Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Scot McKnight on the Emergent Movement (EM)

I've found a judicious and informational article on the Emergent church by North Park (not in Dallas but Chicago) Seminary prof Scot McKnight. He does a good job of highlighting the EM's (Emergent movement--I've found out it's not "EC"--Emergent church) admirable qualities, while also presenting some items for concern. From McKnight's evaluation, I realize it is not only EM's "chronological snobbery" and the fact that they mainly attract young, white, middle class folk (though the "movement" has spread to Asia, etc.), but also their refusal of dogma, or defined statements of faith. They claim to hold to the early church, ecumenical creeds but nothing else (from what I understand). But, as McKnight points out, creedal statements of belief have been a part of the church since the beginning when the Shema of the Old Testament was naturally incorporated into worship.

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