What Do Publishers Mean By "Emergent"?
by Jana Riess, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly,03/12/2008
I got another one of those press releases today, the kind that hypes a book submission as fresh, edgy and pioneering. Nothing unusual there. Only nowadays, Christian publishers are latching on to a new term for such books, whether or not they deserve it: "Emergent."
Emergents or the emerging church is a group of Christians—primarily but not exclusively evangelicals—who share some common characteristics. They're interested in postmodernism, and want to explore how to be Christian in today's pluralistic world. They are especially keen on rethinking the Christian gospel through story and experience rather than dogma. They want to reach out to the unchurched (though, like many Christian movements, seem to have their best success among the burned-out "postchurched"), and are well-connected to new technologies, especially the blogosphere. They want to simplify Christian trappings, sometimes foregoing buildings in favor of small house churches that take communion al fresco by downing grape juice in Styrofoam cups with the homeless. You get the idea.
But many of the books I'm receiving that bear the coveted label "Emergent" are not, to my thinking, Emergent at all. Some are authored by megachurch pastors, and since Emergent folks are to megachurches what locally grown organic vegetables are to fast food, I've learned to be suspicious of the label "Emergent." What it should mean is some of what I discussed above. What it increasingly means is this: The following book was written by a Protestant male under the age of 40. He probably has a goatee. He definitely wears eyeglasses that are much cooler than yours.
Part of the problem rests with the porous boundaries of a group like Emergent. As Tony Jones helpfully points out in The New Christians (Jossey-Bass, Mar.), the emerging church is not an institution so much as a conversation. And a conversation is by its nature permeable, which is helpful when you're trying to avoid church-as-usual and generate some new ideas. Yet this conversation's very openness has left it vulnerable to friendly exploitation, as the Establishment quietly co-opts the iconoclastic, anti-Establishment label Emergent. In the end, readers wind up feeling like they've been enjoying a terrific tête-à-tête with someone at a cocktail party until a brash and self-promoting interloper butts in.
Ironically, some of the books that casually brandish the label "Emergent" seem distinctly at odds with the liberal, often radical, political action espoused by many Emergent authors, including Brian McLaren (Everything Must Change, Thomas Nelson, 2007), Tony Jones, Shane Claiborne (Jesus for President, Zondervan, Mar.), or Will and Lisa Samson (Justice in the Burbs, Baker, 2007).
What I fear will be next is a trend of blurring Emergent ideas with self-help. It's easy to see how publishers would find this marriage irresistible: why not join an appealingly edgy hipster ethos with those stock-in-trade Christian books that promise improved prayer life, more effective parenting, and better abs in 30 days? But Emergent folks deserve more than becoming the book equivalent of a glossy infomercial. I'm not the only one who's uncomfortable: I can, in an utterly un-postmodern appeal to an Authority Figure, quote Brian McLaren on the subject: "It's not about the church meeting your needs; it's about joining the mission of God's people to meet the world's needs."
The thing is, I care about this issue. I know it's trendy for the literati to scoff at the emerging church conversation and show their own bona fides by pointing out that there is nothing truly new about it from a theological perspective. (Bonus points if you can drop the names of one or two early church fathers who championed some of the same ideas.) But that been-there-done-that attitude in no way explains how Russell Rathbun's Jossey-Bass book Post-Rapture Radio (which will release in paper in June) knocked the wind right out of me, why I mark up my copies of Brian McLaren's books with arrows and exclamation points, and why I get excited whenever I discover a fresh Emergent voice. There is something special going on here, which is why the growing co-optation of the label Emergent for the same-old-same-old Christian books is so annoying. Here's hoping that publishers (and authors) can restrain themselves before the label becomes meaningless.
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| Submitted by: | Gabe Lett (glett@ltc-counseling.org) 3/17/2008 8:13:00 AM PT |
| Location: | Missouri |
| Occupation: | Counselor |
I am investingating this term, "emergent church" and your article helped me to clarify it further. Of course, this term is being so widely used, as you have pointed out in the publishing industry, that the waters are muddied as to what emergent really means. As with any American marketing strategy, everyone, including Christian businesses, will always hop onto the most striking, hip, fresh, edgy terms just to get a buck. One of the principles of the emergent church seems to be an anti-establishment, even anti-commercialized movement. Too bad its being tossed around as a marketing tag to make more money!
www.thinkingchristians.blogspot.com
| Submitted by: | Michael Strong (mikes@fea.net) 3/13/2008 8:12:43 PM PT |
| Location: | Corona del Mar, California |
| Occupation: | Accountant and sales person |
I agree that the word emergent is already almost reduced to meaningliess but I wonder what you make of the following in regard to post modern Christianity:
Caputo''s What would Jesus deconstruct?
Vanhoozer''s Post Modern Theology
Borg''s latest Jesus the revolutionary etc
Chuck Smith jr''s The end of the world as we know it
It seems to me that there should be two tests:
Is dogma/dectrine/scripture seen as an aid to spiritual development? Is the result an inspired sense of compassion?
| Submitted by: | Al Hsu (ahsu@ivpress.com) 3/13/2008 3:20:26 PM PT |
| Location: | Downers Grove, IL |
| Occupation: | editor |
Jana's article is very perceptive, especially the idea that the usage of "emergent" is similar to that of "organic." Fast Company recently had an article on greenwashing, a phenomenon where marketers make their products seem more green and organic and environmentally friendly than they actually are, just to cash in on a trend. It's interesting that publishers are cashing in on emergent, especially when large parts of their constituencies are hyperallergic to all things emergent.
Countertrend - many authors are intentionally repudiating and distancing themselves from the emergent label. Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll, though they are nearly polar opposites, both don't want to be called emergent.
