http://infidelity.blogsome.com/2009/05/06/unitarian-universalism-and-the-emergent-church/ Colin Bossen's blog on liberal theology, Unitarian Universalism, politics and culture. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:11:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1-alpha http://infidelity.blogsome.com/2009/05/06/unitarian-universalism-and-the-emergent-church/#comment-60 Wed, 06 May 2009 19:07:33 +0100 http://infidelity.blogsome.com/2009/05/06/unitarian-universalism-and-the-emergent-church/#comment-60 I've also been developing an interest in the similarities between the Emergent Church movement and Unitarian Universalism, but I'm not going to try to write a long essay here describing my thoughts on the subject. Some quick observations though: the Postmodern understanding of texts and "discourse" (and the deconstruction of same) does strange, strange things to ideas like the Doctrine of Literal Verbal Inerrancy, but it also opens the door for Religious Liberals to reappropriate aspects of the Christian Myth/metanarrative in a positive way. I'm thinking specifically of the original kerygma message Jesus proclaimed when he returned from his temptation in the wilderness: "Behold, the Kingdom of God is at Hand, repent and believe the Good News." - When this gets stripped of 2000 years of "systematic theology," the message becomes much more simple and straightforward: "Look around, God is still in charge -- change your attitude, show a little trust and confidence, and get with the program of being a follower of the Way..." basically what scholars would call a realized eschatology combined with an emphasis on practical morality -- Love of God and Love of Neighbor, and doing unto others as we would have others do unto us. I’ve also been developing an interest in the similarities between the Emergent Church movement and Unitarian Universalism, but I’m not going to try to write a long essay here describing my thoughts on the subject. Some quick observations though: the Postmodern understanding of texts and “discourse” (and the deconstruction of same) does strange, strange things to ideas like the Doctrine of Literal Verbal Inerrancy, but it also opens the door for Religious Liberals to reappropriate aspects of the Christian Myth/metanarrative in a positive way. I’m thinking specifically of the original kerygma message Jesus proclaimed when he returned from his temptation in the wilderness: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is at Hand, repent and believe the Good News.” - When this gets stripped of 2000 years of “systematic theology,” the message becomes much more simple and straightforward: “Look around, God is still in charge — change your attitude, show a little trust and confidence, and get with the program of being a follower of the Way…” basically what scholars would call a realized eschatology combined with an emphasis on practical morality — Love of God and Love of Neighbor, and doing unto others as we would have others do unto us.

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