Postmodernism has always been somewhat present during every generation of people in America. In fact, it alludes to future ideas that are cutting edge when compared to the theologies of the modern times. The Emergent church can be classified as postmodern, because it is in fact an “emerging” movement. Perhaps the question we should ask is if it’s just a phase in America, or is it here to stay? We should first answer the questions that it brings up, before we can answer what it actually represents. However, there is one thing we do know, which is that the name comes from the fact that this “movement” is gradually changing the philosophy of Christianity.
In every sense, the Emergent church is at least, improvisational. It takes Christianity, and not only challenges the traditional ways of the religion, but alters it in order to appeal to a new generation of non-believers as well as believers. The emerging church is used to describe the new and rapidly growing amount of mission Christian congregation. It is a name given to those who believe that God is the truth alone, but the old ways of exposing that fact are no longer useful in today’s society. Such things include worship, prayer, preaching, and outreach. The emerging generation sees these aspects as very flexible features of the Christian church since the old forms of expression don’t seem to have as much of an effect on society today than it did decades ago. In this logic, the emergent church is seeking alternative forms of spiritual formation that are controversial to, and within Christianity, which is making it a misunderstood movement. Like every other type of movement, this effort had just started as a conversation among its leaders.
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...nce of homosexuality. Which makes it seem like the Emergent church is not representing significant conversion growth, but instead are gathering upset Christians and making alternative beliefs. Which is why it has become vital to try and understand this movement, so that assumptions can’t be made that could potentially cause a chasm in Christianity.
The Emergent Church has both positive and negative effects. It’s beneficial in the way that it is adapting to today’s culture to assist with evangelism, but it isn’t a totally comfortable concept to grasp. Neither is postmodernism, which the emerging movement basically represents in its theologies and ideas. The fact is that for as many questions that it can answer in Christianity, it raises twice as much. However, whether or not the culture accepts this movement, the one thing that seems inevitable, is its growth.
O'Brien, Susan. 1986. “A Transatlantic Community of Saints: The Great Awakening and the First Evangelical Network, 1735-1755”. The American Historical Review 91 (4). [Oxford University Press, American Historical Association]: 811–32. doi:10.2307/1873323.
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
This mass enterprise is reviewed through five traditions in the early nineteenth century: the Christian movement, the Methodists, the Baptists, the black churches, and the Mormons. Hatch explains that these major American movements were led by young men who shared “an ethic of unrelenting toil, a passion for expansion, a hostility to orthodox belief and style, a zeal for religious reconstruction, and a systematic plan to realize their ideals” (4). These leaders changed the scope of American Christianity by orientating toward democratic or populist ideals. Their movements offered both individual potential and collective aspiration, which were ideas ready to be grasped by the young and booming population. These early leaders had a vision of a faith that disregarded social standing, and taught all to think, interpret, and organize their faith for themselves. It was a faith of “religious populism, reflecting the passions of ordinary people and the charisma of democratic movement-builders” (5).
The Second Great Awakening impacted the social scholarly literature. The traditional school of thought has tended to portray the time period as one of widespread secularization and the concomitant efforts of church elites to bring wandering Christians back into the ecclesiastical fold. The Second Great Awakening appears as a process of renewal, as churches tried to co-opt Evangelical activism by dressing in new clothes, rather than the old traditional. By concentrating on the impulses of the Presbyterian and Congregationalist establishments, but neglecting the Second Great Awakening outside New En...
Christianity has its challenges. It places demands on us that set us apart from the rest of our world. The bible calls us a peculiar people, who navigate the challenge of living IN the world, without being OF the world. When we say ‘no’ to temptations that are enjoyed by the masses, we are labeled as self-righteous snobs, religious weirdoes, or worse. But we persevere, and we press toward that invisible line the Apostle Paul drew in the sands of time…for the high calling in Christ Jesus.
The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch-supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are.”
Post modern architecture: A revival of architectural elements of the past or a version of aestheticism?
