The emergent church and neo-correlational theology after Tillich, Schleiermacher and Browning

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 450-461
Author(s):  
Jeff Keuss
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Emerging Church ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Emergent Church ◽  
Emerging Church Movement ◽  
New Form ◽  
Theology Of Culture ◽  
The Church

AbstractWhat has ‘emerged’ in the ‘emerging church’ movement, through writers such as Brian McLaren, is merely a new form of correlational theology – or what I will term ‘neo-correlational theology’. This ‘emergent’ movement aligns itself with Paul Tillich's systematic presentation of what he termed a ‘theology of culture’ addressed in his 1919 lecture ‘Über die Idee einer Theologie der Kultur’ and is deeply rooted in theological essentialisms aligned with Friedrich Schleiermacher and Don Browning. While many adherents of the Emergent movement have recently attempted to catalogue its theological legacy, this article will address three key emphases which haunt the corners of its discourse yet remain largely unacknowledged. First, the heritage of Schleiermacher's notion of ‘feeling’ as an authentic categorical form of knowledge forged through radical reflexivity which is the proper domain for authenticity in the Emergent movement. Second, as underscored in Tillich's Theology of Culture, the church as ‘emergent’ is profoundly imminent and therefore necessarily social, positivistic and historical. Third, theological anthropology is understood primarily through our freedom over and (at times) against the necessity of redemption. The question this article will address is whether or not such an approach reimagined as ‘neo-correlational theology’ and actualised through the ‘emerging church’ movement tacitly relies upon a more traditional theology which it explicitly rejects.

‘I might be wrong’

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-119
Author(s):  
Rein Brouwer
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Emerging Church ◽  
Urban Church ◽  
Emerging Church Movement ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Church ◽  
Theological Thinking

For about ten years (1998-2008), Kester Brewin was one of the principal instigators of the Vaux community, a ‘vehicle for exploring radical theological thought and practice’. From these experiences and events, he wrote The Complex Christ: Signs of Emergence in the Urban Church (2004). Since then he moved on as a blogger, columnist, tedx-er, and writer. In 2016 he published Getting High: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the Dream of Flight with Vaux Publishing. Getting High is a fascinating reflection on an era dominated by the flight of technology (from the 1960s on), substituting for the eternal longing for the ultimate. But it is also a moving introspection into Brewin’s own life. Being the son of a preacher man, he was getting high on evangelical ecstasy as a young adult, before he became one of the influential figures in the emerging church movement. He ended up, however, ‘outside of what would be taken as orthodox belief.’ This paper discusses Kester Brewin’s ‘piratic’ thoughts on the church, based on his books, blogs, and columns. How did his ‘theological’ thinking evolve, and what does it mean for ecclesiology?

scholarly journals Die NHKA op reis na inklusiwiteit I: Die anatomie van ’n gefragmenteerde/eskatologiese ekklesiologie

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Buitendag ◽  
Tanya Van Wyk
Keyword(s):  
Theological Anthropology ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Growing Pains ◽  
The Church

The NRCA en route to inclusivity I: The anatomy of a fragmented/eschatological ecclesiology This is the first in a two-part series that aims to examine the growing pains the Netherdutch Reformed Church is experiencing in its journey towards Christian inclusivity. This first article examines the fragmentation in the Church’s understanding of ecclesiology, which becomes apparent in the debates concerning the meaning and range of inclusivity in ecclesiology. The roots of this fragmentation are examined. It is concluded that the root of the fragmentation is an eschatological understanding of the essence of the church, which is, in turn, due to a fragmented view of humanity. In order for the Church to continue its journey towards inclusivity it should revisit its understanding of humanity and theological anthropology. The second article will focus on the content and implications of a revisited theological anthroplogy.

The Awakening of a New Form of Christianity? Catholicism in the Cariri Region (Brazil)

Exchange ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-397
Author(s):  
Jan Joris Rietveld
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
Evangelical Churches ◽  
Rural Zone ◽  
New Form ◽  
Short Time ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

AbstractThe Cariri region is the most isolated and poor part of the rural zone of the diocese of Campina Grande in the Paraiba state of Brazil. The Catholic Church has been present here for a relatively short time: 335 years. Moreover the region has an isolated context and this favors conservatism so that only fundamental changes have an impact. These facts make the Cariri an interesting region for a case study about how Catholicism develops. I distinguish five periods, which are described with religious key words and situated in the socio-cultural context. This classification is a schematization: different types of Catholicism often exist together. It is obvious that the dominant features of Catholicism change with time, but in the mainstream of the fifth period we see a small revolution. Now there are not only influences in the socio cultural context and factors in the Church itself that cause changes, but there are also influences of powerful newcomers, the evangelical churches. Their main impact is that many people have left the Catholic Church and are going to live their old faith in a new form. The Catholic Church is searching for adequate ways to respond to this phenomenon.

Friedrich Schleiermacher

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Nimmo
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Empirical Approach ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Liberal Theology ◽  
The Church

This chapter recounts the theology of the sacraments of the post-Enlightenment Reformed theologian, philosopher, and pastor Friedrich Schleiermacher, who is often considered the father of modern liberal theology. He was unique in that rather than rooting his theologies of the sacraments in a “magical” or “empirical” approach, Schleiermacher advocated a “mystical” approach, grounded in “the religious affections of the Christian community” united in its redemption through Jesus Christ. Baptism and Eucharist are therefore “actions which establish and preserve communion of life with Christ in the present day.” His approach to the theology of the sacraments was quite ecumenical, for while disagreeing with Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli he accepted their views as equally valid, rather than reasons for division in the church.

scholarly journals 'n Nuwe ekumeniese geloofsbelydenis?

