C. Michael Patton announces the death of The Emergent Church. He certainly has some interesting points.
Let me know what you think. Whenever the topic came up in discussions with folks I know, I usually would just say, "Talk to me in 25 years. If it's still around then, at that point we can have a discussion about it." The test of time is one of the best indicators of the validity of anything.
I think I just have a hard time taking seriously a movement that just seems to be a recycled version of early 20th century liberalism. We all know where that led us. If it has something new to offer, it will probably last the test of time and at that point let's take it seriously and talk about it.
Read Michael's post. I'd like to know what you think.
3 comments:
Here's one interesting thought experiment: if everyone had said "talk to me in 25 years" would the movement still be alive and kickin' in that time? In other words, might the critique be part of the means of the death?
I know you probably don't mean that comment literally, but the above is at least food for thought.
JT
JT,
Yeah, I think you are right. I just personally felt that I had bigger fish to fry. I know my comment isn't the most intellectually robust, but my observation from afar was that it would implode upon itself perhaps even without much critique simply because of a lack of evangelism. That's not to say that your critique along with others was not important, but just for me, I couldn't justify in my mind putting much time into it. I have Tony Jones' book. Still haven't read it, but perhaps I will one day.
Do you agree with Michael's assessment?
Good news indeed (if true, which, sadly, it's not).
Post a Comment