The problem is that there's currently no good descriptive umbrella term for "not-your-parents'-Christianity," so "emergent" becomes a convenient catch-all for everything from Shane Claiborne to Donald Miller, even if they themselves don't use that term.
| Submitted by: | Jacob Riggs (jacob.riggs@randallhouse.com) 3/13/2008 12:24:02 PM PT |
| Location: | Nashville |
| Occupation: | Associate Editor |
Emergent and emerging is trendy. So much so that when it sells so well, those who aren''t emergent claim to be so in order to sell a book or two. big surprise--the mega church being concerned about selling books. another big surprise--the theology that the EC has set up is so loose that mega churches can be a part of it.
church can''t be tied to culture. the modernistic church is too much so. the post-modernistic church is too much so. church should be above the culture. transcendent. otherwise, it will change every time culture endures a major shift, and will have very little affect on the culture.
| Submitted by: | David A. Zimmerman 3/13/2008 8:59:42 AM PT |
| Location: | Lombard, Illinois |
| Occupation: | editor |
Mike Morrell pointed me to one guy's thoughts (at truthtotell.wordpress.com) about one author's conflicted sense of self regarding this Emergent/emerging identity ("One Guy's Head Series Review").
I'd be interested in a publisher's response to Jana's complaint; it strikes me that if Emergent had its origins in questions of what is church and what is the church's place in culture, then Christian publishing--as a sort of accessory after the fact--should be asking corresponding questions of itself.
| Submitted by: | Postmodern Negro (postmodernegro@gmail.com) 3/13/2008 7:54:32 AM PT |
| Location: | Charlotte, NC |
| Occupation: | Government |
All that is Emergent isn't Emergent. This article was faithful in pointing this out. But. Who's immune to the pervasive commodification in our society? We live in a Market culture where everything, even Jesus himself, is victim to these forces. The fact that Jesus, in our cultural imagination, is more like a Caesar than a peasant should be instructive for all of us: no one is immune to these forces. But I thank the author of this piece in making distinctions. As one who is deeply engaged with Emergent Village side of the emerging church movement I hope folks are able to make the distinctions that are being made here in this article. Thanks.
| Submitted by: | Keith DeRose (keith.derose@yale.edu) 3/13/2008 12:15:46 AM PT |
| Location: | Hamden, CT |
| Occupation: | philosopher |
This would be much more helpful if it listed a few examples of books that are labeled as "emergent" but which you think really aren't.
| Submitted by: | Marcia Ford (misfit@marciaford.com) 3/12/2008 10:34:33 PM PT |
| Location: | Colorado |
| Occupation: | Author |
You've given voice to something I started feeling uneasy about several years ago, when one particular megachurch pastor began self-identifying as emergent. I remember thinking "Huh??" I asked an emergent leader about it, and he was as disturbd by it as I was. Like you, I get lots of review books that claim to be emergent. They're not. Publishers need to be challenged about this---which is what you've just done. I hope they listen to you.
| Submitted by: | Mike Morrell (zoecarnate@theooze.com) 3/12/2008 9:05:25 PM PT |
| Location: | Raleigh, NC |
| Occupation: | New Media Marketer, Publishing |
What a great conversation. Byron (hello! I wished we could have met at Brian's tour in Charlotte, but hopefully I can make the trek to your home turf some time, to see for myself your legendary store), you raise some excellent points; ones that I think prove my little "maxim"--unconscious 'emergers' sometimes count more than self-conscious ones! So while Shane and say, Rob Bell don't fly that flag, they're certainly there in spirituality, theology and (in quite diverse ways) praxis. And Sara most certainly <i>is</i> familiar with Emergent, believe it or not--one of the rectors at her church, St. Gregory's, was interviewed by Becky Garrison (beckygarrison.com) for her mainline-focused emerging church book <i>Rising from the Ashes</i>--their church's blend of (what could be called) ancient-future worship and passion for justice dovetails quite nicely with Emergent concerns.
Matt, I can appreciate where you're coming from, re: the "Everything Must Change" tour. $80 is quite the chunk of change for many people! Nonetheless, Brian McLaren and his friends aren't Benny Hinn; they can't just jump on a private jet and fly around the world doing very well-put-together book tours <i>gratis</i> (and believe you me, Benny and Joyce would charge 10 times as much!). Nonetheless, if you go to deepshift.org you'll see the offer scholarships to participants who simply can't afford to pay. Also, each year Emergent Village hosts a camp out in New Mexico that's a totally unplugged 'nonfrence'--with bare minimum camping fees being the only entry point, anyone can play.
There are always going to be intrinsic tensions between the king-making world of ascendant authorial voices and the ethos of humility and authenticity that are earmarks of emergent Christianity (and many other of the more savory streams of religion). Navigating these with integrity is our calling as people of faith and publishing professionals.
| Submitted by: | Ed Cyzewski (edcyzewski@gmail.com) 3/12/2008 8:47:05 PM PT |
| Location: | Vermont |
| Occupation: | Author of Coffeehouse Theology, Freelance Writer |
Thanks for this fantastic article. The emerging conversation is defined by Christians who can critically evaluate their culture, while relating to it through scripture--as Karl Barth said, theology is done with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
If Emergent is about the Mission of God, then we can evaluate whether or not our writings are off course if they draw us to our navels, rather than the saving work of God in our world. Theology is important, but in my mind the emerging church doesn''t just care about what you believe, but rather what you do with what you believe.
If I can offer some sweeping generalizations...
Fundamentalists tried to preserve the faith. Evangelicals tried to take that faith to individuals.
Emerging Christians are trying to take that faith to beyond individuals into the very fabric of our society.
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