number of important madersas, schools where students learn the Koran. Sights (and smells and sounds) likes these give the city an ancient feel. Interestingly enough, my visit to Fez reinforced a theme from this year’s WHA conference: “Africa in world history.”
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
In Memorium: Dr. John Garang
With sadness, I report the death of Dr. John Garang, the leader of the SPLM/A (Southern People's Liberation Movement/Army) movement in Sudan. Dr. Garang's leadership over the last 22 years, and especially negotiating the recent peace treaty with the Khartoum government, is noteworthy and important.
On Sunday night, July 31, I had the privilege to be a guest of honor at the SPLM/A celebration in Houston, to commemorate the struggle for the "New Sudan." It was a time of great celebration for the movement, and really a time of great hope for the future. Speakers heaped great praise upon "Dr. John" for his leadership. Little did we all now how important those words actually were.
See more about Dr. John Garang here.
On Sunday night, July 31, I had the privilege to be a guest of honor at the SPLM/A celebration in Houston, to commemorate the struggle for the "New Sudan." It was a time of great celebration for the movement, and really a time of great hope for the future. Speakers heaped great praise upon "Dr. John" for his leadership. Little did we all now how important those words actually were.
See more about Dr. John Garang here.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Drinking Coffee
At the mother-in-law's today I came across this little blurb about coffee in a cookbook from Louisiana. So, sit down with a cup of coffee and enjoy this quote from Picayune Creole Cookbook, 13th ed. (Times-Picayune Publishing Company: New Orleans, 1966). In a chapter titled "Creole Coffee," it reads:
"When you have produced a rich, fragrant concoction, whose delightful aroma, filling the room, is a constant, tempting invitation to taste it, serve in fine china cups, using in preference loaf sugar for sweetening....[t]he milk should always be boiled, and the cream very hot" (pp. 1-2).
Though one probably would neither hear nor read this in any coffee advertisement these days, here's to all of the coffee drinkers in the blogosphere. And, of course, make sure the coffee you enjoy is fair trade coffee.
"When you have produced a rich, fragrant concoction, whose delightful aroma, filling the room, is a constant, tempting invitation to taste it, serve in fine china cups, using in preference loaf sugar for sweetening....[t]he milk should always be boiled, and the cream very hot" (pp. 1-2).
Though one probably would neither hear nor read this in any coffee advertisement these days, here's to all of the coffee drinkers in the blogosphere. And, of course, make sure the coffee you enjoy is fair trade coffee.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Back from Morocco; Family; Conference
I'm back from Morocco now, and had a nice interesting time. My presentation on Sudan went very well, and I had some critical but constructive feedback from an outstanding scholar, Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk of the International Islamic University, Malaysia. I met and spoke with scholars and teachers from places like Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, and India. The day after the conference a group of attendees visited the ancient trading city of Fez, built in the ninth century. I have a slide presentation with all sorts of fascinating pictures, but I'm going to post it soon along with an essay I'm writing about the trip.
In other news, I finished teaching my summer school course last week and am enjoying my summer vacation with the wife and kids. It is nice to just hang out for at least a few weeks. Jenni and I find out what we are having (our 3rd child is due in December) in two short weeks.
This brief respite from teaching has also afforded me the time to catch up on some overdue book reviews for various journals, continue reading for my independent readings course on Central Africa, and work on several conference papers. I found out recently that two proposals of mine were accepted for the After Evangelicalism? conference in Grand Rapids, September 15-17. I've organized a panel (or, rather, several panels) on the Emerging Church with several fellow grad students, a theologian, and one practitioner. It should be an interesting conference.
In other news, I finished teaching my summer school course last week and am enjoying my summer vacation with the wife and kids. It is nice to just hang out for at least a few weeks. Jenni and I find out what we are having (our 3rd child is due in December) in two short weeks.
