Emerging hubris

So, I've been trying to make sense of what people mean by "emerging" and "emergent"; what my Anglican friends call "new expressions of church", whether post-modernity has anything interesting to say to faith, whether post-evangelical is a category, and so on.

I guess it's often hard to see, from the middle of a sea-change, the impact and repercussions of the changes taking place. Are we looking at a 1-in-30-year movement, on a par with the Charismatic movement at its height in the 70s and 80s? Are we looking at a 1-in-100-year movement, like the rise of modern evangelicalism to be a dominant force in the British church? Are we looking at a 1-in-400-year movement, on a par with the Reformation or the Great Schism?

My first reaction - egged on by reading the likes of Maclaren - was the latter. Or if not 400 years, then certainly something on a par with the rise of the Enlightenment, at least. But,

• perhaps because MacLaren and Rollins are really "out there",
• because there is a real lack of coherency within the big tent called "emerging", and
• because I keep reading stuff about how we need to rediscover the joy of being a Christian community uncluttered by man-made structures - which all sounds so reminiscent of the Brethren movement (1840 and afterwards),

I really do wonder. To much, too, seems caught up with a 30-year shift in American politics, to the ascendancy for the time being of the Democratic Party, and the espousement (is that a word?) of green issues because they seem trendy.

Being part of something new and radical is exciting. And Christian faith desperately needs to reconnect with western society - and, all the more, with Jesus' way of life. And that means re-thinking a lot of things that too many have taken for granted.

But how much, and how important it all is ... I'm just not sure yet.

I have more reading to do.