"A new kind of Christian": emergent Christianity and the redefinition of contemporary Christian doctrinal and social boundaries

Abstract

Seeks to explore an emerging group of Christians who claim to understand their faith in an ever-changing culture. Distinguishes emergent Christians from New Evangelical Christians. Adopts George Lindbeck's cultural linguistic approach to doctrine, Ninian Smart's worldview analysis of the relationship of doctrine to other dimensions of religion, David Loy's interpretation of the function of narrative, Anya Peterson Royce's anthropological understanding of style, while developing not only a different understanding of the role that doctrine and experience plays in emergent Christianity, but also explaining how these relationships to doctrine and experience divide emergent Christianity and New Evangelicals. Applies the theories of religious scholars outside of the evangelical Christian conversation to interpret the religious perspectives of both emergent and New Evangelical Christians, as reflected in the literature they have written and in personal interviews, in order to offer a new understanding of emergent Christianity and its relationship to the rest of the Christian community.