This brief respite from teaching has also afforded me the time to catch up on some overdue book reviews for various journals, continue reading for my independent readings course on Central Africa, and work on several conference papers. I found out recently that two proposals of mine were accepted for the After Evangelicalism? conference in Grand Rapids, September 15-17. I've organized a panel (or, rather, several panels) on the Emerging Church with several fellow grad students, a theologian, and one practitioner. It should be an interesting conference.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Photojournalism in Sudan
Though I've seen his material sevearl times, I think it is worth posting. A 2002 graduate of Calvin College, Ryan Spencer Reed has some moving on-line photo exhibits of his travels to Sudan.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
World History Association in Morocco
The WHA just posted a tentative program for this year's meeting in Morocco. The conference has a great mix of panels on new directions in research and discussions about teaching world history.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
New Book on Sudan
Just noticed that journalist Gabriel Meyer has a forthcoming book with Eerdmans, War and Faith in Sudan. Francis Deng, a Dinka and longtime U.S. diplomat, wrote the forward. Kudos to Eerdmans for engaging this important topic.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Summer Goings-on (Part II); Sudan
I forgot to mention several other books I'm giving my students the option of reading. In my opinion these are some of the most important books on the list. They all read Francis Bok's Escape from Slavery for a school-wide interdisciplinary program last year, so I hope my students choose one or more of these other books on Sudan: Mark Bixler, The Lost Boys of Sudan: An American Story of the Refugee Experience, Abraham Nhial and DiAnn Mills, Lost Boy No More, Joan Hecht, The Journey of the Lost Boys, and Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng, Benjamin Ajak, with Judy Bernstein, The Poured Fire on Us from the Sky: The True Story of Three Lost Boys from Sudan.
Bringing public attention to the situation in (southern) Sudan and Darfur (western Sudan) is something I'm committed to and passionate about, so I try to find as many ways to bring this into the classroom as possible.
These books all give a nice historical overview of what's going on in Sudan. For another perspective on the conflict, read Mende Nazer's (a Nuer [southwest Sudan] woman who is Muslim) memoir called Slave. There are also currently three documentaries about the "Lost Boys": Lost Boys of Sudan, Not Lost: From South Sudan to North Texas, and A Great Wonder: Lost Children of Sudan. I've not seen the third one (it is too expensive at $85), but I would recommend Not Lost, as it captures the historical dynamics of the conflict and effectively presents the human side of Sudanese life in America.
And speaking of Sudan, I found out this morning that an essay I wrote on Sudan was accepted for presentation at the Sudan Studies Association meeting in August. Given the scale of events in Sudan right now, this meeting will be especially important in terms of current scholarship, advocacy, and action.
Bringing public attention to the situation in (southern) Sudan and Darfur (western Sudan) is something I'm committed to and passionate about, so I try to find as many ways to bring this into the classroom as possible.
These books all give a nice historical overview of what's going on in Sudan. For another perspective on the conflict, read Mende Nazer's (a Nuer [southwest Sudan] woman who is Muslim) memoir called Slave. There are also currently three documentaries about the "Lost Boys": Lost Boys of Sudan, Not Lost: From South Sudan to North Texas, and A Great Wonder: Lost Children of Sudan. I've not seen the third one (it is too expensive at $85), but I would recommend Not Lost, as it captures the historical dynamics of the conflict and effectively presents the human side of Sudanese life in America.
And speaking of Sudan, I found out this morning that an essay I wrote on Sudan was accepted for presentation at the Sudan Studies Association meeting in August. Given the scale of events in Sudan right now, this meeting will be especially important in terms of current scholarship, advocacy, and action.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Summer Goings-on
Returned from the CTS convention late last night after a cancelled flight and a lot of waiting in the Atlanta airport. I understand it's the busiest airport in the world, and after witnessing the surges of people here and there, I can see why.
The conference went well, I thought, and it was an interesting experience being among theologians, priests, and several nuns. I had a number of good conversations about teaching. Apparently the CTS gives annual awards for books and articles, and the two award winners, Bill Portier and William Shea, both wrote on topics dealing with "evangelical Catholics." My conference paper examined the other side of the coin -- "catholic evangelicals." I hope the conversation continues at next year's meeting.
