Friday, March 10, 2006

What if...

My good friend and cousin, James, wonders: "What if we abandoned the religion of Jesus for the religion of the Bible or the religion of Christianity?"

On the other hand, I can't help but wonder...

What if a group of people became disaffected with the Jesus-followers who came before them and decided that they knew better? What if youthful zeal combined with the afterglow of post-Nietzschean pop-culture and formed a new religion which claimed to be faithful to the old religion long-forgotten? What if the warm-fuzzies then created by discovering the "real Christianity" turned into historical snobbery and together with revisionist history, a disdain for doctrine, and a love for philosophizing about all things ethereal created a grass-roots movement from within "broader evangelicalism"?

I wonder what that would look like... I wonder if they'd be any closer to truth than the "cold", "doctrine-consumed" modern church that came before them, that they disdain so much?

1 comment:

Rielly said...

Jules,

I am assuming that the "what-if" your speaking about is rhetorical...and you are speaking about the "Emergent Church".

I've gone through your friend's blogs, and there seems to be a common thread...Down with the Emergent Church! I am not for or against...I am just wondering what is it actually about the Emergent Church that is so bad? From my perspective, it just seems to be about different ways to do ministry and speak to different kinds of people. I've noticed some people speak of it as though it is an enemy to historical Christianity, and could lead to heresy, so on and so forth.

So what's the big deal man?