Customer Reviews

The Emerging Christian Way: Thoughts, Stories, and Wisdom for a Faith of Transformation

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Chrisitianity is changing. In recent years and in rapidly increasing numbers, people have begun to understand the core message and purpose of Christianity in a different way. They have returned to its ancient roots and found a wisdom that speaks to their experience of faith and God today. According to this emerging vision, Christianity is primarily about transformation--about the transformation of the self through a living and dynamic experience og God, who is not separate from us but who is a part of us; and about the transformation of society. This amazing collection of fourteen essays, by some of the leading authors and creative thinkers in the field, covers every aspect of this developing Christianity. Key concepts--such as deep ecology, social justice, radical inclusion, and the importance of honoring the wisdom of other world faiths--are explored. So, too, are the implications for worship, music, pastoral care, and education.

Although several chapters are reprinted from authors' other works, the collection is a good introduction to a wider view of Christianity's role in the 21st century world. Appreciated the chapter on music's place in new forms of worship.

The essays in this book are thought provoking and provide some practical advice on implementing some of the ideas for those who choose to do so. The opening essay by Marcus Borg set the tone for those of us who are hungry for a more vibrant Christianity suitable for the 21st century!

This is a collection of diverse essays by mainline church leaders. They talk about outreach programs, church music, worship, initiating young people into adulthood, religious education, meditation, and even really subjective things like "discerning God's will". All the authors have had serious careers leading and teaching Christian communities, and most of them are "seniors". So their insights come from decades of experience, not just youthful ideals.

The thing they have in common is a focus on religion as a "practice" rather than a set of doctrines. They are concerned about what people do, as a their path toward God. These authors seem to be applying the old Catholic notions of spiritual practice as done in contemplative and service orders -- to the lives of modern, mainly Protestant North American lay people. This seems to be the "emerging Christian way" they are talking about, as the kind of chicken that's hatching from the cracked egg on the cover.

--author of Correcting Jesus

I love reading Fox and Borg, but often find a pollyanish treatment of the terrible consequences of human sin, especially in the omission of any mention of those consequences, is unsatisfactory. I'm also not sure that denominational identity in Christian life is dead, given the increasing, rather than decreasing, number of theological perspectives with adherents today. I have it, but i'll probably give it away soon.