As I share my life with another the things which are secret, that box gets smaller and the open box gets bigger as the line between us moves to the right. As another person is honest with me and shares the things I am blind to me, the open box again increases in size as the line between us moves down, causing the blind box to get smaller. The small box in the middle created by dialogue is called insight.

In a dialogue between two individuals there are barriers which prevent this new found insight. My unwillingness to listen to another person is one example is one type of barrier; fear to be honest, another. I believe these barriers exist in the church today. When an individual approaches their Christianity believing they have arrived at all the answers and their salvation depends on being right, the opportunity for insight is lost. After all if I am doctrinally wrong, what does that mean about my salvation in this view? This often leads to a need to "agree to disagree" on matters that do not affect "salvation" which stymies growth. On the other hand when a individual perceives that truth in dependent on the cultural context, then knowledge gained from previous generations can be cast aside as no longer relevant. This leads to the ability to ignore passages of scripture by simply saying that command is "cultural" I believe all of the barriers to insight need to be torn down so we may gain greater insight into the nature of God.

How does Emergent theology fit in? I believe Emergent is about dialogue. I share what I have come to know and understand about God through the scriptures and you share your understandings. We gain insight in to God as a result of this barrier free dialogue. This insight gained is the way the Holy Spirit works today. He "will remind you of everything I have said to you."(John 14.26) You see God is infinite and we are finite. We by ourselves will not be able to understand all there is to know about God, but together we can know fully even as we are fully known (1 Cor.13.12). God has revealed Himself through the Scriptures. If we plan to seek God together we will know Him fully. God says something about humanity, "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them (Genesis 11.6). As this is true when humanity strives to glorify itself how much more true when we seek God to His glory?

Seeing into the mind of God

When I (Virgil) started seeing faith as a journey a few years ago, it occurred to me that I came up with a pretty darn good analogy to describe a dynamic faith that does not become stagnant and irrelevant in a culture and society that demands evermore evidence and dedication from Christian believers. Then Dr. Denen came along with his Johari window and screwed up my analogy with a much better illustration.

But on the serious note, let us consider what the emergent conversation is all about in light of not just criticism, but also in light of what it has (if anything) to offer. First and foremost the question of “emerging from what” seems to come up quite frequently. This is ironic especially coming from Preterists whom themselves emerged with their eschatology from a closed-minded and fundamentalist mindset that often, in retaliation, has destroyed family ties, employment relationships and even marriages as a result of this emergence or conversion to Preterism.

Just recently I saw someone claiming that “emergent Christians are liberals.” This is supposedly the biggest charge leveled against those of us who see ourselves as emergents so I opened up a dictionary to get the definition of liberal in order to add some clarity to this conversation. And I found this:

Liberal: favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.

Liberal: favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible.

Liberal: favoring or permitting freedom of action, esp. with respect to matters of personal belief or expression.

Liberal: free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant.

Liberal: open-minded or tolerant.

Liberal: characterized by generosity and willingness to give in large amounts.

Liberal: given freely or abundantly.

Liberal: Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.

Liberal: Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Synonyms: progressive, broad-minded, unprejudiced, openhanded, charitable.

Antonyms: reactionary, intolerant, niggardly, stingy.

While I am aware that social liberals often adopt some ideas that are contrary to Scripture, speaking strictly from the perspective of defining ideas and systems, one can easily see that some of the greatest minds in the history were liberals, starting with Jesus himself! Almost everything Christ advocated was at odds with the contemporary social paradigm, from women rights to tolerance for sinners, speaking against bigotry and advocating reforms and changes on the theological and religious scene. If a liberal is one advocating growth, freedom from traditional established structures, progress and tolerance of other points of view, then I will proudly wear that label. What Preterists do not seem to understand is that they are themselves liberals simply by endorsing an outrageous eschatology that challenges everything known to be true by the Church; quite ironic.

The reason for bringing up the liberalism charges was to simply illustrate how throwing around labels and charges does little to help us all learn more about each other and other points of view. Instead dialogue and conversation should be our goal in this theological setting; is seems to really be the only way in which we can truly learn more about one another and consequently learn more about God. Conversation has been at the center of Biblical studies throughout Israel’s history; in fact that is all Jewish rabbis and their students did: learned by dialogue. So important was conversation in the Jewish culture that I was reading about how a rabbi was mourning his most devoted opponent because his opponent’s death left him without the much desired conversation and dialogue.

But western culture has come a long way and we are now free to speak about issues that were not to be discussed as early as a few hundred years ago. We can speak freely about sex and the implications of sex in a culture and society, homosexuality and its consequences. We have learned that despite apparent Biblical support, slavery is an immoral and terrible reality, that women should not be treated like second-class citizens and that an individual’s life is more important than a doctrinal point, so we are no longer killing others over a different point of view.

In light of those revelations, it appears that Preterists are part of the emergent conversation whether they want it or not. In many theological circles they are the liberals; in others they are the conservatives, but those labels are of little help if we do not recognize that new insight only comes about by dialogue, which involves both speaking and listening with/to others. And dialogue is what leads to knowing more about each other (Joe and Harry) and even gaining new insight into the mind of God.

As a result of the emergent conversation some Christians have become Preterists. Others are reconsidering traditional soteriology and some appoint women as ministers and leaders in their churches and allow homosexuals to walk in and listen to the message of the Gospel before demanding repentance. Whatever the changes in our views may be, we should all understand that we are part of the big picture, and while the goal should not be to agree with each other, the goal should be to understand each other; and understanding each other will perhaps lead us to seeing into unknown mind of God and better understanding Him.