:: in.a.mirror.dimly ::

There’s a great article at Publisher’s Weekly that not only addresses what it actually means for a book to be marketed as Emergent or Emerging. The best part of the article is the part where the author states:

What I fear will be next is a trend of blurring Emergent ideas with self-help. It’s easy to see how publishers would find this marriage irresistible: why not join an appealingly edgy hipster ethos with those stock-in-trade Christian books that promise improved prayer life, more effective parenting, and better abs in 30 days? But Emergent folks deserve more than becoming the book equivalent of a glossy infomercial. I’m not the only one who’s uncomfortable: I can, in an utterly un-postmodern appeal to an Authority Figure, quote Brian McLaren on the subject: “It’s not about the church meeting your needs; it’s about joining the mission of God’s people to meet the world’s needs.”

I jumped in with my own thoughts:

“If I can offer some sweeping generalizations… Fundamentalists tried to preserve the faith. Evangelicals tried to take that faith to individuals. Emerging Christians are trying to take that faith to beyond individuals into the very fabric of our society.”