Emergent-cy

by Jason Robertson

The following is a snippet of Phil Johnson’s latest post:

And while we are on the subject, Pyro readers ought to listen to Mark Driscoll’s 83-minute message from Friday night’s session of the Convergent conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. (I got it on iTunes from the SEBTS podcast. I don’t see it listed on the Web yet.) Driscoll likewise drew some clear lines in the sand. As usual, he couldn’t seem to manage doing it without being unnecessarily and inappropriately crude, but we’ll set that aside for the moment. He called out Pagitt, McLaren, and Bell (among others) for their departures from essential biblical truths and key Reformation distinctives.

Before you get too excited about that, note that Driscoll also took some hard shots at non-Emerging critics who don’t approve of the methodology (and scatology) he employs to contextualize his ministry for postmodern young people. Driscoll dismissed all such critics as “fundamentalists” (he clearly doesn’t relish saying that word the way he does certain four-letter expressions). He said such people pose a danger equal to that of the heretics within Emergent.

Meanwhile, Driscoll himself is under fire from some of his Emerging friends who don’t like his combativeness and claim he fudged the numbers in his description of Mars Hill’s “baptsmalooza.”

So it seems the “Emerging Conversation” is coming apart at the seams.

Mike Clawson, a self-styled pacifist who clearly favors the leftmost Emergent ideas, says the fault lies almost entirely with the revival of Reformed doctrine. And ironically, he cites a three-year-old piece by Pagitt, appealing for a mild and friendly response to Emergent’s critics. It contrasts starkly with Pagitt’s actual response to John MacArthur.

Clawson’s post seethes with postmodern angst over so much conflict. (Which is a bit odd, really, because Clawson has never really shown himself to be as averse to conflict as he often claims he is. But at least he has the good taste to acknowledge near the end of his post that he’s not “always very good” at being a real pacifist, “but I’m trying.”)

However you look at it, this has been a seriously hard week for the Emerging/Emergent conversation. I’m thinking of trying to trademark the name “Post-Emergent,” because I think it’s going to be really, really useful very soon now.

Phil, you have got me thinking…
Are we in the Post-Emergent era?
Have the Emergents finally merged into the Mainstream of liberalism?
Maybe there is some sociologist that is so brilliant that could actually name our current condition as Pre-something. There was once an era we call Pre-Modern; maybe this era should be called Pre-Wrath.