1987 ◽  
Vol 43 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 72-85
Author(s):  
B. J. Engelbrecht
Keyword(s):  
Church Leaders ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
Reformed Church In America ◽  
The World ◽  
New Form ◽  
The Church

A new ecumenical confession of faithRecently theologians, church leaders and even churches from all over the world expressed the desirability of a new confession of faith, preferably an ecumenical confession. The Reformed Church in America proposed a new confession with their Song of Hope. They still maintain large parts of their 16th century reformed confessions but the following motives played a role in their desire for a new confession:• The necessity to correct the existing, 'old' confessions in the light of modem scientific Bible-research, e g on the doctrine of predestination.• The need for additional confession-pronouncements on modern-day issues and experiences, unknown to the church in the 16th century.• The desirability of a new form (language) to communicate with modem man.• The sensitivity of the churches of today towards church-unity and the trends living in the oikouménè, e g their social awareness.We then proceed to treat the motives why a reformed Church überhaupt needs and forms a confession. In the light of these motives the question arises whether our Church really needs a new confession today; is the exposition of the existing confessions in theology, catechesis, preaching and modem church-hymns not enough to translate and communicate the existing confessions to modem man and to address modern-day issues?

Myth, Meaning and Work Organization

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin L. Bowles
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
New Order ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Form ◽  
The Church

The 'work organization' has, for many, come to replace the Church in dictating the meanings by which people are expected to structure their social action. This paper describes the function of myth in human life, the challenge to traditional mythologies through the emergence of science and technology and how the new order of organizational ideologies and myths fail to provide the integration necessary for life adjustment. The argument for the current emergence of a new form of mythology, one which challenges contemporary understandings of human beings and social organiza tion, is assessed.

scholarly journals Ecclesiological Renewal for a Relevant Ministry and Church Polity, with reference to UCCSA and UPCSA in Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xolani Maseko ◽  
Wim A. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Emerging Church ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
Church Unity ◽  
Church Polity ◽  
The Face ◽  
Strategic Perspective ◽  
The Church

This article is a critique of Reformed Ecclesiology, particularly as regarding ministry and church polity. It is argued herein that a static ecclesiology results in church ministry that is seemingly deficient in responding to the context. This is seen in the current church polities and ways in which different denominations explain and carry out their ministry in the face of the new religious environment of the 21st century. This critique demands imperatives from the church, especially now in the advent of the emerging church, virtual ministry and such pandemics as Covid-19. The church cannot afford to remain ambivalent; her relevance is at stake. This article deals with Reformed Ecclesiology and polity in the context of Zimbabwe, with a special focus on the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) and the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA) in Zimbabwe. These two denominations are in a “prolonged” engagement for church unity. From a strategic perspective, a possible ecclesiology will be proposed that can facilitate this renewal in the context of a Calvinistic ecclesiology. It is argued that a change in ecclesiology will result in a refined church ministry and polity. This is done by investigating the “church as epiphany.”

scholarly journals Features of Philosophical-Theological Dialogue as Factors of the Social Position of Ukrainian Evangelical Protestantism

2008 ◽  
pp. 91-99
Author(s):  
Mychailo M. Cherenkov
Keyword(s):  
Social Position ◽  
Evangelical Protestantism ◽  
Evangelical Churches ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conservative Evangelical ◽  
Theology Of Culture ◽  
The Church

"Social theology" and "theology of culture" become relevant discourses of evangelical Protestantism, within which the new identity of the church in a postmodern society is being produced. Similar socio-theological and cultural-theological identity is a problem for conservative evangelical churches, which form the majority in Ukrainian evangelical Protestantism.

Predestination and Election

2019 ◽  
pp. 396-412
Author(s):  
W. Andrew Hoffecker
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Friedrich Schleiermacher ◽  
Human Responsibility ◽  
The Church

Presbyterians have historically advocated predestination and election as intimately related to the doctrines of God as sovereign Creator, providential ruler, and savior of his chosen people. Using Augustine’s interpretation of major Old and New Testament passages as a foundation, Presbyterians have generally understood election to be unconditional and to rest on God’s mercy necessitated by humankind’s original sin. John Calvin answered objections to the doctrines, emphasized predestination as a pastoral comfort to believers, and affirmed human responsibility. Calvin’s successors debated the order of God’s decrees and Jacob Arminius’s attack on Calvinism, which denied double predestination, interpreted predestination as conditional, and proposed prevenient grace as enabling all people to choose to be saved. Calvin’s views were reaffirmed by the Council of Dort’s five points in 1619 and upheld by Presbyterians in the Westminster Confession of Faith, adopted in 1646. In the nineteenth century, Friedrich Schleiermacher proposed a paradigm shift by rejecting original sin and arguing that God’s decree was based on his foreseeing faith in the elect. Presbyterians also debated whether Calvinism should be altered to conform to revivalist practices and whether the Westminster Confession should be revised in light of new theological trends. In the twentieth century, conservative Presbyterians continued to affirm traditional Calvinist theology, while most mainline Presbyterians either rejected or ignored it and focused on the work of the church.

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