The New Christians
Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier
1. Auflage April 2009
288 Seiten, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
What the "Emergent Church Movement" is all about-and why it
matters to the future of Christianity
Following 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.
Preface xv
Introduction: What Is ''Emergent''? xvii
Chapter 1 ~ Leaving the Old Country 1
4 ''Church Is Dead''
5 Signs of Death-and Life
7 The Problem on the Left
10 A Case Study: Go Where I Send Thee
11 The Problem on the Right
13 A Case Study: Don't Ask Us About the Chickens
18 The Real Problem: Left Versus Right
21 Caught in the Crossfire
24 Dispatch from the Blogosphere: Musings of a Postmodern Negro
Chapter 2 ~ Dispatches from the Frontier of the American Church 31
31 An Allegory
33 An Alternative Ending
35 Geological Musings
37 What Exactly Is Emerging?
41 The Beginnings
43 ''The Bible Is Propaganda''
49 The New Kind of Christian Effect
52 Meanwhile, Across the Pond
55 Then till Now
57 The Church's Choice
60 Dispatch from the Rocky Mountains: Katie and Kristen
Chapter 3 ~ Who Are the Emergent Christians? 67
68 Hunches and Intuitions
72 Influencing Culture or Influenced by Culture?
76 An ''Envelope of Friendship''
80 An Emergent Voters' Guide
86 Dispatch from I-35: The Terrific Tale of Trucker Frank
Chapter 4 ~ The Theology, Stupid 95
96 Dartmouth Days
104 What, Exactly, Is Theology?
106 Theology on the Rise
111 Going Deep
115 Skiing the Slippery Slope
123 So, a Biblicist and a Relativist Walk into a Pastors' Conference . . .
130 The Expurgated Lectionary
134 Dispatch from Seminary: Legalisms of the Left
Chapter 5 ~ After Objectivity: Beautiful Truth 139
140 The Thrill of Interpretation
143 Reading the Whole Bible
148 ''Sonny, It Ain't Nothing till I Call It''
152 Truth (a.k.a. God)
155 After Objectivity: Dialogue
157 Beautiful, Messy, Incarnational Truth
162 Paradoxes
170 Dispatch from the End of a Three-Mile Dirt Road: Recovering ''Church''
Chapter 6 ~ Inside the Emergent Church 175
175 It's a Great Day at Jacob's Well!
180 Wikichurch
192 Tightly Knit: Journey
201 Binitarians
203 The People's Liturgy: Church of the Apostles
209 Time to Rethink Seminary
210 MyChurch: A Paean to Solomon's Porch
Epilogue: Feral Christians 219
Appendices 221
222 Appendix A: ''Emergent Village Values and Practices''
227 Appendix B: ''A Response to Our Critics''
233 Appendix C: ''Disastrous Statements''
Notes 237
Acknowledgments 253
The Author 255
Index 257
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.
