On the Emerging Paradigm: Visible for well over a hundred years

 

“Our first task in reimagining religion, then, is to move from the narrowly tribal, where our story is the only story, to a wider definition of “tribe” that can embrace stories other than our own, told by people who are different from us.” Alan Jones, Reimagining Christianity (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons), Page 16

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Thus, the Bible is not God’s unique Word to mankind. Rather, it’s just one of many “equally valid fantasies.” It is not literally true, but is one of many “great works of imagination but are diminished when taken to exclude others as literally true.” At least he rightly acknowledges that his belief system is rooted in fantasy. Sadly, he equates that fantasy with God’s Word and the equally relevant religious books of Islam, Hinduism and Baha’i.

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Jones captures the essence of the interspiritual movement which is gaining popularity through Emergent teaching. That move is the eradication of a uniquely “Christian” set of doctrines by the intermarriage of them with those of other religions. In short, it is the full-frontal assault against salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. In this new religion, Jesus is not the only savior and his story is not the only valid story. Instead, each is a mere reflection of the other; and all are telling the same story while using different names. None are understood to be mutually exclusive. He notes

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“Stories about a Muslim or Christian heaven are great works of imagination but are diminished when taken to exclude others as literally true. They banish other equally valid fantasies about a realm that can never be described.” Pages 163-164.

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 Thus, the Bible is not God’s unique Word to mankind. Rather, it’s just one of many “equally valid fantasies.” It is not literally true, but is one of many “great works of imagination but are diminished when taken to exclude others as literally true.” At least he rightly acknowledges that his belief system is rooted in fantasy. Sadly, he equates that fantasy with God’s Word and the equally relevant religious books of Islam, Hinduism and Baha’i.

http://www.returningking.com/?p=280

The writer of the excerpt above is not an advocate of an emergent Christianity. Baha’is would not apply the words “fantasy” and “works of imagination” to the revelations of the Manifestations of God, but the the words used to describe the next world or even God can only be metaphorical. The very emergence of an emergent Christianity is a reflection of reflected light coming from the revelation of Baha’u'llah in this day. -gw

Marcus Borg [(2003). The Heart of Christianity. HarperSanFrancisco. pp. 6, 13] defines the word emerging. Emerging Christianity or “the emerging paradigm has been visible for well over a hundred years. In the last twenty to thirty years, it has become a major grassroots movement among both laity and clergy in “mainline” or old mainline Protestant denominations. The emerging paradigm’s central features are a response to the enlightenment. Borg describes it as “a way of seeing the Bible (and the Christian tradition as a whole): historical, metaphorical, and sacramental. And a way of seeing the Christian life: relational and transformational.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_church#.22Emerging.22_versus_.22Emergent.22

Image: Uploaded on July 23, 2008 by depone on flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Note: I have elaborated on my comments since first posted. -gw