WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE EMERGENT CHURCH?

Plenty, according to one Wheaton grad and New York Times employee. From the column: Because emergent beliefs are so amorphous—as a result of complying to postmodernism—it is impossible for its teachers to assert their beliefs absolutely. As a result, real conviction is one of the great casualties of emergence. Writers such as Brian McClaren, Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Peter Rollins, and Rob Bell are quick to write off historical doctrines and hesitant to assert anything other than approximate truths. Thus the emergent tone is dismissive, even when under the guise of profundity. And many of the challenges and inconsistencies of the emergent movement stem from the fact that it has intentionally not built itself on any foundation—an effort to avoid proposition, metanarrative, and tradition (First Things).