The Emerging Consequences of Whose Ideas?

From Nine Marks
With contributions below from Gregg Allison, Micah Carter, J. Ligon Duncan, Keith Goad, Jim Hamilton, Jonathan Leeman, and Stephen Wellum.


Maybe you have heard plenty about the popularizers. After all, their shows are selling out. Their books are conquering the best-seller lists. And every weblog, magazine, and e- newsletter in the biz is talking about them.

But where are these Emergent guys getting this stuff? Where do their ideas come from?
It's worth peeking into the Emergent classrooms to find out. A number of these popular level writers claim to eschew "doctrine." But you cannot not have doctrine. The eschewal of doctrine is a doctrine, and it rests on certain presuppositions. Whose? What professors are teaching their classes? What books are they dutifully reading?

Until recently, emergentvillage.com, one of the primary Emergent websites for networking and discussion, offered the following list of recommended "theology" books and authors (listed here in its entirety). Scroll down further, and you will find a brief summary on each author. The jargon might get a little technical. But if ideas have consequences, it's good to know what ideas are driving such a popular movement in our churches today.

Recommend reading "On Theology" at emergentvillage.com[1]:

• Walter Brueggemann-Ichabod Toward Home: The Journey of Gods Glory -Texts Under Negotiation: The Bible and Postmodern Imagination -Cadences of Home: Preaching Among Exiles
• Hans Georg Gadamer-Truth and Method
• Stanley J. Grenz, John R. Franke-Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context
• Stanley Hauerwas-Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony
• George A. Lindbeck-The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age
• Jürgen Moltmann-The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God -Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology
• Nancey Murphy-Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism
• Miroslav Volf-After Our Likeness: The Church As the Image of the Trinity -Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation
• N.T. Wright-The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is

(Click here to read Tenth Presbyterian pastor Phil Ryken's response to this list)

Read on for author bios.