THOUGHTS ON THE EMERGING CHURCH #2

One of my strongest beliefs which I have posted on FB before and commented on elsewhere is that theology is possibly one of the worst things that ever is happened to Christianity.

From my observation, theologies generally develop out of limited human understandings of portions of the Bible and quite often in response or reaction to a perceived lack of or excess of emphasis in someone else’s theological position.
Also from my observation quite often persons ties to their theological positions are more emotional than intellectual (which can be discussed other than here but which I believe is critical to be understood in this discussion) which is why they so often result in the type of "ugly confrontations" which you suggest and which from your comment I trust that you abhor as much as I do.

As to the larger issue of the emergence of the Emerging Church movement, from my perspective I see it to be nothing other than the most recent of these "ugly confrontations," and in this case more of a confrontation being thrust upon the Emergents by those of (what I would call) the "Anti-Emergent" movement than of a
mutually engaged upon confrontation.

The thing that MUST be understood is that it is these not decades long, not centuries long, but millennium long ongoing ugly theological confrontations which cause, result from and perpetuate the hostile divisive climate within the church which gives rise to the aversion to dogmatic theology which has resulted in our day in the movement which has come to be known as the Emerging Church.

Two questions with which God confronted me some time ago and required me to come to grips; and which my coming to grips with has completely transformed my approach to theology and my understanding of its place in the church; and with which I believe it would be well for all who fancy themselves to be theologically oriented to come to grips are these: Is God somehow restricted to exist and function within the narrow limits of our human theological understandings? And, do I have more faith in my theology about God than I have in the God who my theology is supposed to be about?

I do not purport to be conservative or liberal in my theological orientation; I have friends and enemies alike across the full range of the theological spectrum. I seek the truth from the Bible as it is to be found regardless of the questions it raises, the conclusions it suggests or whether the truth as I discover it fits comfortably within unsettling, challengingly, far afield from traditional Christian theology.
From this approach to the scriptures an observation which came to me a number of years ago was this: when I read in scripture of Jesus telling Peter that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against the church and yet I see the relative little impact that the church seems to be having in the world today I am left to choose one of two conclusions, either Jesus is lying to us, or there is something very wrong with the way the church is going about being the church; and I don’t think that Jesus is lying to us.

It is not that theology needs to be abandoned altogether, for theology does have its place. But perhaps the time has come for the church to seek out a “still more excellent way” of being the church in the world. Perhaps rather than looking at the Emerging Church movement as a threat to traditional Christianity to be beaten back at all costs we ought to understand the movement at least as the voice of a people seeking out a more complete and “still more excellent way” where in that which has been passed down through the ages as dogmatic theological truth becomes incarnated into the daily living of the people of God in the world; if not perhaps the instrument God, young and imperfect as it may be, shining a light into the darkness, Illuminating a pathway, even if yet dimly, of a still more excellent way of loving our God with the totality of our being, and of loving our neighbors even as we love ourselves.