Emerging Church Versus Liberalism and Fundamentalism: The Great Misunderstanding
David Dunbar, president of Biblical Seminary, has written a pretty significant article (judging by the all the talk it's generating around the blogosphere) called Missional, Emergent, Emerging: A Traveler's Guide . Scot McKnight has commented on it over at Jesus Creed , as has Steve Knight over at Emergent Village , regarding its discussion of the terms "Emergent" and "Emerging." Knight's post caught my attention. In it, he says, quoting the Dunbar piece: "Dunbar encouragingly writes, '[Emergent leaders] are quite explicit in their agenda to find a middle way between what they regard as the extremes of the 20th century church: liberalism and fundamentalism. Both ‘isms’ were responses to modernity—and postmodernity has undermined both. ... I think what the emergents desire is possible and I hope they will succeed. At this point the signals are mixed.'” There may, in fact, be some Emergent leaders who are trying to find a middle ground betwe...