Groggy-eyed but caffinated, this morning I began my annual summer gig -- teaching a 6-week U.S. history course to high school students who wish to get ahead. I give students the option of reading an outside book for extra credit; they have to write a 5-page book report and then I give an oral evaluation/discussion/quiz for each book. In addition to Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, I've added some new books to this summer's list: Roy Moore's So Help Me God, Stephen Mansfield's The Faith of the American Soldier, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's To Baghdad and Beyond: How I Got Born Again in Babylon, and Cornel West's Democracy Matters.
The conference went well, I thought, and it was an interesting experience being among theologians, priests, and several nuns. I had a number of good conversations about teaching. Apparently the CTS gives annual awards for books and articles, and the two award winners, Bill Portier and William Shea, both wrote on topics dealing with "evangelical Catholics." My conference paper examined the other side of the coin -- "catholic evangelicals." I hope the conversation continues at next year's meeting.
Groggy-eyed but caffinated, this morning I began my annual summer gig -- teaching a 6-week U.S. history course to high school students who wish to get ahead. I give students the option of reading an outside book for extra credit; they have to write a 5-page book report and then I give an oral evaluation/discussion/quiz for each book. In addition to Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, I've added some new books to this summer's list: Roy Moore's So Help Me God, Stephen Mansfield's The Faith of the American Soldier, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove's To Baghdad and Beyond: How I Got Born Again in Babylon, and Cornel West's Democracy Matters.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Conferences
Today I received word that my paper, "Global Pedagogy: Locating World Christianity in the Classroom," was accepted for presentation in November at the Pruit Memorial Symposium at Baylor University entitled "Global Christianity: Challenging Modernity and the West."
In the paper I discuss a class I taught, "The Future of Christianity," during the 2003-04 at Second Baptist School. This class explored the reasons for and dynamics of the explosive growth of Christianity throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The second half of this essay assesses the state of what one might call world Christianity historiography, the importance of bringing this to the classroom, and how the topic of world Christianity fits into a "religion in world history" framework.
I'm also putting the finishing touches on another teaching essay of mine, "Africa in World History and World History in Africa: Sudanese Dimensions in the Classroom," scheduled for presentation on June 28 at the annual World History Association conference, to be held this year at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrance, Morocco. I plan to blog daily while there. Stay tuned.
This essay describes some curriculum I created in the fall of 2004 at Second Baptist School that surrounded the expereinces of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan. The latter portions of this paper suggest several ways that teaching Sudan fits within a world history framework.
In the paper I discuss a class I taught, "The Future of Christianity," during the 2003-04 at Second Baptist School. This class explored the reasons for and dynamics of the explosive growth of Christianity throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The second half of this essay assesses the state of what one might call world Christianity historiography, the importance of bringing this to the classroom, and how the topic of world Christianity fits into a "religion in world history" framework.
I'm also putting the finishing touches on another teaching essay of mine, "Africa in World History and World History in Africa: Sudanese Dimensions in the Classroom," scheduled for presentation on June 28 at the annual World History Association conference, to be held this year at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrance, Morocco. I plan to blog daily while there. Stay tuned.
This essay describes some curriculum I created in the fall of 2004 at Second Baptist School that surrounded the expereinces of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan. The latter portions of this paper suggest several ways that teaching Sudan fits within a world history framework.
Research and Writing
I'm in the process of revising a paper for presentation on Sunday at the Collge Theology Society conference in Mobile, Alabama. I've never presented at a "theology" conference, so it will be interesting to mingle as a historian. The paper features some research I did on Protestant evangelicals and the use of ancient Christianity to construct religious identity.
I met the session commentator, Daniel Van Slyke at the Conference on Faith and History meeting last October in Michigan. I'm also presenting alongside a good friend and mentor Mike McClymond, a professor at Saint Louis University. Mike's newest book, Familiar Stranger, just received a Christianity Today book award.
I met the session commentator, Daniel Van Slyke at the Conference on Faith and History meeting last October in Michigan. I'm also presenting alongside a good friend and mentor Mike McClymond, a professor at Saint Louis University. Mike's newest book, Familiar Stranger, just received a Christianity Today book award.
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