There are significant turning points in church history that pivot upon new interpretations of rediscoveries of the Gospel. In other words,the idea that in times of crisis there will arise persons who turn to the Bible, in particular to the New Testament, and renew attempts to live according to the narrative of the Gospel. “Many Catholics and Protestants are looking back to Benedict for the community and spiritual intensity they can't find in modern culture”(Chris Armstrong).“For over a millennium, in the centuries between the reign of Constantine and the Protestant Reformation, almost everything in the church that approached the highest, noblest, and truest ideals of the gospel was done either by those who had chosen the monastic way or by those who had been inspired in their Christian life by the monks.” The history of the church is filled with movements that have helped Christians define their faith against cultural and political movements which run contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. Which is basically saying people
The rise of Christianity in western civilization is arguably among the most important memories in history. There is no denying what the spread of Christianity has done for the world, for better or worse. Its impact on western civilizations is unrivaled and unprecedented. Christianity slowly became something for many individuals to turn to; in times of hurt it provided comfort, in times of pleasure it gave thanks. The will and belief for salvation has driven individuals to be better, and to have a reference while in need.
In the book, Churches, Cultures and Leadership, the co-author Mark Lau Branson mentions a quote by the theologian Pat Keifert. The quote claims that we do not learn anything from “experience” but that “one learns only from experience one reflects upon and articulates.” He proposes five questions that are relative to the aforementioned claim and are categorized as practical theology. Michael Dash and Christine Chapman in the book The Shape of Zion, point out that the work of effective pastors is based on the challenge to “give the work of congregational development back to people without abandoning them.” The paper will focus on answering the claim by a German pastor and theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer “the group is the womb
...ore significant of an impact than it does now, if the heart of the Church doesn’t change. It’s stuck. At the same time, I can perceive in various people a certain movement that the conventional church fails to recognize because it’s not explicit doctrine. It involves personal responsibility, empathy, and most importantly, a humility in oneself concerning the fate of their own soul, in favor of the well-being of others. I believe the artists among them are doing powerful things, I believe that the whole world sees it, and I further believe that God works through them. In a world that mocks Christ, they unknowingly embrace him with open arms, more by the more.
The Story of Christianity is a very informative summation; a continuation of Volume 1 which covered the beginning of the church up to the Protestant Reformation, while Vol. 2 dealt with the Protestant Reformation up to more modern time period. This author delivers a more comprehensive and deeper look into the development of Christianity, which includes particular events which had transpired throughout the world; particularly how Christianity has expanded into Central and South America. Gonzalez opens up this book with the “Call for Reformation,” where he shares with his readers the need for reform; the papacy had started to decline and was corrupt, in addition to the Great Schism, which had further weakened the papacy (p.8). The author explains how the church was not the only issue but that the church’s teachings were off track as well, seeing that the people had deviated from...
Ritchie, M. (1999). Community bible chapel. The story of the church – Part 4, Topic 5. The Protestant
As the gears of American society turned ever forward, a new ideology in literature-known as Modernism-shifted authors of the time to create different works that reflected the new ideas that it encompassed. America, in the course of 70 years, had turned from a bunch of rebellious farmers into one of the largest and most powerful nations in the world. As the “American Century” of the 1900s went on by, new technological achievements in radio, television and health care helped to change the ideals and even mindsets of writers everywhere. Despite all of this success, many people viewed all of this rapid change in a negative way spurring a new type of thinking that would develop into Modernism. One such person that was influenced by the advent of modern society was Arthur Miller, a struggling playwright who would go on to write some of the best dramas since Shakespeare himself and become a legend while doing it. Through the literary criticism of Christopher Bigsby, Harold Clurman and anonymous, it becomes clear how the ideals an points of Modernism are reflected in the masterpieces that are the plays of Arthur Miller.
Materialism is very complex, and can be defined on a number of different platforms. There is no one definite definition of materialism, meaning there is an ambiguity surrounding the construct of materialism. According to Kasser et al. (2004), consumers develop a materialistic value orientation at times when they experience feelings of insecurity, and from exposure to materialistic models and values. When the psychological needs of individuals are not met, they tend to move toward materialism in order to help them feel better about themselves, and reduce feelings of insecurity and self-doubt through the consumption of materialistic items.