The New Christians Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

by Jones, Tony

• ISBN13: 9780470455395
• ISBN10: 047045539X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-20
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

What the "Emergent Church Movement" is all about-and why it matters to the future of ChristianityFollowing on the questions raised by Brian McLaren in A New Kind of Christian, Tony Jones has written an engaging exploration of what this new kind of Christianity looks like. Writing "dispatches" about the thinking and practices of adventurous Emergent Christians across the country, he offers an in-depth view of this new "third way" of faith-its origins, its theology, and its views of truth, scripture and interpretation, and the Emergent movement's hopeful and life-giving sense of community. With the depth of theological expertise and broad perspective he has gained as a pastor, writer, and leader of the movement, Jones initiates readers into the Emergent conversation and offers a new way forward for Christians in a post-Christian world. With journalistic narrative as well as authoritative reflection, he draws upon on-site research to provide fascinating examples and firsthand stories of who is doing what, where, and why it matters.

Author Biography

Tony Jones (tonyj.net) is the author of many books on Christian ministry and spirituality, including The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life. He is a theologian-in-residence at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis and a doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Tony is a sought-after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality. Tony has three children and lives in Edina, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

"A Living Way: Emergent Visions" Series Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Introduction: What Is "Emergent"?	p. xvii
Leaving the Old Country	p. 1
"Church Is Dead"	p. 4
Signs of Death-and Life	p. 5
The Problem on the Left	p. 7
A Case Study: Go Where I Send Thee	p. 10
The Problem on the Right	p. 11
A Case Study: Don't Ask Us About the Chickens	p. 13
The Real Problem: Left Versus Right	p. 18
Caught in the Crossfire	p. 21
Dispatch from the Blogosphere: Musings of a Postmodern Negro	p. 24
Dispatches from the Frontier of the American Church	p. 31
An Allegory	p. 31
An Alternative Ending	p. 33
Geological Musings	p. 35
What Exactly Is Emerging?	p. 37
The Beginnings	p. 41
"The Bible Is Propaganda"	p. 43
The New Kind of Christian Effect	p. 49
Meanwhile, Across the Pond	p. 52
Then till Now	p. 55
The Church's Choice	p. 57
Dispatch from the Rocky Mountains: Katie and Kristen	p. 60
Who Are the Emergent Christians?	p. 67
Hunches and Intuitions	p. 68
Influencing Culture or Influenced by Culture?	p. 72
An "Envelope of Friendship"	p. 76
An Emergent Voters' Guide	p. 80
Dispatch from 1-35: The Terrific Tale of Trucker Frank	p. 86
The Theology, Stupid	p. 95
Dartmouth Days	p. 96
What, Exactly, Is Theology?	p. 104
Theology on the Rise	p. 106
Going Deep	p. 111
Skiing the Slippery Slope	p. 115
So, a Biblicist and a Relativist Walk into a Pastors' Conference . . .	p. 123
The Expurgated Lectionary	p. 130
Dispatch from Seminary: Legalisms of the Left	p. 134
After Objectivity: Beautiful Truth	p. 139
The Thrill of Interpretation	p. 140
Reading the Whole Bible	p. 143
"Sonny, It Ain't Nothing till I Call It"	p. 148
Truth (a.k.a. God)	p. 152
After Objectivity: Dialogue	p. 155
Beautiful, Messy, Incarnational Truth	p. 157
Paradoxes	p. 162
Dispatch from the End of a Three-Mile Dirt Road: Recovering "Church"	p. 170
Inside the Emergent Church	p. 175
It's a Great Day at Jacob's Well	p. 175
Wikichurch	p. 180
Tightly Knit: Journey	p. 192
Binitarians	p. 201
The People's Liturgy: Church of the Apostles	p. 203
Time to Rethink Seminary	p. 209
MyChurch: A Paean to Solomon's Porch	p. 210
Epilogue: Feral Christians	p. 219
Appendices	p. 221
"Emergent Village Values and Practices"	p. 222
"A Response to Our Critics"	p. 227
"Disastrous Statements"	p. 233
Notes	p. 237
Acknowledgments	p. 253
The Author	p. 255
Index	p. 257
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